Nick's got great fashion-sense. I saw him with Rockpile opening for Elvis Costello on the 'This Year's Model' tour in 1978. He wore his green suit with black dollar signs all over it, while wearing white shoes and playing a white Fender bass. So it goes!
I saw Nick Lowe last year doing a solo accoustic set. a great retrospective of his career with him taking requests from the audience. An absolutely wonderful evening.
I also saw Nick playing bass for Paul Carrack (ex-Ace, ex-Squeeze)in a small club in Lubbock, Texas around 1983. The guitarist was Martin Belmont (ex-Graham Parker) and the drummer was Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello). A great show. As I recall, they played a bunch of Nick's songs during the encore.
Gotta chime in here; I also love Nick Lowe! Saw him live in Ottawa September 1985 and here in Toronto January 1995. Missed a 2005 show, so I guess I gotta wait 'till 2015.
"Jesus Of Cool", and "Labour of Lust" are still two of my favourite albums.
All the Rockpile stuff BEFORE the Rockpile album is also great, though I do like the actual Rockpile album "Seconds of Pleasure".
Here's a bit of Nick Lowe trivia. I read that his song 'Little Hitler' stole its title from a yet-to-be recorded Elvis Costello song. When Costello's 'Armed Forces' album was released it included a song called 'Two Little Hitlers' instead.
Has anyone else listened to Nick's 1960's band called Kippington Lodge? Very nice Beatlesque pop. They recorded a cover of 'In My Life'. His next band Brinsley Schwarz also recorded several Beatle covers including 'Daytripper', 'I Should Have Known Better' and 'Tell Me Why'. They also recorded 'Slow Down' as the B-side to 'Daytripper'. All of the singles by both both bands can be found on a CD called 'Hen's Teeth' on Edsel Records EDCD 546 (1998).
I should add that Brinsley Schwarz's discography is a bit confusing, as they released their records under their own name and a variety of pseudonyms including The Hitters, The Knees, Limelight, and The Brinsleys.
Further trivia. I used to own a copy of Elvis Costello's first album 'My Aim Is True' that was autographed by Nick Lowe. Nick produced the album as well as handling bass and piano duties on 'Mystery Dance'. Although many sources have reported that he also played bass on 'Watching The Detectives', it turns out that Andrew Bodnar was actually the player. Anyway he autographed the rear cover and added a guitar cable and Vox amp to Elvis' Jazzmaster. Pretty cool, but I sold it along with the rest of my vinyl several years ago.
Randy, I seem to recall Elvis telling the tale that he had planned to name his 2nd LP "Little Hitler" but Nick stole it from him for a song title and Elvis went with "This Years Model" instead. Elvis' "Two Little Hitlers" showed up on the "Armed Forces" LP.