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.. is a Ledbury-based ensemble
with a deep appreciation of and
Often anarchic and rarely predictable,
Thus wrote the late Nick Alexander, one of our wordsmiths, as a description of the band. He continued:
“We have steadily increased our membership over the past five years and now boast ten performers, including the recently added (in summer 2016) fabulous pOxettes, whose angelic presence has swooped in to elevate the more eccentrically Neanderthal tendencies of some of the other cohorts. If you are likely to find the prospect of approaching apocalypse and total ruin entertaining, this is the band for you: we might even offer you philosophical resilience for the undoubtedly twisted times ahead.”
The band comprised (in no particular order):
Nick Alexander (poet, vocals, guitar)
Vicenta Alvear (vocals)
John O’Connor (double bass)
Jim Dening (as his inimitable self - poet and reader)
Steve Glennie-Smith
Danny McKwan (electric bass)
Mike Ruddick (poet, vocals, guitar)
Karen Pacagnini, Suzanne Lantos and Angie Harris
Rob Harris and Ed Mustafic (sound)
and various others who swelled our ranks from time to time.
A montage by Nick’s daughter Jess, incorporating Caroline Owen-Thomas’s band logo.
This all changed when Nick lost his courageous battle against cancer on 8th January 2017.
Jim recalls:
“Nick and I suddenly became pals in 2011 or thereabouts - not long ago - probably in the Feathers or the Prince of Wales. We used to go to the Prince on Wednesday evenings: Nick to play and sing, I perhaps to drone or howl strange lyrics to musical backing. For a while we also attended The Retreat.
“Presently we, with like-minded friends, took to
attending business meetings at midday on Saturdays in the Prince around
the committee table in the front bar. It was in the pub that Nick and I
thought of starting a band.
I knew that he had been involved with bands in the past...
(including but not limited to: Echo Road, The Five Malcolms,
Fretlock, Happy Valley, One Night Stan, Pig’s Eye View
and Santa’s Twin)
... but we resolved there should be something sublime about this one.
Let’s call it Oxymoron, he said, with his liking for contradictions.
Let’s call it pOxymoron, I said, with my liking for contradictions.”
The band grew over the ensuing years. Mike, who had also been involved in many bands, joined playing his unique style of electro-acoustic guitar with an amazing array of effects pedals. Nick was not content with just one bass player (Danny - electric bass - who held us together when the tempo went a bit awry...) - but also John (double bass - veteran of many trad. jazz bands).
To complement Jim’s fluency in French, the
band’s multi-lingual repertoire extended into Hispanics when Vicenta
joined us.
And as Nick noted earlier - another dimension was added when the marvellous pOxettes
pOxymoron performed not only in Ledbury but quite near Ledbury.
How can we continue? As Mike has said:
“Nick was the glue in the band. He was willing to organise us and generate the set lists with a sympathy for both music and words. And likewise he has been the glue in much of our social life. It is not the same now, dropping into the Feathers or the Prince: in Nick we found not only friendship and warmth, debate and a good laugh - but satire and absurdity.”
Reading, beside Ledbury’s ‘Banksey’, in Tilley’s Alley
We have admired his creativity: since his diagnosis
some two years previously, Nick was intensely productive. He assembled
and published comprehensive volumes of his poems, songs and stories.
The best and most touching tribute came from his daughter Jess a day or two after he died:
“He truly was a brilliant, eccentric, clever, popular and witty
dad, son, brother, uncle and friend:
His son Simon said in his eulogy at Nick’s funeral:
“He has probably already formed another band Up There.”
Given the number of musos who passed away in 2016, he is definitely in good company...
On 10th June 2017, a plaque commemorating Nick and the Willpower Clinic (which these business meetings in the Prince later became known as) was unveiled in said public house.
Our gigs have all been well supported - thanks to all who came.....
A few copies of our CD (recorded in November 2015)
If I could get out of your shape, I’d stand corrected
are still available: please contact Steve.
This is excellent value at only £5.
All
proceeds will go to St. Michael’s Hospice near Hereford, where Nick
received the most amazing care during the last few weeks of his life.
Buy one for your granny for Christmas! (But be quick - they’ve
nearly all gone.)
You can get an impression of what we were up to here or
here.
[NB - these were recorded as single tracks on an MP3 recorder,
and in no way are up to the quality of the CD]
Left - the amazing Feet,
Right - the contents of this were consumed
(Did anyone say pOxymoron had a foot fetish....)
The last gig Nick was able to play at was at the Farriers Arms, as
part of Worcester Music Festival, in September 2016.
We were able to
continue to get together at Nick’s place for board meetings/practices (and copious
consumption of various forms of alcohol) until November 2016, when Nick was
admitted to hospital.
As we are sure you can imagine, the rest of us felt we couldn’t continue without him.
Our farewell gig - Excavations of Eternity - was a tribute to His Knibs. This was a sell-out event in the 2017 Ledbury Poetry Festival, in the Burgage Hall, Ledbury.
It was recorded by Steve’s partner Maggie for posterior: →
A considerable amount of cash was raised at this event for
St. Michael’s Hospice,