Steve Nieve ( "naïve"; born Stephen John Nason, 21 February 1958) is an English musician and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Nieve has been a member of Elvis Costello's backing bands the Attractions and the Imposters, as well as Madness. He has also experienced success as a prolific session musician, featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

Early years

Nieve was born in Bishop's Stortford, England, and was educated at St Dunstan's College in London and later attended the Royal College of Music, but dropped out in 1977 to join Elvis Costello's backing band the Attractions. Nason received his musical moniker "Nieve" (pronounced " naïve") while on the Attractions' first tour for Stiff Records. It was bestowed by tourmate Ian Dury who had been astonished by Nason's innocent query, "What's a groupie?" Before that, at least briefly, he had been using the

stage name A stage name or professional name is a pseudonym used by performers, authors, and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. The equivalent concept among writers is called a ''nom de plume'' (pen name). Some performers ...

"Steve A'dore" (a pun on stevedore).

Career

Nieve played piano, organ and other keyboard instruments on most of Costello's projects for over ten years, including the albums '' This Year's Model'' (1978), '' Imperial Bedroom'' (1982) and '' Blood & Chocolate'' (1986). On the 1984 Costello album '' Goodbye Cruel World'' and its accompanying tour, he was credited as "Maurice Worm". His instrument credit on the album was not for playing keyboards, but for providing "random racket". Under the name Norman Brain he wrote some material on The Attractions' Costello-less album ''Mad About the Wrong Boy'' in collaboration with his then girlfriend, Fay Hart. (He also wrote other songs on the album as Steve Nieve.) In the mid-1980s, Costello began to work less frequently with the Attractions and stopped working with them entirely between 1987 and 1993. During this period Nieve focused on session work for other artists ( the Neville Brothers, Hothouse Flowers, Graham Parker, Squeeze, Tim Finn, Kirsty MacColl, Madness, Nick Heyward and

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

). Also in 1986, Nieve formed the group the Perils of Plastic with ex- Deaf School vocalist Steve Allen, releasing three non-charting singles in the UK in 1986 and 1987. At around the same time he led the house band (billed as Steve Nieve and The Playboys) on the UK TV series '' The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross''. Costello reunited the Attractions for 1994's album '' Brutal Youth''. Although the reunion was relatively short-lived (they split again in 1996), the Costello/Nieve collaborations never ceased. They have toured as a duo, and Nieve has contributed keyboards to all of Costello's albums since the mid-1990s, including 1998's Burt Bacharach collaboration '' Painted From Memory'' and 2001's Anne Sofie von Otter collaboration '' For the Stars''. In 2001, Costello formed a new backing band consisting of Nieve, Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, and bassist Davey Faragher. The band were subsequently dubbed the Imposters. Elvis Costello & the Imposters have toured extensively and released the albums '' When I Was Cruel'' (2002), ''

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

'' (2003), '' The Delivery Man'' (2004), '' The River in Reverse'' (2006, featuring Allen Toussaint), '' Momofuku'' (2008), '' National Ransom'' (2010), '' Look Now'' (2018) and '' The Boy Named If'' (2022). In 2020, Nieve won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for his work with Costello and the Imposters on ''Look Now''. Nieve (without the other Imposters) accompanied Costello again on '' Hey Clockface'' (2020).

Solo career

In addition to his work with Costello, Nieve has released several solo albums. ''Keyboard Jungle'' (1983) was his first, a combination of classical and ersatz film scores played on a Steinway piano. His second album, ''Playboy'' (1987), consisted of solo acoustic piano renditions of rock songs by

10cc 10cc are an English rock music, rock band formed in Stockport, southeast of Manchester, in 1972. The group initially consisted of four musicians, Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who had written and recorded togethe ...

the Specials The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...

, X and others, as well as original compositions. Though both albums were released only in the UK by the independent label Demon Music Group, they were critically well received and noted for their "display fthe artist's wit, compositional talent and abundant instrumental agility." Nieve followed these with the albums ''It's Raining Somewhere'' (1996), ''Mumu'' (2001) and ''Windows'' (2004). His classical opera, '' Welcome to the Voice'', a collaboration with Muriel Téodori, was released on

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

in May 2007. The score was interpreted by Barbara Bonney, Sting, Robert Wyatt, Elvis Costello, Amanda Roocroft, Nathalie Manfrino and Sara Fulgoni for the voices. For the music the Brodsky Quartet interpreted a written score, while Marc Ribot, Ned Rothenberg and Nieve improvised. Nieve also composed the score to Téodori's film ''Sans Plomb''. ''Welcome to the Voice'' was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2008, with Sylvia Schwartz in the role of Lily, and the involvement of both Sting and Costello. In 2014, Nieve released ''ToGetHer''.

Personal life

In recent years, Nieve has lived in France with his wife Muriel Téodori.

References

External links

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Official website
* *
Steve Nieve and The Love Band performing on ''Tonight with Jonathan Ross''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nieve, Steve 1958 births Living people Elvis Costello & the Attractions members English rock keyboardists English session musicians Alumni of the Royal College of Music Musicians from London English punk rock musicians English new wave musicians Alternative rock keyboardists English alternative rock musicians Power pop musicians British pop rock musicians English post-punk musicians English classical musicians English film score composers English male film score composers Madness (band) members