Tricky Nixon was a four-piece band from Manchester, England and was a former band of The Joy Formidable's vocalist/

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 themselv ...

Ritzy Bryan and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Rhydian Dafydd. Their music has been described as "sleazy The Breeders guitar thrash and tasty harmonies, with sugar and spike boy-girl vocals and pummelling Pixies 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 network owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts on two stations across Wales on FM, DAB, digital TV and online. The main network broadcasts for hours a day from ...

'' 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 vocalist/

Rhydian Dafydd,

Joe Fairclough and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

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. During that summer the band recorded a cover of The Smiths' "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 band Mclusky. 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 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 art ...

/ indie pop band The Joy Formidable. Peter Gray joined surf music/ sci-fi group The VCs and more recently Manchester 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