| Jimmy Nicol | |
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 Nicol (second from right) with The Beatles in 1964.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | James George Nicol |
| Born | 3 August 1939 Liverpool, England |
| Genres | Rock, pop |
| Occupations | drummer |
| Instruments | Drums, percussion |
| Associated acts | The Beatles, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Colin Hicks And His Cabin Boys, Vince Eager, Oscar Rabin, Cyril Stapleton, Charlie Katz, The Shubdubs |
James George "Jimmy"/"Jimmie" Nicol (b. 3 August 1939), is a British drummer, best known for temporarily replacing Ringo Starr in The Beatles for a number of concerts during the height of Beatlemania in 1964. He went from relative obscurity to worldwide fame and back in the space of a fortnight. Nicol hoped that his period with The Beatles would advance his career, but found that the spotlight moved away from him once Starr returned to the group. His subsequent lack of commercial success led him to bankruptcy in 1965. After then working with a number of different bands, he finally left the music business altogether to pursue a variety of employment. Nicol would later refuse to discuss his brief period with The Beatles, and has not sought monetary gain from it. He has a son, Howard, who is a BAFTA award-winning sound engineer.
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Jimmy Nicol's first professional drumming opportunity came in 1957 when he was invited to join rock and roll group "Colin Hicks And His Cabin Boys" (Colin Hicks is the younger brother of English entertainer Tommy Steele) after being noticed by their manager, John Kennedy, jamming with various bands in London's The 2i's Coffee Bar. They became popular in Italy and toured there extensively. Nicol then went on to play with a number of artists during the early sixties, including: Vince Eager, Oscar Rabin, Cyril Stapleton and, through the well known session fixer at that time, Charlie Katz, was kept in regular work. He has cited drummer Phil Seamen and saxophonist Cannonball Adderley as being influential.[1]
In 1964 Nicol helped to form "The Shubdubs" (who also included ex-Merseybeats Bob Garner), a jazz line up similar in style to Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, with whom Nicol had also played a number gigs with at London's Flamingo Club, as part of that club's resident band. Other members of The Shubdubs were: Tony Allen (vocals), Johnny Harris (trumpet), Quincy Davis (tenor saxophone), and Roger Coulam (organ). It was at this point that he received a telephone call from George Martin, The Beatles' producer. Nicol recalled: "I was having a bit of a lie down after lunch when the phone rang."[2]
When Ringo Starr collapsed and was hospitalised on 3 June 1964 with tonsillitis on the eve of The Beatles' 1964 Australasian tour, the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein and their record producer George Martin urgently discussed the possibility of using a stand-in drummer rather than cancelling part of the tour. Martin suggested using Jimmy Nicol, as he had recently recorded a Tommy Quickly session with him.[2] Nicol had also drummed on the Top Six budget label album of Beatle covers entitled "Beatlemania" as part of a session band called The Koppykats, and so knew the songs.[3] Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney accepted the idea, George Harrison needed persuading, initially telling Epstein and Martin: "If Ringo's not going, then neither am I - you can find two replacements".[4] Tony Barrow, who was the Beatles' press officer at the time, would later comment: "Brian saw it as the lesser of two evils; cancel the tour and upset thousands of fans or continue and upset the Beatles'."[3] The whole thing happened very quickly, from a telephone call to Nicol at his home in west London inviting him to attend an audition-cum-rehearsal at Abbey Road Studios[5] to packing his bags all in the same day.[6] A reporter asked John Lennon why Pete Best was not given the opportunity of replacing Ringo, to which Lennon replied: "He's got his own group [Pete Best & the All Stars], and it might have looked as if we were taking him back, which is not good for him."[7]
Nicol's first concert with The Beatles took place just 27 hours later on 4 June at the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was given the distinctive Beatle "moptop" hairstyle, put on Ringo Starr's suit (despite the trousers being too short) and went on stage to an audience of 4,500 Beatles fans. McCartney amusingly recalled: "He was sitting up on this rostrum just eyeing up all the women. We'd start "She Loves You": one, two, nothing, one, two, and still nothing!" Their set was reduced from eleven songs to ten, dropping Ringo Starr's vocal spot "I Wanna Be Your Man".[3] Paul McCartney teasingly sent Starr a telegram saying: "Hurry up and get well Ringo, Jimmy is wearing out all your suits."[2] Commenting on the fickle nature of his brief celebrity, Nicol reflected: "The day before I was a Beatle, girls weren't interested in me at all. The day after, with the suit and the Beatle cut, riding in the back of the limo with John and Paul, they were dying to get a touch of me. It was very strange and quite scary". He was also able to shed some light on how they passed the time between shows: "I thought I could drink and lay women with the best of them until I caught up with these guys."[8] In the Netherlands, Nicol allegedly spent a whole night with Lennon at a brothel.[3] Lennon said: "When we hit town, we hit it. There was no pissing about. There's photographs of me crawling about in Amsterdam on my knees, coming out of whore houses and things like that. The police escorted me to the places, because they never wanted a scandal."[8]The Beatles were by now quickly becoming prisoners of their own fame, and spending more of their time inside hotel suites. But Jimmy Nicol, conversely, discovered that beyond acting as a Beatle, could behave much as any tourist could: "I often went out alone. Hardly anybody recognised me and I was able to wander around. In Hong Kong I went to see the thousands of people who live on little boats in the harbour. I saw the refugees in Kowloon, and I visited a nightclub. I like to see life. A Beatle could never really do that".[9]
Nicol played a total of eight shows until Starr returned to the group in Melbourne, Australia, on 14 June. He was unable to say "goodbye" to The Beatles, as they were still asleep when he left, and he did not want to disturb them. At Melbourne airport, Brian Epstein presented him with a cheque for £500 and a gold Eterna-matic wrist watch inscribed: "From The Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmy - with appreciation and gratitude."[2] Whether this sum of money was a bonus or his total fee is not clear. Nicol has stated much larger amounts, saying: "When Brian talked of money in front of them, I got very, very nervous. They paid me £2,500 per gig and a £2,500 signing bonus. Now, that floored me. When John spoke up in a protest by saying 'Good God, Brian, you'll make the chap crazy!', I thought it was over. But no sooner had he said that when he said, 'Give him ten thousand!' Everyone laughed and I felt a hell of a lot better. That night I couldn't sleep a wink. I was a fucking Beatle!"[10] These amounts of money, however, would have been vast in 1964, and have not been verified. George Martin later paid tribute to Nicol, at the same time acknowledging the problems Nicol experienced once he returned to a normal existence: "Jimmy Nicol was a very good drummer who came along and learnt Ringo's parts very well. He did the job excellently, and [then] faded into obscurity immediately afterwards".[11] Nicol would himself voice his disillusionment several years later: "Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning thirty or forty pounds a week. After the headlines died, I began dying too."[3] He has resisted the temptation to sell his story, stating in a rare 1987 interview: "After the money ran low, I thought of cashing in in some way or other. But the timing wasn't right. And I didn't want to step on The Beatles' toes. They had been damn good for me and to me."[10]
During Nicol's brief stay with The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney would often ask him how he felt he was coping, to which his reply would always be: "It's getting better." Three years later, McCartney was walking his dog, Martha, with Hunter Davies, The Beatles official biographer, when the sun came out. McCartney commented that the weather was "getting better," and began to laugh, remembering Nicol. This event inspired the song "Getting Better" on 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[12] McCartney makes reference to Nicol again on the Let It Be tapes from 1969, saying: "I think you'll find we're not going abroad 'cause Ringo just said he doesn't want to go abroad. You know, he put his foot down. Although Jimmy Nicol might go abroad."[10]
After his time with The Beatles, Nicol reformed the Shubdubs, re-naming themselves "Jimmy Nicol and the Shubdubs". They released a single "Husky"/"Don't Come Back", followed by "Humpty Dumpty"/"Night Train", neither of which were a commercial success. Nicol was called upon a second time to stand in for an ailing drummer, when Dave Clark of The Dave Clark Five fell ill, replacing him in the band for a season in Blackpool, Lancashire.[2] Whilst there, Nicol was reminded of just how popular, albeit briefly, he had been as a Beatle, when he received via the postal system, a bundle of 5,000 fan letters passed on to him from an Australian disc jockey. Nicol sent a message back thanking the fans, promising that he would one day return to Australia permanently.[2] He was later reunited with The Beatles when his band was set down on the same bill as them and The Fourmost on 12 July, 1964 at the Hippodrome Theatre in Brighton. In 1965 Nicol declared bankruptcy with debts of £4,066, just nine months after being a temporary Beatle.[3] Later that year he joined the successful Swedish group The Spotnicks, recording with them, and twice touring the world. He left them in 1967, spending time in Mexico studying samba and bossa nova rhythms, whilst also going into business setting up a button factory. In 1975 he returned to England. Other work at this time included housing renovations and carpentry. In 1988 it was rumoured that Nicol had died,[1] but an article in 2005 by the Daily Mail confirmed that he was still alive and living as a recluse in London.
He has a son, Howard, who is a BAFTA award-winning sound recordist.
1950s Choir boy at Honeywell Road School, Wandsworth, in London. The Boys Brigade (percussion). Army Cadet Military Band (percussion and xylophone). For a short time, Nicol also worked as a drum repairer for (UK) musical instrument distributor Boosey & Hawkes
1957/1958 Colin Hicks & The Cabin Boys (Colin Hicks is the younger brother of British rock 'n' roll star Tommy Steele).
Singles released:
1959/60 Vince Eager and the Quiet Three.
1960: Oscar Rabin Band.
1961: Cyril Stapleton Big Band.
1961-1963: Session work (including jobs with musicians from the orchestras of Ted Heath and Johnny Dankworth).
1964: The Shubdubs.
Singles released:
1964 April / May: Touring with Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames.
June: The Beatles (temporary stand in for Ringo Starr)
1964/1965: Jimmy Nicol & The Shubdubs (touring). Single release:
1965 / 1967 : The Spotnicks.
Single release by: The Spotnicks Introducing Jimmy Nicol
Later in 1967, Nicol lived in Mexico working with samba & bossa nova groups. He married and had a son, Howard, who in the 1990s was to win an award as sound engineer for his work on a BBC collection of Beatles recordings.
1969 Jimmie Nicol Show:
1971 Blue Rain (Mexican rock group recording in Nicol's house).
Information compiled from http://www.pmouse.nl/nicol/
   | Amazing story of drummer who replaced Ringo (For ten days) - MSN Groups Closure Notice |
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