[SACD-R][OF] Murray Head - Nigel Lived - 1972/2018 (Soft Rock)

Accordion – Nick DeCaro (tracks: 12)
Acoustic Guitar – Mark Warner (tracks: 1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 14), Murray Head (tracks: 5)
Arranged By [Strings & Horns] – Nick DeCaro
Backing Vocals – Kay Garner (tracks: 1, 2, 12)
Baritone Saxophone – Chris Mercer (tracks: 10), Jim Chester* (tracks: 3)
Bass – Clive Chaman (tracks: 1, 2, 6, 8), Dave Wintour (tracks: 5, 7, 9, 11), Peter Giles (tracks: 14), Philip Chen* (tracks: 4, 13)
Choir [Choir Master] – Timothy Bond (2) (tracks: 13)
Clarinet – Tony Coe (tracks: 3, 7)
Clavinet [Electric Clavinet] – Peter Robinson (tracks: 4)
Conductor – Fiachra Trench
Congas – Barry De Souza (tracks: 2, 4), Frank Ricotti (tracks: 4)
Contrabass – James Harpham (tracks: 3)
Double Bass – Spike Heatley (tracks: 3, 10)
Drums – Barry De Souza (tracks: 13), Cozy Powell (tracks: 1, 2, 6, 8), Glen LeFleur (tracks: 4), Michael Giles (tracks: 7, 9, 11, 14)
Electric Guitar – Mark Warner (tracks: 2, 6, 7, 9, 14)
Electric Piano – Peter Robinson (tracks: 2)
Flugelhorn – John Donnelly (2) (tracks: 3)
Harmonica – Chris Neil* (tracks: 1)
Harp [Electric Harp] – Skaila Kanga (tracks: 13)
Mandolin – Graham Preskett (tracks: 1)
Marimba [Bass Marimba] – Frank Ricotti (tracks: 12)
Organ [Church Organ] – Peter Robinson (tracks: 9)
Organ [Pipe Organ] – Fiachra Trench (tracks: 12)
Percussion – Michael Giles (tracks: 5), Ray Cooper (tracks: 3, 12)
Piano – Fiachra Trench (tracks: 10), Peter Robinson (tracks: 1, 2, 8, 14)
(tracks: 1, 6, 14), Jimmy Hastings (tracks: 1, 14), Tommy Whittle (tracks: 1, 14), Tony Coe (tracks: 1, 6, 14)
Saxophone [Electric Sax] – Chris Mercer (tracks: 3)
Saxophone [Plastic Sax] – Chris Mercer (tracks: 4)
Slide Guitar – Mark Warner (tracks: 3, 6, 7)
Steel Drums [Led By] – Miguel Baradas (tracks: 13)
Strings [Led By] – Jack Rothstein (tracks: 5, 7, 11)
Tabla – Chris Karam (tracks: 13)
Tenor Saxophone – Chris Mercer (tracks: 2)
Trombone – Dave Chapman (4) (tracks: 11), Dave Charman (tracks: 3, 6)
Trumpet – Henry Lowther (tracks: 6), John Donnelly (2) (tracks: 6)
Tuba – Martin Fry (2) (tracks: 13)
Violin [Electric Violin] – Graham Preskett (tracks: 8)

45th Anniversary Edition Of The 1972 Classic On SACD!
Mastered Direct-to-DSD From The Original Master Tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio!
Murray Head's Nigel Lived is a groundbreaking classic and one of the boldest, most daring and inventive albums of all time. Recorded by the great recording engineer Phill Brown, Nigel Lived is from the golden era of all-analog recording, a sonic and musical masterpiece that every music lover and audiophile simply must have.
In Spring of 1972 Murray Head was just 25, coming off amazing success on the stage and screen, when he recorded his debut album, Nigel Lived. And Nigel isn't just any album, it's an ambitious, experimental album full of great songs that required stunningly diverse recording techniques and instrumentation on every track. There are beautiful acoustic works that draw a straight line to Murray's later albums like "Ruthie" and "When You Wake Up In The Morning," there are straight-up rockers and amazingly innovative tracks like "Religion" and the sprawling "Junk."
Nigel's story arc unfolds as a three-act play in which Nigel leaves a small town for the big city, finds love and success before crashing into addiction and despair. The background locations, characters and scenes change sonically throughout as Nigel was a adventurous & pioneering effort in blending studio recording with an incredible array of location recordings captured all over London's West End.
In the same way that films today operate on the "found footage" motif, Murray's ahead-of-its-time conceptual treatment for Nigel consisted of hand writing a "diary" for Nigel that was then "found" by Murray, who put Nigel's life to song. It's a brilliant narrative tool that allowed Murray to weave aspects of his own rich experiences in the whirlwind of late 60s London into the songs. Murray saw great success, making a splash on stage in Hair and on-screen in films like The Family Way and John Schlesinger's avant-garde Sunday Bloody Sunday. And he saw the depths working in a drug-addiction clinic and watching friends disappear into and eventually succumb to heroin.
Nigel Lived is driven by Murray's tremendous energy, and the songs are witty, intense, achingly beautiful and exceptionally well-recorded.
Nigel Lived on CD/SACD was mastered from recording engineer Phill Brown's 1/4" 15-ips analog tapes from 1972. Phill was gracious enough to let Intervention and CoHEARent Audio's Kevin Gray cut directly from these beautiful-sounding tapes to DSD. As THE master tapes can no longer be found in Sony's vaults in the US or the UK (Sony bought CBS and its assets), Phill's 1972 tapes are the de facto "original master tapes."
The sound quality on these tapes is a revelation, with deep but tuneful bass, sweet highs, gorgeous vocals and VERY WIDE dynamics! Murray and the musicians put so many fascinating sounds and textures down, and the tapes are simply stunning!
Intervention is very proud that people today can hear Nigel sound his very best on his 45th birthday!
Nigel Lived is the first album by the British lead vocalist and actor Murray Head, released in 1973 on CBS Records.
It is a concept album which tells the story of Nigel, a young singer who arrives in London seeking to make a career in the music business. His early optimism gives way to disillusionment, struggle, and finally heroin addiction. The original vinyl release came in an elaborate package, with a lyric sheet featuring pages from Nigel’s diary to depict the course of his gradual disintegration.
In 2017 Intervention Records reissued Nigel Lived on 180-gram double 45RPM vinyl. The reissue was 100% analog mastered using the original master tapes provided to the label by the original sound engineer on the project, Phill Brown. The album quickly became Intervention’s best selling reissue ever and resulted in Murray Head’s decision to perform songs from the album live for the first time ever.
All Music Review
Recorded in the summer of 1972 and released the following year, Nigel Lived is Murray Head’s first solo LP. A rarity for this singer, it takes the form of a concept album. A songwriter found the diary of a stranger and wrote songs out of some fragments. The booklet reproduces pages of the fake diary along with the lyrics, weaving a believable fiction that helps in distancing or objectifying the autobiographical nature of the songs. They are split between the “success” and “failure” sides of the LP and tell the story of an artist (actor? singer? — both would apply to Head) who leaves his small hometown, comes to the “big city” to make it, and, after an initial encouraging period, watches his life fall apart. Head is surrounded by an impressive cast of session musicians from folk, rock, and jazz realms, including Caravan flutist Jimmy Hastings, jazz clarinetist Tony Coe, and original King Crimson drummer Michael Giles. The whole album seems to foretell Chris DeBurgh’s Spanish Train and Other Stories, especially because of the daring arrangements (a Gregorian choir and a steel drums ensemble in “Religion”). Other comparisons would include Shawn Phillips and Cat Stevens’ records around the same time. Head still had to write a memorable song like “Say It Ain’t So, Joe,” but despite the lack of shining moments, Nigel Lived makes a solid and surprisingly uncompromising album. And “Junk” is the longest, weirdest song this singer ever recorded.