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Nickolas Laurien (born 1959), known professionally as Nick Nicely (stylised nick nicely), is an English singer-songwriter who records psychedelic and electronic music. He is best known for his 1982 single "Hilly Fields (1892)". Nicely released only one other record in the early 1980s, the single "D.C.T. Dreams", before retreating from the music industry. The influence of "Hilly Fields" has been noted on Bevis Frond, Robyn Hitchcock, Robert Wyatt, and XTC's psychedelic alter egos the Dukes of Stratosphear, as well as the hypnagogic pop movement of the 2000s.
Nicely was born in Greenland during a transatlantic flight layover and grew up in Hitchin, a town near London. In the late 1980s, he became involved with the burgeoning acid house and rave scene in the UK. With collaborator Gavin Mills, the duo produced a number of house music tracks in the early 1990s under the names Psychotropic, Freefall and Airtight and enjoyed some chart success. Following years of negotiations, a compilation of Nicely's two singles and unreleased tracks recorded between 1978 and 2004, titled Psychotropia, was released in 2004. Since then, he has released five albums of new material: Lysergia (2011), Space of a Second (2014), Sleep Safari (2017). Secret Life Of Chance (2022), Afterworld 2023
The A-side "D.C.T. Dreams" is a blend of equal parts 1980s electronics and 1960s psychedelia, whereas the B-side "Treeline" is more inclined towards psychedelia. The single was originally released on Laurien's own Voxette label (which he set up using the proceeds from the sale of his studio equipment), but after receiving airplay and some favourable reviews, it was picked up by the Hansa Records label and reissued late in 1980. The single became a minor hit in France and the Netherlands. "D.C.T. Dreams" was originally intended to be included on the Some Bizzare Album sampler of bands associated with the Some Bizzare record label's style, but was left off at the last minute when Some Bizzare's boss Stevo Pearce realised it had become a minor hit in Europe and was still readily available. However, by the time the single was re-released, interest and airplay support had fallen and the song failed to make the UK charts.
"Hilly Fields" was recorded at Heath Levy's own small studio and at Alvic Studios in west London, and again featured Jeff Leach on keyboards, along with Ian Pearce on drums, Rickman Godlee on cello, and "Kate" on additional vocals—for many years the rumour was that "Kate" was actually Kate Bush, but in 2010 Nicely explained that "I was always tied to Kate Bush with this rumor that she was on 'Hilly Fields'... Kate Jackson did vocals on 'D.C.T. Dreams'—I didn't know that was her surname, I wasn't sure. So on 'Hilly Fields' I used the same bit of tape of her singing and I just put 'Kate' because I didn't know her name. She's in the credits. And the rumor just got out of hand and I've always denied it but it still carries on a little bit because Bush did live around the corner and she was on EMI."
The track features a prominent 1960s psychedelic influence, cello playing, the 1980s synth-pop sound, and what is believed to be the first ever example of scratching on a non-hip hop recording, although the "scratching" was actually created by moving two tape spools back and forth, rather than on a turntable. It was named after Hilly Fields park in Brockley, south-east London, close to where Nicely lived. "Hilly Fields" was released in January 1982, and is regarded by many as Nicely's masterpiece. On its release it was made Single of the Week in the NME and described as "the best psychedelic record made since the '60s". In spite of, or due to, its obscurity it is considered in some circles to be "legendary".
The B-side was originally going to be a song called "6B Obergine", but three days before the single was due to be cut it was replaced by the typically 1960s-psych-inspired "49 Cigars", which was recorded and mixed in just two days. Despite favourable reviews in the music press, the single was not well promoted by EMI (Nicely believed that this was due in part to bad feeling between the label and his manager at the time), and as a result the song had almost no distribution or airplay, and failed to make an impression on the charts.
As with "Hilly Fields", "On the Coast" was also recorded at Heath Levy and at Alvic. However, the single was never released, due to Nicely's dissatisfaction with the song. In an interview with the L.A. Record in 2010 Nicely confirmed that the decision to block the song's release was his, saying "that's my fault. EMI did say to me, 'What do you want to do with this?' And looking back on it, I think probably what went wrong was that the drums were not dancey enough. But I said to EMI, 'No, don't bring it out.' And I stopped it... it was me in the end that stopped that record from coming out and that might have been a mistake."
In the late 1980s he became involved with the burgeoning acid house and rave scene in the UK, and together with his friend Gavin Mills (aka "DJ Face") the duo produced a number of house music tracks in the early 1990s under the names Psychotropic, Freefall and Airtight. The pair also collaborated with Jack Smooth on a single under the group name Citizen Kaned. Nicely recalled his involvement in that period: "we went right through acid house, the parties, '89, the whole scene—and it was a time that I enjoyed my greatest commercial success in the top of the dance charts. So it was definitely something that informs my work and yes, it was a fascinating period to be in the middle of that huge movement, when people really did think that the song had died and it was all going to be the emotions coming off the sound from mainly linear dance records, though a lot of them weren't of course. But yeah, fascinating time." Mills is now part of the DJ and production duo Copyright.
Following years of negotiations, a compilation of his two singles and unreleased tracks recorded between 1978 and 2004, titled Psychotropia, was finally released in 2004 as an LP on Tenth Planet Records. The following year it was re-released by Sanctuary in CD format with six extra tracks, but following the label's demise in 2007 the CD was deleted. It was reissued with new artwork on Grapefruit (a subsidiary of Cherry Red Records) in 2010, containing a further extra track, "Marlon".
Several nick nicely songs have appeared on various compilations: "On the Beach (The Ladder Descends)" was included on the German DJ mix Permanent Vacation 2 in 2007, "49 Cigars" was featured on the album compiled by Amorphous Androgynous in 2008, and the same year "London South" was included on Terrascope Audio Entertainment – Volume 2, only available from Terrascope Online. News of release of Terrascope Audio Entertainment – Volume 2, Terrascope Online The UK newspaper The Guardian added "Hilly Fields" to their July 2010 playlist of favourite tunes.
On 11 October 2008 Nicely played his first ever live show, supporting friends and long-time supporters the Bevis Frond at the Luminaire in London. Since then Nicely has performed a handful of concerts (often under the band name nick nicely's Unlived Lives), including the Green Man Festival in 2009, and, inspired by the surrealists, always wearing a veil. In 2012 Nicely was invited to play two shows by Kasper and Herlinde Raeman, at Meneer Malasch (Amsterdam) and Wastelands Festival (Ghent). This marked the start of Nicely's solo performances. Sharing the bill were John Maus, Maria Minerva and Picture Plane. In November 2012 Nicely supported Ariel Pink in Hamburg.
In 2010 Nicely announced that he was working on an album of new material, with the working title of Space of a Second. In June 2011, the album, now titled Lysergia, was released on cassette (now sold out) by Burger Records.
In November 2011, the US record label Captured Tracks issued a compilation of Nicely's early recordings on vinyl, titled Elegant Daze: 1979–1986.[2]
To mark the song's 30th anniversary, in June 2012 Fruits de Mer Records released a limited 7" vinyl single (now sold out) of a new version of "Hilly Fields", subtitled "The Mourning", with the original version on the B-side.
Nicely also collaborated with the band Unkle on a track titled "Puppeteers", recorded in 2009 during sessions for Unkle's Where Did the Night Fall album. A demo version of the song surfaced on the internet in April 2011 but to date it has not been officially released.
In September 2014, Lo Records released Nicely's second full-length album, Space of a Second. A third Nick Nicely album, Sleep Safari, was released on 26 September 2017 through Tapete Records. In 2018, "Hilly Fields" appeared in the Timothee Chalamont film Hot Summer Nights.
From the start of 2018 Nicely has been working on live performances accompanied by the musician Bug Lover and generating new versions of old tracks and adding visuals. First came secret gigs in Frappant (February and April) in Hamburg, then on 14 June 2018 at the Electric Ballroom in London supporting John Maus, followed by a December show in Moscow and then a US East coast tour again with Maus in 2019.
Compilation albums
Singles
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