Nick Gilder
Nick had a face that loved my camera or probably just suited my lighting technique of the time. I couldn’t take a bad picture of the guy. I first met him when I photographed his first band Rasputin. He was wearing baggie plaid wool pants with a frilly shirt. The rest of the band was in a collection of rag-tag anything they had in the closet attire. They soon re-formed into a glam-rock ensemble called Sweeney Todd. This is when Nick came into his light. His angular features suited the heavy often garish make-up favoured at the time. I probably photographed this group more than all the others as the make-up styles and band members changed. After their Canadian #1 hit “Roxy Roller” Nick and James the guitar player and co-writer, were cherry picked and signed to Chrysalis Records in California to start Nicks solo career. After a turbulent first couple of years and a disastrous first album they finally hit #1 on Billboard with “Hot Child in the City”. This was their only hit song as the follow up album pretty much bombed and Nick was relegated to a “one hit wonder” although he remained in Los Angles for some time writing songs for some of the industry’s biggest names. Nick is now back in Vancouver working with some of the old Sweeny Todd band members and doing solo projects.
