Nigel Pegrum

Nigel John Pegrum (born 22 January 1949) was a drummer with The Small Faces and Steeleye Span before becoming a producer.^[1]

Biography

Nigel Pegrum played drums with an early line-up of The Small Faces, then played drums with Lee Grant And The Capitols before joining Spice, who subsequently changed their name to Uriah Heep and replaced him with a drummer who had a heavier style of playing, but not before recording the "Lansdowne Tapes". These sessions have since been released under the Uriah Heep name, and feature Pegrum on drums on some tracks. He then joined the art-rock/prog-rock band Gnidrolog, where he was able to use his ability on the flute and oboe. He recorded two studio albums with them, plus a live album before playing with Halcyon and then living on a commune in Worcestershire in 1973. Steeleye Span had finally decided to use a full-time drummer and invited him to join them. Two weeks later he was touring America with Steeleye Span, opening up shows for Jethro Tull. He remained with Steeleye Span for 17 years then moved to Australia where he has recorded world-beat albums with aboriginal musicians. He rejoined Steeleye Span for a one-off project called "The Journey" in 1995.

In 1979 Nigel joined up with Steeleye Span bassist Rick Kemp to create Plant Life Records. A third member of Steeleye Span, Maddy Prior recorded one of her albums on the label. The most successful recordings were with the Tannahill Weavers. Nigel was producer on over 30 albums on the label. They closed down in 1984. Nigel Pegrum has been a session musician drummer for June Tabor, Wizz Jones, Rosie Hardman and John Otway. He worked as a freelance producer before emigrating to Australia where he works with Australian Sun Records.^[2]

Both Pegrum and Rick Kemp were members of the punk parody band The Pork Dukes in 1977, using pseudonyms.

Pegrum produced two albums of the German folk band "Lorbass" ("Wie es uns gefällt" in 1979; "wohl bekomm's" in 1981; both Burlington Records) where he played drums as guest musician.

In 1980 Nigel joined up with the German Band "Stenderband" with Stefan Stoppok. He recorded one album called "Erfrischungen".

References