This page has spring into existence (well, actually, I wrote it) to try to remedy the appalling lack of web-based information on the musician and his band who made the greatest ‘lost’ album of the 1980s (IMHO, just as Gryphon’s Treason is the g.l.a. of the 1970s). Although they released an album and two singles on a major label (Virgin, see the discography) The Indian Givers, vehicle for the song-writing talents of Nigel Sleaford in the synth-pop era, have disappeared almost without trace. So much so that there seem to be two recent bands in USA who have chosen the same name, one in New York and one in Los Angeles, both appearing on MySpace.
As I wasn’t following the rock and pop press at the time the ‘real’ Indian Givers were around – I didn’t catch up with ‘Q’ until 1990 – I don’t have any articles to refer to, although it seems, from my subsequently acquired back numbers, that ‘Q’ didn’t carry any features on the band, just a short review of the album in September 1989 (see the bibliography). For their early history all I can do is reproduce (without permission) the text of a publicity piece I found on the world wide web in August 1999. It was on the site of a now apparently defunct music company called Ncompass (at least, I can’t track down this company now). I have no idea how accurate this stuff is, but I had no reason to doubt their veracity at the time. Here’s what they said (with my amplifications in square brackets, and an album sleeve illustration instead of the three images on their site, which I didn’t keep) :
“Born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Nigel Sleaford (The Indian Givers mainstay) moved to Edinburgh in 1977 and played in the time honoured tradition in a succession of student bands. 1982 saw Nigel as a regular attendee at JJ’s club run by Allan Campbell and Sam Piacentini who allowed and encouraged impromptu Sunday night events featuring Nigel and a cast of other misfits including James Locke (the Chimes), Gordon Kerr (Botany 5), Callum McNair (The Apples, The Syndicate) [and] Paul Haig (The Fire Engines). One of Campbell and Piacentini’s odd nights feature[d] Messrs Sleaford, Locke and McNair in dinner jackets performing Kurt Weill numbers such as September Song and My Ship. This “festival of weird” was seen by the manager of The Human League (Bob Last of Fast Records) resulting in the dinner jacketed trio (then called the McNaires) supporting the League in the UK and Europe on their Dare tour. League audiences everywhere took great delight in throwing their spare change as hard as possible at the McNaires - occasionally providing enough for them to at least have breakfast in style. The trio also toured Europe with Paul Haig’s Rhythm of Life in a package organised by Crepescule Records of Brussels.
“The period 1983-86 was taken up with impromptu material with outpourings at Edinburgh’s Hoochie Coochie Club and Manifesto (run by the Fire Engines). In 1984 Nigel, James Locke and Gordon Kerr organised A Month of Sundays; four Sunday performances each featuring a different band concept but using the same personnel:
- The ????? - surf tunes, ski lyrics [sorry: I don’t know whether those question marks are (1) the name or (2) indicate missing knowledge on the part of the original writer]
- The Cargo Cult - tribal funk and a light hearted look at cultural imperialism (if that’s not completely ridiculous)
- The Juggernauts - rockabilly with Armageddon lyrics
- The Indian Givers - jazz ballads
“Most of the material for all four concepts was penned by Nigel, inspired (according to him) by ‘different guitars in a growing collection’. Rational Records released a Juggernauts album [actually only a single] Come Throw Yourself Under the Monstrous Wheels of the Rock and Roll Bandwagon as it Faces Destruction and many gigs and a John Peel session resulted.
[Yes, Ken Garner’s book In session tonight : the complete Radio 1 recordings (BBC, 1993, ISBN 0-563-36452-1) has an entry for ‘The Juggernaughts’ [sic] showing that Nigel Seaford [sic] (bass, vocals), Gordon Kerr (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul Haig (lead guitar) and James Locke (drums) recorded ‘Mystery train’, ‘The body of the kirk’, ‘One thousandth part’ and ‘Made my first million’ at the Maida Vale studios on 1984-12-11, recordings which were broadcast on John Peel’s show on Wednesday 1985-01-02. ‘My first million’ was the b-side of the ‘Come throw yourself…’ single.]
“In 1985 Nigel decided to concentrate on the Indian Givers with the line up of Nigel (double bass, voice), James Locke (drums), Gordon Kerr (vibes) and Graham Muir (guitar). The Indian Givers took to that well known gig circuit of Central Scotland. The early 80s jazz bubble was long burst already so no A&R interest was forthcoming. By 1987 The Indian Givers had become Nigel’s solo writing project, now using MIDI sequencers and recorded two demos for EMI. Manager Dave Ramsden oversaw the newly emerging Givers with a new line up of Nigel with Avril Jam[i]eson (backing vocals) and Simon Frazer (guitars and keyboards). After a great deal of promotional gigging, the re-vitalised Indian Givers were seen by Virgin A&R man Danny Van Emden and subsequently signed to Virgin in 1988. Nigel also signed a publishing contract with Blue Mountain Music.
“In 1989 the band recorded the LP Love is a Lie and two singles Hatcheck Girl and [My] Fake I.D. were released. Tours supporting Frazier Chorus and Danny Wilson followed but despite healthy sales of the LP and singles the band were dropped by Virgin in March 1990.
“From 1992 onwards Nigel entered a period of solo writing, doing production for and playing with, local bands. He collaborated with Simon Frazer on an album called Youarewhatyoueatme which was described as ‘subdued, understated and unreleased’. There was also a collaboration with B Percy on an album called Night of No Surprises which is currently unreleased. 1997 saw Nigel sign a new publishing contract with Ncompass Music. He has recently relocated to North Scotland to continue his music career.”
So there the ‘known’ history breaks off, but a current web search reveals Nigel appearing as guest musician with: The Kiltearn Fèis Rois Fiddlers on a home-grown album Earth wind fire (in Easter Ross, in the far north Scotland, no date); as part of a band The Deaf Heights on Heart songs, which Amazon says was released in July 2007; and playing with Christopher George Henderson. However, I don’t intend to make my way to Scotland specially to find the man – the recorded legacy of The Indian Givers will do me.
What of the other two members of the band? Well, with the benefit of the internet, I’ve tracked Avril Jamieson a little way. She worked with Scottish songwriter and folk musician Jackie Leven and appears on his 1995 album Forbidden songs of the dying west. (I hadn’t made the connection until researching this page, despite my having Leven’s album in my collection because Eddi Reader recites Emily Dickinson on it!) Avril sings on the opening track Young male suicide blessed by invisible woman and speaks with Jackie in the dialogue intro to Stornoway girl. Earlier she had provided lyrics for the Sciennes Primary School (Lothian region) in their recording of a single, Better world, music by Graham Weir, for the special events leading up to the European Council Summit in Edinburgh, December 1992. However, the trail on Avril is cold after 1995, as is the whole of any subsequent musical career by Simon Frazer.
That is the story as up-to-date as I can make it, but why am I intrested at all? Well, I wasn’t a big fan of pop music in the 1980s. I had been into progressive rock in the 70s: Gentle Giant, Gilgamesh, Greenslade, the aforementioned Gryphon – in fact any band with a name beginning ‘G’(!) – as well as the more obvious Genesis and Yes. So the advent of punk turned me off – I gave up buying NME when it ‘turned’ – and the new romantics did nothing to capture my attention again. It was my interest in hi-fi (I’m also a big classical music enthusiast) which got me back into pop and rock. The maverick magazine Hi-fi answers reviewed selected albums, chiefly from a sonic point of view, and pointed me to such diverse bands as Prefab Sprout, The Cowboy Junkies and Wang Chung. I also picked up on Japan through overhearing them played during our ‘closed for stocktaking’ week. On top of these things, I got involved in helping to wire up the first electronic music studio at Birmingham University, and subsequently to experiment with their Fairlight CMI.
So by the end of the 1980s I was again buying pop and sometimes I would buy on spec. (As mentioned above, I didn’t start buying ‘Q’ until 1990.) I think I picked up The Indian Givers because of the cover and the track titles. Plus it was on the (then) reliable Virgin label – home of XTC, Peter Blegvad, Steve Hillage, Kirsty MacColl and Frazier Chrous to name several. I have a sneaky feeling I may also have assumed from the cover photo that there would be some female lead vocals – always a weakness of mine. However, like Prefab Sprout, the female member of the band is there because of the importance of backing vocals to the writing. (In my defence, I knew about the Sprouts from the reviews before buying Swoon – I don’t always fall for this trick – and Swoon doesn’t show the band on the cover, anyway; plus, Avril does take lead on one track here.) But with all my previous exposure to synth-pop, I wasn’t at all disappointed by the ten wonderful songs on my LP copy of Love is a lie. After getting my CD-player in the early 1990s, I tracked down a secondhand CD copy of the album in 1996 at Birmingham store The Plastic Factory, and was able to catch up with the two bonus songs. My listening seems to go in cycles, but there have always recurred periods when I feel the need to listen to The Indian Givers every week. You’ll have noted that I was trawling the web in 1999, when I found the Ncompass piece quoted above, and it was 2002 when I tracked down the natty 3-inch CD single Hatcheck girl in Swansea. And only now have I got hold of the other CD-single Fake I.D., which is even better than the first – the best five pounds I’ve spent on music for quite some time! What else can I say to persuade you to try these great lost sounds. Perhaps, even as I write, someone is putting them on a download service as part of a bulk conversion, but, honestly, until they do, it just won’t be worth considering iTunes or Spotify!
If you happen to share my enthusiasm, and let’s face it you won’t have read this far just for the hell of it, please contact me and let know I’m not their only fan left on the planet.
Adrian Dover – March 2009
