BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Full Name: Nicholas Christian Hopkins
Description: Vocalist, Composer, UK
Known For: Pianist with “Screaming Lord Sutch
Instruments: Keyboard, Pianist, Voice
Music Styles: Rock
Location: United Kingdom
Date Born: 24th February 1944
Location Born: London, United Kingdom
Date Died: 6th September 1994
Location Died: Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America
Cause Of Death: Heart condition
Memorial: He was survived by his wife, Moira.
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BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Nicky Hopkins
An English musician
Nicholas Christian “Nicky” Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist.
Hopkins recorded and performed on many notable British and American pop and rock music releases from the 1960s through the 1990s including many songs by The Rolling Stones.
Nicholas Christian Hopkins was born in Perivale, Middlesex, England on 24 February 1944. He began playing piano at age three. He attended Wembley County Grammar School, which now forms part of Alperton Community School, and was initially tutored by a local piano teacher; in his teens he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London. He suffered from Crohn’s disease from his youth. Poor health and ongoing surgery made it difficult for him to tour. This resulted in his working primarily as a studio musician for most of his career.
Hopkins who has featured on scores of the most important British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s and 1970s, playing piano and organ.
Nicky Hopkins started his musical career in the early 1960s as the pianist with Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages, which also included Ritchie Blackmore (founder of Deep Purple).
He then joined The Cyril Davies All Stars, one of the first British rhythm & blues bands
Began playing at the age of three.
Writer of THE KINKS ’SESSION MAN’
As a session player, Hopkins was renowned for his ability to give accomplished performances with little or no rehearsal, and for his habit of reading comic books at recording sessions.
Played on many sessions for the top artists with the likes of
THE BEATLES, ROLLING STONES, KINKS,THE WHO and many more.
Hopkins died on September 6, 1994, aged 50
Noted Albums
REVOLUTIONARY PIANO – 1966
JAMMIN’ WITH EDWARD – 1972 (with Ry Cooder,Mick Jagger,Bill Wyman,Charlie Watts)
THE TIN MAN WAS A DREAMER – 1973
NO MORE CHANGES – 1975
With the Rolling Stones
Hopkins played with the Rolling Stones on their studio albums from Between the Buttons in 1967 through Emotional Rescue in 1980 and Tattoo You in 1981. Among his contributions, he supplied the prominent piano parts on “We Love You” and “She’s a Rainbow” (both 1967), “Sympathy for the Devil” (1968), “Monkey Man” (1969), “Sway” (1971), “Loving Cup” and “Ventilator Blues” (1972), “Angie” (1973), “Time Waits for No One” (1974) and “Waiting on a Friend” (1981). When working with the band during the 1970s, Hopkins tended to be employed on their slower, ballad-type songs, while longtime Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart played on traditional rock numbers, and Billy Preston featured on soul- and funk-influenced tunes. Hopkins’ work with the Rolling Stones is perhaps most prominent on their 1972 studio album, Exile on Main St., where he contributed in a variety of musical styles.
Along with Ry Cooder, Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, Hopkins released the 1972 album Jamming with Edward! It was recorded in 1969, during the Stones’ Let It Bleed sessions, when guitarist Keith Richards was not present in the studio. The eponymous “Edward” was an alias of Nicky Hopkins derived from studio banter with Brian Jones. It became the title for an outstanding Hopkins performance – “Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder” – a song released on the Quicksilver Messenger Service album Shady Grove in December 1969. Hopkins also contributed to the Jamming With Edward! cover art.
Hopkins was added to the Rolling Stones live line-up for the 1971 Good-Bye Britain Tour, as well as the notorious 1972 North American Tour and the early 1973 Winter Tour of Australia and New Zealand. He started to form his own band around this time but decided against it after the Stones tour. He had planned on using Prairie Prince on drums and Pete Sears on bass. Hopkins failed to make the Rolling Stones’ 1973 tour of Europe due to ill health and, aside from a guest appearance in 1978, did not play again with the Stones live on stage. He did manage to go on tour with the Jerry Garcia Band, from 5 August to 31 December 1975.
With the Kinks
Hopkins was invited in 1965 by producer Shel Talmy to record with the Kinks. He recorded 4 studio albums: The Kink Kontroversy (1965), Face to Face (1966), Something Else by the Kinks (1967) and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968).
The relationship between Hopkins and the Kinks deteriorated after the release of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, however. Hopkins maintained that “about seventy percent” of the keyboard work on the album was his, and was incensed when Ray Davies apparently credited himself for the majority of the keyboard playing.
Despite Hopkins’ ensuing grudge against him, Davies spoke positively of his contributions in a New York Times interview in 1995:
Death
Hopkins died on 6 September 1994, at the age of 50, in Nashville, Tennessee, from complications resulting from intestinal surgery presumably related to his lifelong battle with Crohn’s disease. At the time of his death, he was working on his autobiography with Ray Coleman. He is survived by his wife, Moira.[citation needed] Songwriter and musician Julian Dawson collaborated with Hopkins on one recording, the pianist’s last, in spring 1994, a few months before his death. After Ray Coleman’s death, the connection led to Dawson working on a definitive biography of Nicky Hopkins, first published by Random House, Inc. in German in 2010, followed in 2011 by the English-language version with the title And on Piano … Nicky Hopkins (a hardback in the UK via Desert Hearts, and a paperback in North America via Backstage Books/Plus One Press).