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The
original Nirvana first appeared in the midst of the psychedelic
revolution in 1967, playing it's unique brand of cello and harpsichord
driven melodic chamber music. Led by Irish born Patrick Campbell-Lyons
and greek guitarist Alex Spyropoulos, they started out
as a six piece. After some rehearsals, the group arranged appointments
to see George Martin, John Burgess, Denny Cordell
and Chris Blackwell, of which Blackwell liked them
enough to sign them to the brand new Island label. The
band quickly went on to take photos with Gered Mankowitz
and were launched to the press and the public with a performance
at the Saville Theater in London's West End. The band then
released their science-fiction LP, The Story Of Simon Simopath
on Island in 1967,and found an audience for their music.
Although the band wouldn't achieve a hit single until their third
try, with Rainbow Chaser. With it's melancholic melody
and super phased chorus, it is recognized a true psychedelic classic.
It was right after recording their first album when the representatives
of the production company involved in a movie called The Touchable
contacted the band after hearing their demo recording of the song
All Of Us. That same day they secured the deal to have
that song as the theme song for their movie. Recorded the following
week at Pye Studios, All Of Us became the title
track to their next Island LP. All Of Us featured
a more polish and confident sound and it's share of memorable
melodies with Melanie Blue, Tiny Goddess (which
was originally released as their debut single) and Trapeze.
After that album, Nirvana was down to a duo and their next
album Black Flower was rejected by Chris Blackwell.
Frustrated, the duo went to Pye Records to have it released.
After buying the recordings off of Island and changing
the albums title to Dedicated To Markos III, it was released
to next to nothing in sales. Alex Spyropoulos left soon
after the release and Nirvana was down to Patrick Campbell-Lyons
as the only main member. He went on to record a final album on
the progressive label Vertigo, Local Anesthetic
in 1971. In the 1990's, however, with renewed interest in the
group, the duo came together and worked on some (rather wimpy/crappy)
new material and remixing old unreleased stuff for a couple more
albums, Orange And Blue and Secret Theater.
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