Nick Lightowlers (1955 – 26 February 2022) was a British performer, lyricist, producer, and music industry professional better known to many by his stage name Nick Tesco, the lead singer of

The Members The Members is a British punk rock, punk band that originated in Camberley, Surrey, England. In the UK, they are best known for their single "The Sound of the Suburbs", reaching No. 12 in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and in Australia, "Radio" ...

Career

As a founding member and co-songwriter of

the Members The Members is a British punk rock, punk band that originated in Camberley, Surrey, England. In the UK, they are best known for their single "The Sound of the Suburbs", reaching No. 12 in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and in Australia, "Radio" ...

, Tesco fronted the band from 1976 until his departure and the subsequent split of the band in 1983. The Members, from Camberley, Surrey, signed with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

at the tail-end of punk in 1978 and had a No.12 hit with the single " The Sound of the Suburbs". Co-written by Tesco and Jean-Marie Carroll, the single reportedly sold 250,000 copies and went on to become a staple of punk compilations. After leaving the band, Tesco co-performed and released the 1983 single "Cost of Living" for UK based independent label Albion Records with J. Walter Negro. Albion Records was a label he had previously worked for as a producer (The Outpatients single "New Japanese Hairstyles" (1981)) and it was as a producer that he continued to work for the remainder of the decade - extensively for CBS, but also East West, WEA and Ariola. In 1989, he appeared in '' Leningrad Cowboys Go America'', written and directed by

Aki Kaurismäki Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (; born 4 April 1957) is a Finnish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning '' Drifting Clouds'' (1996), '' The Man Without a Past'' (2002), ''Le Havre'' (2011), '' The Other Side of Hope'' (201 ...

, a film about a fictional

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

rock band touring the US. This fictional band then toured and recorded in real life from 1990 until 1994. ''Leningrad Cowboys Go America'' was followed five years later by a sequel, '' Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses'' (1994) and a concert film '' Total Balalaika Show'' (1994). In 1998, he joined ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' and produced the ''Music Week Directory'' from 1999 until 2009 and also appeared in other films such as ''Iron Horsemen'' and '' I Hired a Contract Killer'' and

BBC 6 BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

's ''Roundtable''. In 2007, the Members reformed and toured the UK.

Death

Lightowlers died aged 67 on 26 February 2022.

References

External links

Nick (Nicky) Tesco biographical videos.Nicky Tesco filmographyNick Tesco music review blog.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesco, Nick 1955 births 2022 deaths 20th-century British male singers 21st-century British male singers 20th-century British male actors