Nicholas John Simper (born 3 November 1945) is a bass guitarist, who was a co-founding member of Deep Purple and Warhorse. In the 1960s he began his professional career in Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, The Flower Pot Men, Lord Sutch’s Savages, etc.
Simper was born in Frogmore House Maternity Home, Norwood Green, Southall, Middlesex. Prior to co-founding Deep Purple in 1968, Simper played for a number of bands, including The Renegades (1960–61), The Delta Five (1961–63), Some Other Guys (1963–64), Buddy Britten & The Regents renamed Simon Raven Cult (1964–66) and Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. Unfortunately within a few months of joining, Kidd and Simper were involved in a car crash that took Kidd’s life. After recovering Simper briefly reactivated The Pirates (1966–67) before joining the Garden, the backing band for The Flower Pot Men (1967–68), where he played alongside Jon Lord. He also had a brief spell with Lord Sutch’s Savages.
Simper was fired from Deep Purple in mid 1969, when new singer Ian Gillan requested that bassist Roger Glover join as well.
After his departure, he briefly worked with Marsha Hunt before forming his own band Warhorse, that recorded two albums for Vertigo. Warhorse was managed by Ron Hire, originally part of HEC Enterprises, the original investors in Deep Purple. During this time Simper also played on a Lord Sutch live album, along with Ritchie Blackmore, Keith Moon and several other luminaries.
For Warhorse, as with so many bands, the important breakthrough of a big selling album hadn’t occurred. There was very strong interest from Warner Bros, with their senior A&R rep (Dave Dee) doing his utmost to sign the band to the label. At Warner Bros expense, they went into the studio and recorded two tracks but in the end it came down to a straight choice between Warhorse and The Heavy Metal Kids.
By 1974 crippling finances signalled the end for the band. Warhorse’s last gig in late ’74 was at Polhill College, Bedford. Unfortunately their 2000-Watt Midas P.A. broke down and despite the best efforts of their roadie and managers it couldn’t be made to perform properly. They tried, and performed a B.B.King song (Three O’clock in the Morning) to see if they could manage some kind of performance, but it was impossible and they made their apologies to the audience and left.
Simper and guitarist Pete Parks spent the next three years writing, recording and initially formed a new band, called Nick Simper’s Dynamite (1975) that released one, now very rare single.
On 9 October 1976 Simper took part in the Johnny Kidd 10th Anniversary Memorial Show at the Edwardian Club at the Loughborough Hotel in Brixton.
With no financial backing, along with Parks, Simper managed to get Nick Simper’s Fandango (1977–83) off the ground and released two albums. Around the same time Frankie Reid formed the band Flying Fox (1977–84) with Carlo Little, Simper and Parks to play rock ‘n’ roll whenever they were free from commitments from their other bands.(by wikipedia)
“Slipstreaming” was the second album by Nick Simper´s Fandango:
The debut album was released on the Shark label in Germany and finally picked up by Gull in England where it achieved a moderate amount of success. On the basis of the first album’s sales another album, Future Times was recorded in 1980 but this one was only released in Germany. With the lack of promotion and low sales on the second album, Fandango decided to call it a day and folded in 1983.
Slipstreamig (the first album) gives us a good dose of the best hard rock of the ’80s, for moments close to heavy metal, with a crushing rhythmic, the spirit of Ritchie Blackmore flying over the Parks style and scratchy throat of Proops provided the adecuate rocker tone. Future Times is more varied, more soft in their sound, with some “poppy” times and even not deprive us of some ballads, even if it is more conventional that Slipstreming, but still has good moments. (by Gillan)
Or: a pretty good, solid Rock album from the period !
Personnel:
Pete Parks (guitar)
Mac Poole (drums)
Jim Proops (vocals)
Nick Simper (bass)
Tracklist:
01. Pull Out And Start Again (Proops/Simper) 5.11
02 .Get Down, Lay Down (Proops/Simper) 5.37
03. She Was My Friend (Proops/Simper) 4.47
04. Future Times (Proops/Simper) 4.48
05. Undercover Man (Parks/Proops/Simper) 5.44
06. Something’s Burning (Davis) 4.49
07. Hard Drink And Easy Women (Proops/Simper) 3.42
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