Nick Welsh played his first professional gig in July 1977 at The Roxy club in London with his band The Dead sharing a bill with Cock Sparrer, Dead Fingers Talk & DJ Don Letts. That same week he was pictured on the front cover of the Melody Maker underneath the headline Teds Vs Punks!
Nick began writing & recording as King Hammond in 1986 at the same time he was the bassist in Bad Manners.
King Hammond’s debut album “Revolution 70” was released in 1989 to great critical acclaim & today can occasionally be seen on eBay selling for a price of between £60-£80.
Nick left Bad Manners in 1991 to join The Selecter, producing six albums for the band and two for the offshoot Selecter Acoustic. During his fifteen years spent with the band, Nick & singer Pauline Black were also members of two “supergroups” :- The acoustic 3 Men & Black alongside Jake Burns (SLF), J.J. Burnell (The Stranglers) & Bruce Foxton (The Jam) & The 2-Tone Collective where they shared many a festival stage with Ranking Roger, Dave Wakeling (The Beat) & Roddy Radiation, Neville Staple (The Specials). He also formed the Ska/Punk band Big 5 with Jennie Matthias (Belle Stars) & John Bradbury (The Specials) in 1992 releasing three albums in a five-year period.
Nick has worked with & produced music for some of the legends of Ska & Reggae music ; Prince Buster, Laurel Aitken, Dave Barker, Rico Rodriguez, Susan Cadogan, Judge Dread & Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry with whom he won a Grammy award for his work on the 2002 best Reggae album “Jamaican ET”.
In 2010 Nick decided to resurrect his royal persona by releasing the first new King Hammond music since 1992. That album “The King & I” was so well received amongst the Ska & Reggae audience it encouraged Nick to release more King Hammond music in fact in the fifteen years since his reappearance he has written, recorded & released over two hundred & fifty (250) new songs and he has taken the King Hammond live show to countries like (amongst others) : America, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Australia, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Ireland and of course the UK.
Tonight Nick will be sharing some of his many stories from nearly 50 years in the business interspersed with some of his classic tracks. He will be joined by Richard Wayler on percussion and backing vocals.
Doors 7pm / Music 8pm / Tickets £12 (£8 for members)
All seating/tables are first-come, first-served.