"I'd like to go back in time and give myself a good slap". Surprisingly interesting interview with Nick Beggs.

[musicbassman]

Nick Beggs - Kajagoogoo?   You remember....

And I think many would agree he wrote possibly one of the greatest opening bass lines ever for 'Too Shy'  He was just 21 at the time, apparently.

I'd no idea that this leisurely and lengthy interview would reveal him to be such a talented and thoughtful guy. Worth a look.

 

 

[Guest aDx]

did a support slot to Art Nouveau just before they became kajagoogoo

spoke to Nick about playing and stuff

 

exchanged a few emails too

 

Nice Guy!

[Guest]

Plenty of people would be happy to give him a good slap today.

[Mickeyboro]

19 minutes ago, Bassfinger said:

Plenty of people would be happy to give him a good slap today.

Morning Limahl, and welcome to the forum 😇

[ambient]

I like him, I follow him on Facebook and Instagram. I got to see him play a live set on stick at a little place in London a few years ago. A friend of mine taught him to play ‘properly’, for want of a better term, after he’d left Kajagoogoo.

[oldslapper]

Blimey Vim Fuego hasn’t aged a bit 😲

[Lozz196]

3 hours ago, ambient said:

I like him, I follow him on Facebook and Instagram. I got to see him play a live set on stick at a little place in London a few years ago. A friend of mine taught him to play ‘properly’, for want of a better term, after he’d left Kajagoogoo.

He was no slouch in his Kajagoogoo days so he must be pretty immense now.

[ambient]

5 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

He was no slouch in his Kajagoogoo days so he must be pretty immense now.

He does some great stuff with Steven Wilson.

[fleabag]

He played some awesome stick on  Big Bubbles No Troubles  with the band Ellis Beggs and Howard.

I still have this track in my collection.  Fab stuff. 

A friend of mine lives in the same town and often sees him around and says hello.  He's a totally nice and down to earth chappie

 

 

[fleabag]

Bit more of Nick demoing how got the sound on the single i posted above

 

[fleabag]

Nick's homage to Jaco

 

[ambient]

29 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Nick's homage to Jaco

 

He’s got a few solo Stick albums out that are worth listening to.

[fleabag]

Indeed, and i think the Jaco one is a new-ish one

[wateroftyne]

46 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Bit more of Nick demoing how got the sound on the single i posted above

 

Did he forget to tune it..? 

[fleabag]

I think that might by the heavy flanging effect

[Guest]

I remember reading how he used to wash his hair in Lenor for the fluffed up 80s look,

[Mickeyboro]

Curiously the only time I saw him was at the Venue in Victoria in 1983. We were both watching the re- formed Animals... an experience I am glad was never repeated💩 ( The Animals not Nick)

[AndyTravis]

He always comes across really well on Facebook - I really enjoyed his phase of winding up cold callers...

[Hellzero]

Saw him last year with Steven Wilson in Luxembourg. Great show, fantastic bass and stick player. Was freezing cold and snowing a lot when we went home...

[ambient]

11 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Saw him last year with Steven Wilson in Luxembourg. Great show, fantastic bass and stick player. Was freezing cold and snowing a lot when we went home...

I saw him with SW on the Grace for drowning tour. That was fabulous too.

[rubis]

great stuff, I thoroughly enjoyed watching that

A talented bloke

[Rich]

Long Beggs-related story. Feel free to scroll on by.

Back in late '86, when I had hair and a discernible waistline, my rock-pop band were making our desperate bid for stardom. We lived in Reading, so it was dead easy to jump in the car and head into London to play gigs. We played quite a bit at the Red Lion in Brentford (RIP) -- our first few gigs there were as support to a guy called Philip Jap (the old farts among you might remember him) and his then band 'Secret Society'. I think he missed a trick by not calling them 'Jap's Eye'. Anyway, he asked us to play support at a party in London and we accepted. Being the mid 80s, slap was still acceptable -- almost mandatory in fact -- and our songs featured a lot of it. A lot. So there I was, thumbing the blazes out of my poor Wal, and it gets to the song with my showoff solo bit... I take a deep breath and go thwack-thwacka-ding wickety-wackety-wockity-dang, and having given it my best I look out at the crowd... straight into the eyes of Nick Beggs. Apparently an ex-label mate and friend of Mr Jap. I had a brief moment of wanting the ground to open up, I mean here's this bass god looking at me and I've just tried to impress this audience with something he could probably have done with one arm tied behind his back. But then his face broke into a big genuine smile, and with a nod he raised his glass towards me. I was walking on air for a month after that. 

I've bumped into him a couple of times since then, obviously he doesn't remember me but he's always been really friendly and happy to chat. Definitely one of our instrument's Nice Guys.

[stewblack]

41 minutes ago, Rich said:

Long Beggs-related story. Feel free to scroll on by.

.<long Beggs-related story snipped>

Great story, thanks for sharing. 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Rich

[fleabag]

Beggs  hams it up

 

[DrBike]

Back in 1999 (i think) I went to a couple of gigs in a function room at a place that was then called Ollie's Bar in Ascot.  It was a long time ago and all a bit of a blur, but one of the gigs was Nik Kershaw and the other was Howard Jones.  I recall that Mr Beggs was playing bass for Howard, possibly both of them.  It was kind of surreal considering how big these artists had been in the past playing to about 150 people in what was essentailly a big shed at the end of the car park.  I dunno if we paid anything to watch them, if we did it was a couple of quid.

It's ironic now that the same artists are now raking in big money again on the "retro" circuit (at least they were until this COVID-19 thing came along)

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by DrBike