Steve Nieve
| Steve Nieve | |
|---|---|
Nieve performing in 2012
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Steven Nason |
| Also known as | Steve A'dore, Maurice Worm, Norman Brain |
| Born | 19 February 1958 |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1977–present |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | stevenieve |
| Notable instruments | |
| Steinway D-274 | |
Steve Nieve (born Steven Nason, 19 February 1958) is an English musician and composer. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Nieve has been a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions, the Imposters and Madness. He has also experienced success as a prolific session musician, featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings.
In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
Nieve was born in London, England, and attended the Royal College of Music, but dropped out in 1977 to join Costello's backing band the Attractions. Nason received his musical moniker "Nieve" (pronounced as "naïve") while on the Attractions' first tour for Stiff Records. It was bestowed by tourmate Ian Dury who had been astonished by Nason's innocent query, "What's a groupie?" Before that, at least briefly, he had been using the punning multilingual pseudonym "Steve A'dore".
Nieve played piano, organ and other keyboard instruments on most of Costello's projects over the next ten years, including the albums This Year's Model (1978), Imperial Bedroom (1982) and Blood & Chocolate (1986). On the 1984 Costello album Goodbye Cruel World and its accompanying tour, he was credited as "Maurice Worm." His instrument credit on the album was not for playing keyboards, but for providing "random racket". He wrote some material on The Attractions' Costello-less album, Mad About the Wrong Boy under the name Norman Brain, in collaboration with his then girlfriend, Fay Hart. (He also wrote other songs on the album as Steve Nieve.)
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, Nick Heyward and David Bowie). Also in 1986, Nieve formed the group the Perils of Plastic with ex-Deaf School vocalist Steve Allen, releasing three non-charting singles in the UK in 1986 and 1987. Around the same time, he led the house band (billed as Steve Nieve and The Playboys) on the UK TV series The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross.
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