Quote:
Originally Posted by chriskisn
There I've said the unthinkable - I actually miss Nigel and the Splinter Group. I know that a lot of PG fans don't really like him or compare him negatively to Peter, but really I do enjoy his work (was just listening to a Splinter Group cd)
Other than his time with Peter on Heavy Heart and Beasts of Burden and touring as a conga player with FM what else has Nigel actually done? Did he feature on any other albums?
It is amazing how little I actually know about him...
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He had a band called 'Stretch' in the late 70's I believe. I do not own any of their recordings but I think they cut an album or two.
After that Nigel may well have drifted away from the music industry as he was working as a builder when he and Peter became reacquainted in the 90's.
Honestly I've never really been certain if Nigel was trying genuinely to help his friend or to use Peter to increase his own profile in the industry. Nigel's recording and gigging career had dried up and the PGSG certainly gave him a chance to raise his profile.
However I do think his friendship, at least at the beginning, was genuine. It was supposedly Nigel who Peter longingly watched playing guitar and Nigel who gently coaxed him back to playing.
As for PGSG albums, the only ones I do not like much are the studio albums of new material. Hot Foot Powder remains really fantastic, even the songs where Nigel is taking lead guitar and vocal...Blues Don't Change is great...the live albums are good...the RJ Songbook remains an object exercise in how to produce a record without messing with the sound. There's some good stuff on the studio albums but not much...Nigel's writing isn't great but its rarely actually bad.
But something went wrong...they did stagnate in the last couple of years...no progress was being made, they were treading water....in my view. Peter seems far happier with Friends.
I am mindful of something Mick Fleetwood said back in 1995..."Peter's actually back in the studio doing what God put him on this earth to do. He's playing. I don't think you'll see him back in the showbiz sense of the word but he's back"
Peter Green never wanted to be a star. He was uncomfortable with stardom in 1970 and doesn't want it again now. Perhaps PGSG was in danger of becoming too big? Or Nigel was pushing Peter too close to the spotlight? As Mick said, not in the showbiz sense.....
In the BBC documentary 'A Hard Road' which documents PGGSG's gestation and first two gigs, Peter says "I love playing, I love appearing....it's really great, you know". But clearly he changed his mind - at least as far as the PGSG went. Lest we forget, he almost instantly re-appeared with Dick Heckstall-Smith's "British Blues All Stars"...but sadly Dick passed away. Peter's not actually been away long, so I think he does love appearing...but "not in the showbiz sense"