Nigel Eaton is a British

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

and composer best known for playing the

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

. Born in Lyndhurst, Eaton played the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

before switching to the hurdy-gurdy in 1981 when his father, Christopher Eaton, began manufacturing them. Eaton has been described as the "foremost hurdy-gurdy player in popular music in North America and Europe".

Career

Eaton has performed as a member of a number of different bands, including Whirling Pope Joan (with Julie Murphy),

Blowzabella Blowzabella is an English folk band formed in London in 1978. The band currently consists of Andy Cutting, Jo Freya, Paul James, David Shepherd, Barn Stradling, and Jon Swayne; members of the band have changed multiple times since their incept ...

, Ancient Beatbox, The Duellists, and Firestarters of Leiden. He has released two solo albums, ''The Music of the Hurdy-Gurdy'' (1987) and ''Pandemonium'' (2002), and the collaborative album ''Panic at the Café'' (1993) with

Andy Cutting Andy Cutting (born 18 March 1969) is an English folk musician and composer. He plays melodeon and is best known for writing and performing traditional English folk and his own original compositions which combine English and French traditions ...

. As a session musician, Eaton has contributed to the film scores for ''

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...

'', ''

The Shipping News ''The Shipping News'' is a novel by American author E. Annie Proulx and published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1993. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the U.S. National Book Award, as well as other awards. It was adapted as a film of the ...

'', ''

Kingdom of Heaven Kingdom of Heaven may refer to: Religious * Kingdom of Heaven (Gospel of Matthew) ** Kingship and kingdom of God, or simply Kingdom of God, the phrase used in the other gospels * Kingdom of Heaven (Daviesite), a schismatic sect, founded by Wil ...

'', ''

Aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

'', '' Mansfield Park,'' ''

Tulip Fever ''Tulip Fever'' is a 2017 historical romantic drama film directed by Justin Chadwick and written by Deborah Moggach and Tom Stoppard, adapted from Moggach's 1999 novel of the same name. It stars an ensemble cast featuring Alicia Vikander, Dane ...

'', and Carl Davis's 1980 score for the 1927 silent film ''Napoléon''. Eaton wrote "The Halsway Schottische", a song which later became "The Halsway Carol" (with lyrics by friend and collaborator Iain Frisk) and has seen hundreds of versions performed. He has performed

Howard Skempton Howard While Skempton (born 31 October 1947) is an English composer, pianist, and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped to organise the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music. Skem ...

's ''Concerto for Hurdy-gurdy and Percussion'' (written for himself and

Evelyn Glennie Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015. Early life Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The in ...

) with the

Scottish Chamber Orchestra The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is an Edinburgh-based UK chamber orchestra. One of Scotland's five National Performing Arts Companies, the SCO performs throughout Scotland, including annual tours of the Scottish Highlands and Islands and S ...

and the

Bournemouth Sinfonietta The Bournemouth Sinfonietta was a chamber orchestra founded in 1968 as an offshoot of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. It was disbanded in November 1999 after increasing difficulties in obtaining funding from local councils led to the decision ...

. Eaton has collaborated and recorded with a wide range of other artists including

Afro Celt Sound System Afro Celt Sound System is a British musical group who fuse electronic music with traditional Gaelic and West African music. Afro Celt Sound System was formed in 1995 by producer-guitarist Simon Emmerson, and feature a wide range of guest artists. ...

Loreena McKennitt Loreena Isobel Irene McKennitt, (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences. McKennitt is known for her r ...

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Page and Plant (also known as Jimmy Page & Robert Plant) was an English rock band active between 1994 and 1998. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant (both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin), accompanied ...

, Scott Walker,

Shelleyan Orphan Shelleyan Orphan were a British alternative music group that peaked during the 1980s and early 1990s. They played a style of pop influenced by chamber music, and which featured dual male-female vocals. Career In 1980, Caroline Crawley and Jem ...

New London Consort New London Consort was a London-based Renaissance and Baroque music ensemble, which performed in most of Europe and various other parts of the world. Founded and directed by Philip Pickett, most of its repertoire was recorded and broadcast by BBC ...

Heidi Berry Heidi Berry (born December 8, 1958) is an American musician. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she recorded and released four critically acclaimed solo albums on the British independent record labels Creation Records and 4AD. Career Her earlie ...

Gary Kemp Gary James Kemp (born 16 October 1959) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet. Kemp wrote the lyrics and music ...

Bombay Bicycle Club Bombay Bicycle Club are an English indie rock band from Crouch End, London, consisting of Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, Suren de Saram, and Ed Nash. They are guitar-fronted and have experimented with different genres, including folk, electro ...

Blue Aeroplanes The Blue Aeroplanes are an English rock band from Bristol, the mainstays of which have been Gerard Langley, brother John Langley, and dancer Wojtek Dmochowski. All three had previously been members of the New wave music, new wave "art band" Ar ...

Martin Simpson Martin Stewart Simpson (born 5 May 1953) is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music reflects a wide variety of influences and styles, rooted in Britain, Ireland, America and beyond. He builds a purposeful, often upbeat voi ...

, The Palladian Ensemble,

Moya Brennan Moya Brennan (born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on 4 August 1952), also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing pr ...

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following th ...

, Maddy Prior,

June Tabor June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer known for her solo work and her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with Oysterband. Early life June Tabor was born and grew up in Warwick, England. As ...

, Silly Sisters, The Tavener Consort, Jake Walton, and

Hamish Moore Hamish Moore is a Scottish musician and bagpipe maker. Among Moore's contributions to Scottish music are his development of a revived form of the bellows-blown Scottish smallpipes; his 1985 recording of the Lowland and smallpipes, ''Cauld Wind Pi ...

. In addition to his work in music and film, Eaton is a designer and maker of built-in furniture in South London.

Discography

Solo albums *''The Music of the Hurdy-Gurdy'' (1987) *''Pandemonium'' (2002) Collaborative albums * ''Panic at the Café'' (with Andy Cutting) (1993) With Blowzabella * ''Wall of Sound'' (1986) * ''The B to A of Blowzabella'' (1986) * ''A Richer Dust'' (1988) * ''Vanilla'' (1990) With Ancient Beatbox *''Ancient Beatbox'' (1989) With Whirling Pope Joan *''Spin'' (1994) With The Duellists *''English Hurdy-Gurdy Music'' (1997)

Recording credits

References

External links

Nigel Eaton
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eaton, Nigel Living people Hurdy-gurdy players 1966 births English male musicians Musicians from Hampshire