Nigel Preston (4 April 1963,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England – 1 April 1992) was an English drummer. He was a founding member of

the Cult The Cult are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Bradford in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band had performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead vocalist Ian Astbury ...

. He also played and recorded with Theatre of Hate,

Sex Gang Children Sex Gang Children are an early gothic rock and post-punk band that formed in early 1982 in Brixton in London, England. Although the original group only released one official studio album, their singles and various other tracks have been packa ...

, the Baby Snakes,

the Gun Club The Gun Club were an American post-punk band from Los Angeles that existed from 1979 to 1996. Created and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce, they were notable as one of the first bands in the punk rock subculture to i ...

and DeLuca. He appeared on ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'' for the first time with Theatre of Hate in 1982, playing their Top 40 single "Do You Believe in the West World". He played on Sex Gang's 1983 single " Mauritia Mayer", then switched places with Death Cult's drummer Ray Mondo that September. His biggest hit was " She Sells Sanctuary" by the Cult from their ''

Love Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...

'' album. Recorded in March 1985, the song was released as their fourth single and hit No. 15 in the UK Singles Chart. It re-entered the charts at No. 56 in September 1986, spending 14 consecutive weeks on the charts. The song was later voted No. 18 in

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

's Indie 100. Preston refused to accept being put on wages after the song became a hit, and his bandmates believed him to be unreliable due to his use of drugs; these matters led to his firing from the band in June 1985. After the Cult, Preston worked with

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 750 million albums and 1 ...

in New York. He also played in the band DeLuca with Albie DeLuca ( Gene Loves Jezebel) and Gary McDowell (

Modern English Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England England is a Count ...

). In 1990, he joined Irish rock band the Baby Snakes, but soon afterward was sent to prison for armed robbery. After his release, he also performed with

. Preston died of a drug overdose on 1 April 1992, at age 28.''The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches'' by Jeremy Simmonds

References

Notes

Filming the ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ video
at

Billy Duffy William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist in the band the Cult. Early life Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester, England. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playin ...

.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, Nigel 1963 births 1992 deaths 20th-century English drummers Drug-related deaths English rock drummers The Cult members Theatre of Hate members Sex Gang Children members