Tricky Nixon was a four-piece band from

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and was a former band of

The Joy Formidable The Joy Formidable is a Welsh people, Welsh alternative rock band, formed in 2007 in Mold, Flintshire, and currently based in London, England. The band consists of Rhiannon "Ritzy" Bryan (lead vocals, guitar) and Rhydian Dafydd (bass guitar, b ...

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

Ritzy Bryan and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Rhydian Dafydd. Their music has been described as "sleazy

The Breeders The Breeders are an American alternative rock band based in Dayton, Ohio, consisting of members Kim Deal (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), her twin sister Kelley Deal (lead guitar, vocals), Josephine Wiggs (bass guitar, vocals) and Jim Macpherson ( ...

guitar thrash and tasty harmonies, with sugar and spike boy-girl vocals and pummelling

Pixies Pixies may refer to: * Plural of Pixie * Pixies (band) The Pixies are an American alternative rock band from Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986 by Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim ...

bass and drums." Their Welsh language song "Paid A Gofyn" ''("Don't Ask")'' was citied by Hefin Thomas on the ''

BBC Radio Cymru BBC Radio Cymru is a Welsh language radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts across Wales on FM, DAB, digital TV and BBC Sounds. The station broadcasts general factual and entertainment pro ...

'' website as "one of their top 10 favourite Welsh tracks of the decade" in 2009.

History

Formation

Tricky Nixon formed in summer 2003 as ''Super 8's'' after the three founder members

Rhydian Dafydd,

Joe Fairclough and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

Peter Gray recruited Ritzy Bryan as the second guitarist.

Shows and early recordings

The band initially put out a demo made up of three songs "Taxman", "All Over You" and "In My Head" that the band had already recorded for an album length demo. During the In the City festival in Manchester, 2003, the band name changed from ''Super 8's'' to ''Tricky Nixon''. In 2004 the first release from Tricky Nixon was an EP featuring three new tracks "Takin The Bait", "Jelly" and "You're So Money". The EP was well received and the band were able to secure a national tour supporting Ariel X in April and several good support slots, most notably with

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who originally formed in 1996 as Runston Parva, before reforming as Parva in 2000, and releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their cur ...

. During that summer the band recorded a cover of

The Smiths The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...

' "Panic" for Concrete Recordings' ''Ten From Ten'' compilation album.

Mclusky tour and ''Kick'' EP

In November 2004 the band embarked on their highest profile tour to date supporting

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Mclusky Mclusky (often stylized as mclusky), originally known as Best, are a British post-hardcore band formed in Cardiff in 1996. The group originally consisted of Andrew Falkous (vocals, guitar), originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, Geraint Bevan ( ...

. The band's final release was six track ''Kick'' EP through Fuzzbox on 21 November 2005. Thejoyformidableatreading

Breakup and post-Tricky Nixon

In January 2006 drummer Peter Gray quit the band. The remaining three members of the band formed new wave/

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

band Sidecar Kisses and following Sidecar Kisses' dissolution, Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd went on to form

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

band

. Peter Gray joined

surf music Surf music (also known as surf rock, surf pop, or surf guitar) is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is inst ...

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

group The VCs and more recently

band Letters To Fiesta.

Discography

Demos

*''Benedict'' (2003) (CD) *''Super 8's'' EP (2003) (CD) *''Takin The Bait'' EP (Jan 2004) (CD)

Compilations

*''Panic'' (1 November 2004) (CD/vinyl/download) *''Paid a Gofyn'' (19 October 2005) (download)

Singles

*"Kick" (21 November 2005) (CD/download)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tricky Nixon Welsh rock music groups