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Nick Lowe: ‘I sang to Johnny Cash and... deadly silence’
- In his tranquil back garden in West London, Nick Lowe, often plausibly hailed as “England’s greatest songwriter”, is talking about making an accidental comeback with his first long-player in 11 years. Called Indoor Safari, it finds the silver-coiffed cult hero from the punk era dispensing a masterclass in jauntily sophisticated melodies and often heartbroken lyrics.
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Nick Lowe gets into Christmas spirit
Veteran British singer-songwriter Nick Lowe wasn’t exactly filled with the Christmas spirit when his American record company suggested he make a holiday album.A fixture of the pub-rock and New Wave scenes of the Seventies and Eighties, Lowe said he needed to get his head round the idea. In his native England, holiday albums aren’t exactly the coolest thing to do.“Lots of people do Christmas records, one record, but a CD is seen as rather desperate, you know. But, over the course of the afternoon, that day, as it was put to me, I started examining my feelings and said, well, wait a minute, this could be a really great opportunity if not to do something that stands a chance of being really good, it might at least be able to work on more than one level,” he said.With its tongue-in-cheek title “Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family”, the album is an easy blend of rockabilly, crooning and gospel. Among the album’s dozen songs, “Silent Night” is the only well-known carol, and even it is given a Tex-Mex flavor.“We wanted to try to avoid the 12 tunes that everybody nearly always does. And if we were going to do very familiar tunes, we wanted to dress them up in a new suit of clothes,” said Lowe.Lowe wrote three new songs for the album, including the witty “Christmas at the Airport”, the story of a snowed-in traveller based on a real-life experience about being stuck at Zurich airport the day after a gig.Nick Lowe knew no matter how original he wanted to be, he couldn’t take himself too seriously:“Christmas is the biggest cliché that there is, really, and you have to join in with it. If it’s too arty farty, it’s not viewed very well. And I think you can’t be too snobby about it.”For “I was born in Bethlehem”, Lowe said he was inspired by a dream he had about meeting Jesus on a plane and striking up conversation with him over cocktails.Nick Lowe’s Christmas album “Quality Street” is out now.
MOVIES & TV SHOWS
If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth a F
0h 51min
1977
Albums
Basher: The Best of Nick Lowe
1989
Jesus of Cool
1978
Quality Holiday Revue Live
2015
Go 'Way Hound Dog
2011
Untouched Takeaway
2004
You Inspire Me
1998
True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
1994
Wilderness Years
1991
Nutted by Reality
1991
Party of One
1990
Basher's Best
1989
Pinker and Prouder Than Previous
1988
Rose of England
1985
16 All Time Lowes
1984
Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit
1984
Abominable Showman
1983
Nick the Knife
1982
Pure Pop for Now People
1978
Indoor Safari
2024
Thing Called Love
2022
Lay It on Me
2020
Tokyo Warning
2020
Love Starvation/Trombone
2019
Tokyo Bay
2018
Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family
2013
Old Magic
2011
Sensitive Man
2011
I Read a Lot
2011
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