Nick Christian Sayer was born in Great Britain on August 1, 1964. We don't know much about Nick's early life, though we look forward to those revelations and many more in the upcoming Transvision Vamp biography "Twice As Bright." We do know that possibly the most interesting part of his life story started on November 4, 1983. Nick was drinking in a basement club in Brighton, England. He was an aspiring songwriter, and had his mind set on finding a beautiful Scandinavian to make his lyrics and music come alive. That night, the magic happened. Wendy James, a stunning blonde, was singing covers of Patti Smith, and caught Nick's fascination. He ended up approaching her with the proposition that she sing his songs. Little did Nick and Wendy know when they made their decision to collaborate, that they would one day land on the top of the charts.

Nick and Wendy spent the next year and a half concentrating their efforts on writing and rewriting, recording and re-recording songs for a demo tape to sell themselves to the record companies. Nick had a 4-track Teac 144 tape recorder on which they would lay down tracks that were inspired by their love of sci-fi movies. The songs were intended to be the soundtrack for a film they wanted to make called "Saturn 5." The name for their band, a name that suggested a "Worldwide re-excitement, revamping the music scene," would be Transvision Vamp.

Finally satisfied with their six song demo tape, Nick and Wendy moved to London to begin work on landing a record deal. Filled with excitement and naiveté, they would not be denied. Transvision Vamp's demo tape ended up in the hands of Dave Ambrose at MCA, who signed the band on December 8, 1986.

Nick and Wendy started recording thier first album in a flat in London. They met Dave Parsons, a musician himself, between thier home and a local pub. Dave became Transvision Vamp's bassist. Tex Axile lived right next door to the recording flat, came over to investigate, and in the insuing discussions, Tex became the band's keboardist and drummer.

The 1988 debut album from Transvision Vamp was all written by Nick Sayer, save one cover song of Holly and the Italians. "Pop Art" still resonated with Nick and Wendy's interest in science fiction and carried new depth with pop culture references. "I Want Your Love" was the track that really kicked the band's career into gear, and paved the way for 1989's "Velveteen." Nick wrote 10 of the 11 songs on the Vamp's sophomore album, and was co-writer on the remaining track. You can imagine his ecstasy when the album debuted at #1 in the UK charts! Transvision Vamp became a household name in Britain, with the first two albums spawning ten hits. Nick and the band toured the world, and were huge successes in Europe, Australia and Japan.

Nick, Wendy, Dave and Tex decided to take a break after six months of solid touring in support of the monumental acceptance of "Velveteen." The small break turned into eighteen months off as the band explored new sounds and maturity to thier music. The third album, "Little Magnets Versus The Bubble of Babble," held a swampy, mystical feel, slower, more moody and perhaps more thought provoking that the previous two pop friendly albums. It was the album that was supposed to break Transvision Vamp through to the lucrative American market. Circumstances leading to the decline of the band was instead what Nick and Company would face. The first few singles from the album were ill recieved, the British press were had become very anti-Wendy, and MCA decided to cancel the release of the album in the UK. Over in America, ears turned to the new sound of Grunge, cancelling out any interest in British music. It was a terrible turnaround for the band who had just enjoyed being on top of the world. The band did tour in support of "Little Magnets...", even in the USA, but the deterioration was irreversible. When the tour was over, so was Transvision Vamp.

Nick had well known drug problems. Most evident on the tour supporting "Little Magnets...", Nick has been observed by fans as fairly motionless, smoking between songs, having no interaction with the audience, and even letting the other guitarists cover some of his parts. Likely his response to the obvious depression of Nick and the band knowing the impending failure of their third album due to its cancellation in their home country. Wendy criticized Nick's use of drugs during this time, obviously distressed as he wasted away. Interviews with Wendy during her solo career related stories of Transvision Vamp's internal disintegration during that time period, becoming physically ill, the high blood pressure, insomnia, and immense alcohol intake that was their misery and reaction to 1991.

Nick seems to taken the demise of his dream the worst. While his bandmates have all gone on in the music business, releasing solo efforts or joining other bands, next to no information is available on Nick. He got a woman pregnant in the early 90's, and she gave birth to a baby boy. The mother refused to have anything to do with Nick or the child, so Nick looks after his son. Sometimes Wendy would even look after Nick's son on the weekends.

Nick and Wendy did attempt collaboration on some song writing around 1996-97, but gave it up as they had apparently grown apart musically. Nick's style of music now has been reported as along the lines of Radiohead type of bands. He has been said to have no plans to be a performer again, either in a band or solo.

Transvision Vamp released more or less what they recorded, unlike other bands at the time who might record thirty songs, then select certain ones for release. No doubt Nick did write a few more songs than were actually released on "Little Magnets Versus The Bubble Of Babble", but the extra two or three songs would have been used for the b-sides of forthcoming singles ("Twangy Wigout" and "Pressure Times", both ended up canceled.) Everything else they ever recorded is available on their albums and singles.

Nick Sayer once said "Landslide Of Love" was the song which he felt (at the time) was his best example of "pure" song writing In fact this song has been covered in gigs by other UK bands more than any other Vamp track. As for material he'd like undone, it is easy to guess that Nick was NOT happy with the dreadful version of "I Want Your Love" done a year or so ago by the Australian girl group "Cherry." Also Transvision Vamp used to do a Gary Glitter song (I Never Thought I Loved You Until I Saw You Rock and Roll) on the Pop Art tour, and it is highly unlikely Nick would want to remember that as Mr. Glitter was recently convicted of possessing child pornography and a resulting jail sentence. At the time, Transvision Vamp also covered John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth" (very apt!)

Nick Tidbits:

"Saturn 5," from Nick and Wendy's original demo tapes (1986/87) took inspiration from a movie called Saturn 3, starring Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett.

"Hardtime" (1989, written by Nick & Wendy) contains obvious lyrical references to a woman wondering why she sticks with a certain guy. The song is widely regarded as a comment on Wendy and her boyfriend at the time, Rowlan Rivron, who were having very public arguments.

A very special thanks to "Charm Pinkerton." Some information on this page was gleaned from his FAQ section at wendyjames.nu.