Photo by Matt Nasir. Love your work
Photo by Matt Nasir. Love your work
Nigel Powell is a multi-instrumentalist from Abingdon, near Oxford in the United Kingdom, but his main focus has always been drums. He is currently drumming for Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls live and in the studio.
After producing and occasionally drumming for an early incarnation of Radiohead, his first mainstream success came with the band Unbelievable Truth who had a run of top 40 singles taken from their successful UK album Almost Here. Not only did he drum for Unbelievable Truth, but he also produced the albums, was a co-writer on the material and played keyboard, guitars and sometimes bass guitar in the studio.
When Unbelievable Truth broke up Nigel joined Dive Dive who went on to score three top twenty independent singles chart hits, building up a strong cult following in the process. One of these fans was Frank Turner, at that time singer of the recently defunct UK hardcore band Million Dead, who was planning a solo career. Apparently inspired by Nigel’s rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll in a soundcheck he asked if the band would back him on his first EP, an association which continued through the recording of four subsequent albums and countless live dates.
As the Frank Turner juggernaught gained momentum Nigel also found time to produce and play on the debut album for Belgian artist Milow, an album that achieved a gold record in his home country and paved the way for platinum success across the continent. Two further Dive Dive albums, two solo albums under the name The Sad Song Co., a solo album for Andy Yorke (singer of Unbelievable Truth) and extensive teaching in Oxford (including qualifying for his PGCE) ensured that spare time and boredom were not to be admitted.
Frank Turner however has been his main focus for a few years now, with an extraordinarily punishing tour schedule instigating large-scale success in the UK (playing Wembley Stadium at the request of Green Day, and the last major London headline a sell-out to 5000 people at the prestigious Hammersmith Apollo), with Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Canada and the U.S.A. (where invitations to tour with Social Distortion, Flogging Molly and The Offspring have been enthusiastically accepted) following not far behind. Apart from the usual press around the Frank Turner campaign Nigel has also had features in the UK’s Rhythm and Drummer magazines, and been invited to submit a blog to the US Modern Drummer website. To recognise the fact that Frank’s backing band are a permanent fixture they were finally named The Sleeping Souls in 2010.
Frank's fourth album "England Keep My Bones" was released in June 2011, reaching number 12 in the UK charts, followed by an incredibly busy summer of festivals in Europe and the UK. The climax of this was a prestigious slot on the mainstage of the Reading Festival to 45,000 people, and a second 'secret' show later in the day on the Lock Up stage, both of which were rapturously received. Full headlining tours of the US and Europe followed, along with their biggest UK headline tour to date in November 2011 (the majority of the dates sold out, including Manchester Apollo and Hammersmith Apollo), and in 2012 the band continue extensive touring throughout the world, including a headline at Wembley Arena in London in April.
www.frank-turner.com / www.divedive.co.uk / www.thesadsongco.com
Nigel Powell uses Sabian cymbals, ProMark sticks, Evans drum heads and the DrumTuna