Born: December 21, 1951, London, England
At the age of 10, Nick Gilder's family settled once and for all in Vancouver after having made previous voyages to and from England. It was in Vancouver that Gilder realized his love for music, and after high school joined the local band Rasputin. This band eventually morphed into Sweeney Todd and in late 1975 the band was signed to London Records.
Their eponymous first album, released in 1976, produced the hit single "Roxy Roller" and Gilder's style attracted the attention of Chrysalis Records in the US. After some deliberation, Gilder and Sweeney Todd co-founder Jim McCulloch left the band and signed with Chrysalis out of Los Angeles. Hoping to undermine Gilder's solo attempt, London Records re-released "Roxy Roller" first with vocalist Clark Perry which went to #90 on the US charts. Chrysalis filed an injunction to squash the record. London then followed that up with Sweeney Todd's third vocalist and third version of "Roxy Roller" featuring a 16-year old Bryan Adams, which went to #99 on the charts and once again Chrysalis had the song repressed.
Undaunted, Chrysalis sent Gilder and McCulloch into the studio to record new material, and his first solo album, 'You Know Who You Are' was released in 1977. The U.S. release featured Gilder's remake of "Roxy Roller". Failing to make a dent on any chart, Gilder and McCulloch returned to the studio with keyboardist Jamie Herndon and bassist Eric Nelson, who appeared on 'You Know Who You Are', this time with producers Peter Coleman (Suzi Quatro, The Knack, OMD, Pat Benatar) and Mike Chapman (Sweet, Suzi Quatro) and the result was 1978's 'City Nights', which had the international hit single "Hot Child In The City" (#1 on Billboard) and the Canadian hit "Here Comes The Night". Coleman and Chapman would go on to produce Pat Benatar's 1979 album 'In The Heat Of The Night' featuring the Gilder/McCulloch track "Rated X".
Over the course of the next three years, Gilder recorded and released three more albums - 'Frequency', 'Rock America', 'Body Talk Muzik', but failed to recreate the success he enjoyed with 'City Nights'. In 1985 he resurfaced with a self-titled album (less Jim McCulloch) on RCA Records. And as late as December 1997 there was word out of L.A. that there existed a tribute band called St. Nick: A Tribute To Nick Gilder, to sing the praises of the man who wrote "Hot Child In The City".
Gilder released another solo album in 1997 from his homebase in British Columbia called 'Stairways' on the Spinner label. This was followed by 'Longtime Coming' in 1999 with his band The Time Machine on Oasis/Songcorp. The CD features remakes of "Hot Child In The City" and "Roxy Roller" both of which are featured on a 2000 CD single to co-incide with "Hot Child's" soundtrack appearance on the September 24, 2000 episode of 'Sex In The City'.
With notes from Leslie Charles and Nick Gilder.
Singles
1976 She's A Star (In Her Own Right)/More And More (Genevieve) (Chrysalis)
1978 Hot Child In The City/Backstreet Noise (Chrysalis)
1979 Here Comes The Night/Rockaway (Chrysalis)
1979 (You Really) Rock Me (Chrysalis) 1980 Metro Jets (Casablanca)
1980 Catch 22 (Casablanca)
1980 Rock America/Night Comes Down (Casablanca)
1981 Prove It (Casablanca)
1985 Let Me In (RCA)
1986 Footsteps (RCA)
2000 Hot Child In The City/Roxy Roller (SongCorp)
with SWEENEY TODD
1975 Rock 'N' Roll Story/Short Distance, Long Journey (London)
1975 Sweeney Todd Folder/Let's All Do It Again (London)
1976 Roxy Roller/The Kilt (London)
Albums
1977 You Know Who You Are (Chrysalis)
1978 City Nights (Chrysalis)
1979 Frequency (Chrysalis)
1980 Rock America (Casablanca)
1981 Body Talk Muzik (Casablanca)
1985 Nick Gilder (RCA)
1997 Stairways (Spinner)
1999 Longtime Coming (Oasis)
2001 The Best Of Nick Gilder - Hot Child In The City (Razor & Tie)
with SWEENEY TODD
1975 SWEENEY TODD (London)
Video
Compilation Tracks
Official Nick Gilder Website
Nick Gilder Fansite
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