Steve Nieve

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Steve Nieve (born Steven Nason, 19 February 1958, London, England) is an English keyboardist, best known for his work with Elvis Costello.

Career

The Royal College of Music student joined Costello's backing band The Attractions in 1977. He played on most of Costello's projects over the next ten years, including the albums This Year's Model (1978), Imperial Bedroom (1982), and Blood and Chocolate (1986). He wrote the material on The Attractions' Costello-less album, Mad About The Wrong Boy, under the name Norman Brain, in collaboration with his wife, Fay Hart.

In the mid 1980s, Costello began to work less frequently with The Attractions and stopped working with them entirely between 1987 and 1993. During this period, Nieve focused on session work for other artists (The Neville Brothers, Hothouse Flowers, Graham Parker, Squeeze, Tim Finn, Kirsty MacColl, Madness), released records under the group name Perils of Plastic - a collaboration with vocalist Steve Allen, releasing the singles 'Ring A Ding Ding' and 'Debile Matin' (Recorded Live At Avenue La Grande Armee, Paris) Remixed and Produced by Paul O'Duffy - and led the house band (billed as 'Steve Nieve and The Playboys') on Jonathan Ross' UK TV series Tonight with Jonathan Ross.

Costello reunited The Attractions for 1994's album Brutal Youth. Although the reunion was relatively short-lived (they split again in 1996), the Costello/Nieve collaborations never stopped. They have toured as a duo, and Nieve has contributed keyboards to all of Costello's albums since the mid-1990s, including 1998's Burt Bacharach collaboration Painted From Memory, 2001's Anne-Sofie von Otter collaboration For The Stars, and 2003's North.

In 2001, Costello formed a new backing band consisting of Nieve, Attractions drummer Pete Thomas, and bassist Davey Faragher. The band was subsequently dubbed The Imposters. Elvis Costello & The Imposters have toured extensively and released the albums When I Was Cruel (2002), Cruel Smile (2003) The Delivery Man (2004), The River In Reverse (2006) with Allen Toussaint, and Momofuku (2008).

In addition to his work with Costello, Nieve has released several solo albums, including Keyboard Jungle (1983), Playboy (1987), It's Raining Somewhere (1996), Mumu (2001), and Windows (2004).

In 2003 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

Nieve's opera, Welcome To The Voice, a collaboration with Muriel Téodori, was released on Deutsche Grammophon in May 2007. The score was interpreted by Barbara Bonney, Sting, Robert Wyatt, Elvis Costello, Amanda Roocroft, Nathalie Manfrino, and Sara Fulgoni for the voices. For the music the Brodsky Quartet interpreted a written score, whilst Marc Ribot, Ned Rothenberg, and Nieve improvised.

In recent years Nieve has lived in France with Téodori.

External links

• Official website
• Steve Nieve and The Love Band performing on 'Tonight with Jonathan Ross'