Nick Straker Band -

The Nick Straker Band was an English synthpop/funk quartet that made the 1979 German Decca album Future’s Above My Head, followed by the 1980 UK CBS release A Walk in the Park and a 1981 US album on Prelude, release abroad as A Little Bit of Jazz. They recorded the first two with members of New Musik.

Members: Tony Mansfield, Tony Hibbert, Phil Towner, Clive Gates, Nick Straker

Background

Nick Straker Band formed in London in 1979 when keyboardist-singer Nick Straker, the stage name of Nicholas Bailey, assembled a recording group with guitarist Tony Mansfield, bassist Tony Hibbert, and drummer Phil Towner. Straker and Mansfield attended Spencer Park School in Wandsworth. Dennis Bovell and several future members of Matumbi also attended the school. Mansfield had played with Towner and Hibbert in earlier south London groups linked to the New Musik precursor Reeman Zeegus.

Straker joined Stonehenge in 1969, and additional members transformed the group into Matumbi two years later. Matumbi secured a deal with Trojan Records, while Straker remained through 1974 and then left the group. He next joined guitarist Dave McShera, bassist Pete Hammond, and Towner in a dance band that played working-men’s clubs and British Legion halls. TMC Studios contacts in south London introduced the musicians to American singer Limmie Snell, who fronted the resulting Limmie Funk Limited with guitarist Andy Gierus. The group worked British discotheques and toured the Netherlands and Sweden in February 1978 on a winter club circuit. Limmie Funk Limited also recorded at TMC with producer Simon Cohen under an arrangement that tied studio payment to any resulting record deal.

Straker left Limmie Funk Limited in mid-1978 and teamed with Mansfield on a group with Hibbert and Towner. The musicians used TMC under a record-now, pay-later arrangement and worked with singer-songwriter Pete Diaz on rehearsals and sessions in Coventry. This partnership became the early New Musik lineup, while Straker and Mansfield continued work on Straker material. Straker completed the final version of “A Walk in the Park” by early 1979 and left New Musik as Mansfield continued the group with keyboardist Clive Gates.

Straker presented a tape of his songs to Pinnacle Records and accidentally cued part of “A Walk in the Park,” which drew label interest in the track. Pinnacle issued “A Walk in the Park” (b/w “Something in the Music”) in April 1979, with Jeremy Paul producing the A-side. Straker then drew on Mansfield, Hibbert, Towner, McShera, and Gierus for the recordings that became Future’s Above My Head.

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