Fiat Lux - A three year run and that was it, until last year.
Fiat Lux In Session -1984 – Past Daily Soundbooth
Fiat Lux – In session BBC Radio 1 – March 1984 – BBC Radio 1 –
Fiat Lux tonight. Never heard of them? Well . . .they were together for only three years. They released one mini-album and 7 singles and had the distinction of their sax and keyboards player, Ian Nelson being the brother of Be-Bop Deluxe’s Bill Nelson. Fiat Lux were an English synthpop band formed in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, in 1982, by Steve Wright (vocals) and David P Crickmore (guitars, bass, keyboards). Ian Nelson (sax, keyboards), joined shortly afterwards, complementing the classic line-up of the band, who remained until the mid-1980s, when Crickmore departed. In 2017 Wright and Crickmore began working together again as Fiat Lux.
Wright and Crickmore attended Bretton Hall College, Wakefield, where they studied drama, meeting after the first joined the latter’s new wave band, Juveniles (whose two songs were released in a various artists compilation called Household Shocks). Wright later joined theatre company Yorkshire Actors where he met musician Bill Nelson. After impressing him with a demo tape, Nelson produced one of the demo’s tracks, “Feels Like Winter Again”, b/w “This Illness” and released it on his Cocteau Records label in November 1982, by which time Nelson’s brother Ian had joined the band. “Feels Like Winter Again” gained the band radio airplay and led to them signing a record deal with major label Polydor and subsequent support slots with Howard Jones. The band had minor UK chart hits with “Secrets” and “Blue Emotion”, which were followed by the mini album Hired History in August 1984. They made several TV appearances, including a performance on Old Grey Whistle Test. There was also a long format video release, Commercial Breakdown, which included live versions of the shelved tracks for their debut full-length Polydor album.
Crickmore departed after the chart failure of their fifth Polydor single release ‘House Of Thorns’ The band continued recording some songs with session musicians, including Rick Martinez (Richard Anthony Martinez) who had already played drums on some of their earlier works. They disbanded in 1985.
Like so many bands, like the history of performed music in a nutshell; there’s a brief flurry of activity, opening act or a series of club dates. Into the studio and work on getting your point across – only to have it just not be the right thing at the right time. And then you get demoralized, lose interest, get in fights with your bandmates and otherwise just call it a day. Happens over and over.
if you’ve never heard Fiat Lux, or maybe you have one or more of their singles – here’s an introduction or a reminder.
Get ready for what promises to be an insane week.
