THE NIVENS TO SPLIT…….. (or put some awful songs onto a fairly decent box set)

The Nivens To Split…….. (or Put Some Awful Songs Onto A Fairly Decent Box Set)

“And you said you’d pray for me. But I don’t think you did. And I live in an England that doesn’t care if I exist….”

After 23 years the official announcement was made. Indie sensations the Nivens have finally, officially, called it a day. Despite only playing one gig since 1990 and not releasing anything new since 1989 the split was never officially made public. Lead singer Peter Martin claimed that it was about time people knew the truth. Media speculation had reached fever pitch with stories of a tour of Germany and new songs allegedly appearing on the Internet. Rumours are believed to have been fuelled by a new box set released by Firestation Records containing the long lost classic “Lucozade Orgasms”. Uwe Weigmann, owner of Fireststion Records said in an official statement “the pressing plant has been on overdrive for the past month. Sales have outstripped our wildest dreams. At least half a dozen copies have been ordered in advance and we are expecting 7 copies to be sold in Middlesbrough and maybe up to 4 in Ashington.” The box set is a round up of all the releases on the indie label. It contains two gems from those long lost heroes The Nivens. We attempted to contact the NME but the whole staff are currently on tour with Mylie Cyrus. Bob Stanley took time away from his latest book “How to have a successful career on the back of someone else’s talent” to pay his respects; “I didn’t like them then but looking back I realise I was wrong. Maybe if we’d covered them instead of The Field Mice things may have been different”. Stephen Joyce owner of Woosh records; the label that launched the bands career in 1988, was reported to have said “I’ll be on to my lawyers. Those bastards still owe me that £63 advance!!!

On a less frivolous note there really is a box set. “Still Mad At Me? 15 Years Firestation Records 1998-2013”. Released this month by Firestation Records in Germany. It contains not only the two Nivens tunes but lots of examples of great indie music. Our favourites here at The Northern Line are Skint & Demoralised, The Honest Johns and Mighty Mighty. It is available from the label’s web site at the cool price of 25 Euros; For 4 CDs and 90 tracks this is good value by anyone’s reckoning.

The box set is well packaged and contains a lot of great music. Unfortunately, I don’t include the two Niven’s tracks in that assessment. On listening to it yesterday I realised why we had not included our first demo on our compilation CD; “From a Northumbrian Mining Village comes the Sound of Summer”. Released by Firestation Records in 2006. The two Nivens tracks are badly recorded (in a bedroom in Stakeford in the summer of 87). Badly written (the lyrics are awful. And I should know, I wrote them!!) and badly performed (“Lucozade Orgasms” speeds up and slows down in all the wrong places!!!). So buy the box set for the other tracks but to hear The Nivens check out the video for my favourite “I Love Me” or listen to our “hit” single “Yesterday” both tracks can be found below. Or better still buy the CD. It may be sold out but I’m sure you can find one on ebay!!!!

LINKS:

FIRESTATION RECORDS: http://www.firestation-records.de/