A recent charity shop find, Nightair were just one of the
hundreds of local showbands who decided to fund the recording and pressing of
their own album, a collection of live favourites to sell out of the back of
their Bedford Chevanne.
The trio consisted of married couple Lynda and Kevin Airey,
and Lynda's brother Dave Knight. All three members sang, with Dave handling guitar
duties, Kevin on drums and Lynda plying the rather oddly-named ‘bass machine’. Issued
in 1976, it’s not a dreadful album by any measure, but it is rather insipid. This
was the year punk exploded, yet the material – and their approach to it – sounds
incredibly dated. And those clothes! These three seem to have bought their stage
gear in a store that specialised in curtains for clowns.
Hailing from the North East, Nightair clearly fancied
themselves as some sort of Carpenters/Beatles hybrid, as you can tell from the
material they chose to record: the note-by-note cover of the Carpenters
arrangement of Please Mister Postman, which
segues awkwardly in to She Loves You,
is a perfect example. Their rather avant
garde (as in avant garde a clue) take
on the Lennon-McCartney composition It’s
For You (a hit for Cilla Black) at least shows some originality, but it’s
let down by the stilted production. Other covers include Jambalaya (the Carpenters again), Without You (Badfinger/Nilsson), and songs by Neil Young, Stephen
Stills and Paul Simon. The sleeve notes were written by Ray Fell, a reasonably
well-known comedian working the circuit (and making many TV appearances) in the
60s and 70s. He later moved to the US and appeared for many years in cabaret in
Las Vegas. Ray passed away in 2016.
I can’t tell you much else about Nightair. They had
originally been a four piece, augmented by Liz Kinght (Dave’s wife), and played
a 20-week season at Butlin’s in Minehead in 1973. Liz left after the birth of
their son, Leigh. Their recording of Jambalaya was included on a 20-track
compilation, The Entertainers, issued
in December 1977. They were still gigging in 1978, playing such salubrious spots
as the Old Benwell Village Club, and were being advertised as ‘New Faces
Winners’: I cannot find anything to confirm this (perhaps one of you can help?)
but they did appear on Opportunity Knocks
in March 1977. After another hoiliday camp residency in the summer of 1978 they
seem to drop off the face of the earth.
There are currently at least two other acts knocking around
using the Nightair moniker; one a young US indie trio from Orange County, the
other a pair of Belgian producers who released a rather anodyne version of the
Eagles One of These Nights in 2014. One
half of the Belgian ‘band’ is Fabrice Morvan, better known to all as one half
of infamous pop puppets Milli Vanilli.
Enjoy!
Download Postman HERE
Download For You HERE
Working my way through some of these 'gems' now. Nightair remind me of many of the 'turns' I sat through as a youngster at (for example) the East Kirkby Miners' Welfare Institute Club. All very competent, earnest and....'twee'. Aha...but "It's For You". OMG.....for me, definitely the worst thing I have heard so far. Truly awful.A real abomination...destroying the naive pain and pathos of the original. Totally OTT, totally overarranged. Ghastly varispeed 'Cod Swingle Singers' sections which are hideous. Yes....a masterpiece of bad taste indeed. Takes itself oh - so - seriously and falls flat on its face.
ReplyDeleteI played with them at Nodes Point Holiday Camp. Isle of Wight Talent competition. I was a budding 11 years old singer/guitarist so I thought they were superstars and even got their autographs on a pro photo card and pic of me playing with them. At least they had the balls to make an album, i'm still a bedroom player and never made it past a school band, although I blame the 80's. This was July 1978. I would uplift pics but don't think this blog link allows this? Thanks for memory lane!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reminiscences! You can't upload photos here, but if you go to our Facebook group (link in the right hand column) you can share them there :-)
DeleteI have this album! I am sure they were a 4 piece at this point as there is an extra signature Brian. I was also at Nodes Point in 1978. As a child I thought they were great but when you listen to it now......oh dear! Not awful just not great. Even a bit off key in places....not sure why I have kept this in my vinyl collection but it does remind me of the great holidays I had on the Isle of Wight when I was young.
ReplyDelete