Grant Nicholas
Grant Nicholas with Feeder headlining Download 2005
Grant Nicholas is the lead singer of the Indie band ''Feeder''. Along with bassist Taka Hirose and drummers Jon Lee and later Mark Richardson, Nicholas has achieved success in the United Kingdom and is now achieving success in the United States. Feeder came together in London in 1992 when South Walians Grant Nicholas and Jon Lee decamped to London and found bassist Taka Hirose (from Tokyo) in the musicians ads Loot.Grant was born in Newport, Wales, on 12 November 1967, but grew up in Chepstow. He performed in
public for the first time at the age of 11, and gained 4 'O' levels, including an 'A' in Art. In school, Grant played the trumpet, and was in his first band, Sweet Leaf (named after a song by Black Sabbath, who were Grant's favourite band in his school years, and the first he saw play live). He was promised his first guitar by his parents, as an incentive to pass his exams. He received the guitar, an Aron Les Paul copy after passing them.After leaving school Grant worked as a bike courier in Wales, and also played in several bands, including Rain Dancer (whose sound resembled The Waterboys), and Welsh nine-piece Temper Temper, where he met future Feeder drummer Jon Lee. Jon joined Grant when he moved to London to work as a sound engineer.It was while in London that Grant learnt how to be a song writer and formed Reel (soon to be renamed Feeder) with Jon, and Taka, who was working in London as a graphic designer. Feeder were soon signed to the Echo label, and the band gave up their day jobs as they began to take off. Their first full-length album Polythene, charted inside the UK top 100 in 1997, the follow-up Yesterday Went Too Soon went Top 10. Feeder's fame took off in early 2001 with the release of single Buck Rogers, which reached number 5 in the UK singles charts, helping Echo Park, the album from which it was taken, to the same position.Tragically, on 7 January 2002, Jon comitted suicide at his Miami home.The songs Grant had been writing and demoing up to that point were of a slower and more introspective style to much of their previous music, and the resulting album Comfort In Sound was taken as a tribute to Lee.Grant continued this style of writing on the 2005 follow-up, Pushing the Senses, which reached #2 on the UK charts and produced 3 UK Top 20 singles.Grant has a long term partner, by the name of Kana. They had their first child, Hanna, in 2005. During the band's winter tour of 2005, a gig in Brighton was forced to be halted after only six songs when Grant suddenly lost his voice. He was later diagnosed with a severe throat infection with bleeds on his vocal chords. The Brighton gig, along with tours other remaining gigs, were rescheduled for March 2006, with tickets bought for the original dates still valid. Nicholas, Grant
Nicholas, Grant
Nicholas, Grant