Dave Amitri on Nick Cope
Some of you who are familiar with the 90s Oxford Music Scene may be aware of Nick Cope and his band The Candyskins. Some of you who are familiar with CBeebies the brilliant, free, yes free children’s programming may also be aware of Nick Cope. Others may not have a clue who Nick Cope is. My hope is that one day we will all know who Nick Cope is.
A year ago he meant nothing to me but for reasons I won’t enter into here CBeebies has entered my orbit and along with brilliant cartoons Dougee, Bing, Bluey, the omnipresent, wonderful Justin Fletcher (Mr Tumble) and the presenters auditioning for Strictly I’ve discovered Nick Cope’s Popcast which I’ve become a little bit obsessed with. It’s a collection of children’s songs written, performed and presented by Nick, who was once the vocalist in The Candyskins, his dog Norman and his “Popcasters”. I’ll come back to Popcast later to but first I decided to find out bit more about Nick and his story.
From Wikipedia
The Candyskins were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Oxford, England. Though early members of the ‘Oxford Scene’, they enjoyed limited commercial success compared to their contemporaries Radiohead and Supergrass. They were considered by the British music press as one of the seminal early bands of the Britpop era. The band recorded four studio albums over a period of eight years before breaking up in 1998 and reuniting in 2009.
I searched a bit and found an interview with James McMahon of Indie Heaven with Nick from 2020 where he explained how The Candyskins were never quite where it was at, especially with the music press. Remind you of any other 90s bands?
At the beginning, we weren’t as cool, young and hip as Ride. And then we weren’t as cool, young and hip as Radiohead or Supergrass. We had a great relationship with the wonderful John Harris. He came to New York to do a piece for the Melody Maker, but we never cracked the NME and I remember a really bad album review that Blur guest reviewed which I’ve never read!! My brother Mark was an avid NME reader from an early age, so I think it bothered him a lot more than it did me. We had a few decent live reviews but we were just one of many bands doing their stuff.
I’ve had a good listen to their four albums and the first two are really good jangly, baggy, indie, guitar, pop. Think The Charlatans, The Mock Turtles, The Las and you get the picture.
So Easy
The second two are more grungy reminding me of Feeder, Blink 182 or Wheezer.
Mrs Hoover
I guess this from the interview sums up life for loads of bands in the 90s.
Well we had obviously neglected performing at home in the UK because we didn’t have a record deal there, so we got on with the job of the ‘difficult second album’, happily revisiting the jangly baggy sound of the previous one .But what’s that coming over the hill ? Is it Nirvana! So we tried to fit in with that, and were listening to Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub and the rest, but the album [1993’s Fun?] didn’t do well, and so we moved on to the third album. It became like a game. We do demos, they listen to them, they ask for more. We do more, we wait, they say do more. And then they sent someone over to the UK to drop us
Nick admits often in the interview.
They were the best of times, they were the worst of times.
1997 and finally a hit and an appearance on TFI Friday but success was fleeting.
We were on TFI Friday! It was a very exciting experience. It was terrifying, but it was the accumulation of a lot of gigging and promotion and it felt amazing. Like we were a proper band at last! Little did we know…
Monday Morning on TFI Friday
So that was that. Nick left and became a teacher and soon put his song writing skills to good use writing “family songs” as he calls them. I can’t find much about the intervening 20 years but I do know that after making animations to accompany the songs on YouTube, building an audience and taking his songs on the road we arrive in 2020 back at Nick Cope’s Popcast on CBeebies. Really Dave, CBeebies? On The Afterword Forum?
Well, if you’re of a certain age you’ll remember Radio 1 Saturday morning and Ed “Stewpot” Stewart doing Junior Choice. The Butterfly Ball, Nellie The Elephant, My Bruvva, Charlie Drake, Bernard Cribbins and more. What Nick has created is a 21st Century version for TV. It’s gentle and kind, creative and fun, inclusive and educational and bloody brilliant. The little animations including Popcasters joining in are great and credit goes to production company Complete Control for their sheer quality. Most of all though, the thing that’s really got me is that every song from each episode is just so good. Absolute stone cold earworms. From series one If this isn’t the perfect song for children with adults nodding sagely along unable to shake the tune from their heads I don’t know what is. There are 15 in total.
The Baby Song
Then this which should become an anthem for how we want under tens to think and take into their adult lives
The Cloud Song
Series two, that difficult second series has recently aired including 19 new songs. It’s perfect. In an idle moment I began tweeting one tweet reviews of each song (I’ll leave a link in the comments). It’s this series that really got me hooked. In conclusion Nick Cope is a man who just missed the boat in the 90s but his talent will now be remembered by thousands of kids who grew up during incredibly difficult times as a beacon of light. Who knows, they may be inspired to pick up a guitar or a ukulele and be the pop stars of the future. If they can take on the messages that these perfect little songs deliver time and again the world can only be a better place. I’ll finish with three of my favourites and the tweeted review that went with them. I compared him to Badly Drawn Boy, Jake Thackray, Paul Simon, Crowded House, Del Amitri and even called one song Dylanesque. So I hope you take some time to give these little gems a listen. If there’s a little person in your life they and their adults will thank you forever if you’re the one that “discovers” Nick Cope’s Popcast for them. Full power on the Popcast machine Norman…(I hope these iPlayer links work..)
Episode 1 I’ve Lost My Bobble Hat
What a start to series 2. Great preamble with Norman and a box of hats leading into a song leaning on all the traits of British reggae. Musical Youth, UB40, Aswad and a touch of early Police. Catchy with a top comedy twist at the end
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00158l8/nick-copes-popcast-series-2-1-ive-lost-my-bobble-hat
Episode 9 Family Of Cats
Imagine a world where waifs and strays are taken in without question. Into the arms (or paws) of a loving family. It’s all here. The kind, gentle, inclusive world created by Nick Cope in this song is a world we need right now. No visas needed here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015h4v/nick-copes-popcast-series-2-9-family-of-cats
Episode 14 Eva The Beaver
An absolute tear jerker. Thanks Nick. A lonely beaver saves the day and a friendly witch and her dragon return the favour to bring us all to tears. A beaver version of Cat Stevens Father and Son. Brilliantly brought to life.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015w5s/nick-copes-popcast-series-2-14-eva-the-beaver
As a student, I went to a record/CD fair with some friends. My best mate bought Monday Morning; he’d never heard the song before, but it was only 50p. About 27 years later, he still loves that song.
I have the album ‘Space I’m In’, and it’s a very pleasant listen. That’s not faint praise; I always smile to myself if I pluck that CD out for a spin, it’s a breath of fresh air. I confess I hadn’t realised that there were more that followed – I’d always assumed that they were one album wonders. Good band, piss poor management, I’d venture.
My keyboard-playing ex-bandmate ‘Fingers’ moved to Oxford in 1997 and fell into a band comprising ex members of Candyskins, The God Machine, and the like. Band I’d read about, but not heard.
I went round to someone’s house for a jam, but we ended up drinking tea, playing records and arguing about how great the new Radiohead album (The Bends) was.
Prefer his brother Julian myself, but nice write-up