Nikki Sudden - Fred Beethoven (2014)

We are proud to present a newly found unreleased album recorded across two winter time sessions at Nikki's favourite recording studio Woodbine Studios in Leamington Spa. The profile of the late Nikki Sudden has never been higher with the release of the highly acclaimed Box Set 'The Boy from Nowhere' & the release by U.S label Numero Uno / Secretly Canadian of all the early albums on limited Vinyl. Apart from a couple of cover versions ('Johnny B Goode' & Ronnie Lane's Faces classic 'Debris') and a re- working of one of Nikki's old songs from his first album Forest Fire, The Fred Beethoven Projectile sessions sees the band teaming up with French Guitar hero Freddie Lynxx to record brand new compositions unavailable on any other recording. The tapes were discovered whilst compiling the career spanning box set issued to critical acclaim last year. LIMITED Blue vinyl 400 only! The CD is presented in a card gatefold sleeve. Nikki Sudden was born Adrian Nicholas Godfrey in London, England. The main influences on Sudden's music were artists such as T. Rex, the Rolling Stones, the Faces, Bob Dylan and Johnny Thunders. A founder member of one of the U.K's very first DIY bands the now legendary SWELL MAPS. Following the break-up of Swell Maps in 1980, he started a solo career and also released records with Dave Kusworth as the Jacobites. Sudden collaborated with, among others, Mike Scott and Anthony Thistlethwaite of the Waterboys, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, The Golden Horde as 'The Last Bandits', Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones, Rowland S. Howard, Jeremy Gluck of the Barracudas, Metrophase, Joey Skidmore, Ian McLagan of Small Faces and the Faces, Phil Shoenfelt, Baron Anastis van Hustler, Big Sleep, Al DeLoner of Midnight Choir, Tom Ashton of the March Violets, members of R.E.M. and Sonic Youth. The Jacobites' tune "Pin Your Heart" was covered on the Lemonheads' 1997 single "The Outdoor Type". Sudden also wrote for a number of music magazines, such as Spex, INTRO, Mojo, the local Birmingham based fanzine Waxstreet Dive, and Bucketfull of Brains. At the time of his unexpected death, he was writing his autobiography, as well as a history of the Wick (an estate in Richmond once owned by Ronnie Wood, currently owned by Pete Townshend), and was due to perform in London on the 29 March 2006.