Nicholas Greenwood - A Sea Of Holy Pleasure
1972
from "Cold Cuts"
Nick Greenwood was first known to be part of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, playing with Vincent Crane (Atomic Rooster) and Carl Palmer (AR and ELP) and stayed longer than those two until midway through 1970. He was latter part of Khan with Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart. After the demise of Khan, Nick Greenwood (this is the only time he is mentioned as Nick instead of Nicholas) took Khan-drummer Eric Peachy and enlisted Dick Heningway on keyboards and reedman Bunk Gardner (ex-Zappa and Ex-Tim Buckley) and recorded his only solo album, which developed an organ-driven type of brass-rock somewhere between Atomic Rooster, Arzachel, Khan and If.
Nicholas Greenwood/bass,vocals,effects
Bunk Gardner/woodwinds
Dick Henningham/organ
Eric Peachey/drums
Bryn Howarth/Guitar
Chris Pritchard/guitae
The Tear Drops/harmony vocals
Nicholas Greenwood, a short synopsis with Arthur Brown.....
While working on the album, the Crazy World went into the BBC studios to record a session for Britain's leading underground DJ, John Peel. Drachen: "That Peel session was the best thing Arthur Brown ever committed to tape while I was with him. Ron Wood played bass and he was perfect for the band." The Crazy World went on to tape a second 'Top Gear' session and also made recordings for shows like 'Saturday Club'.
During the run-up to the album's release, the Crazy World were often in the news. Arthur collapsed on stage at the Middle Earth in January; in March Peter Jenner unsuccessfully tried to tempt the Arts Council to fund a multi-media event featuring Brown and Pink Floyd and in April, the group undertook a short tour of Italy with Nick Greenwood on bass.
When the album and the 'Fire' single were issued in June, the group were again out of the country. Theaker recalls: "They sent the test pressing of the LP over to the States where we were stuck in this plastic motel waiting for our tour to begin. I was so incensed to hear Kit Lambert bury all my drum parts that I smashed the record and the record player, came back home and moved to the Isle of Skye. So the whole time 'Fire' was top of the hit parade, I was living on Skye in a crofter's cottage and couldn't give a shit." After early gigs supporting the likes of Jefferson Airplane and the Doors, Vince Crane also returned home ("nervous trouble" reported the NME) and Canadian drummer Jeff Cutler and British organist Dick Henningham were quickly recruited.
When Brown and Greenwood returned, 'Fire' was already doing well and with new drummer Carl Palmer and organist Pete Solley in place, Brown amazed Top of the Pops audiences with his hot-headed stage routine. The rest of the group wore hooded "grim reaper" outfits and the British charts soon had one of its most notorious No 1 hits. The group also appeared on the German Beat Club series to promote the single and it is European picture sleeve copies which are particularly desired today. One such copy is the Spanish Polydor edition (59215) depicting Arthur suitably attired. The single was a surprise hit in many countries and managed to attain a No 2 placing in the States.