Nick Van Eede

While working as a hospital orderly in the late 1970s, Van Eede was discovered playing by ex-member of the Animals, Chas Chandler, who sent him on a tour of Poland aged 18 as support for Slade. His career continued with tours supporting headliners such as David Essex, Hot Chocolate and Alan Price.^[1]

During that time, Van Eede released five solosingles on Barn Records between 1978 and 1980,^[2] but none of them charted on the UK singles chart. The first three were "Rock 'n' Roll Fool" b/w "Ounce of Sense", "All or Nothing" b/w "Hold on to Your Heart" and "I Only Want to Be Number One" b/w "Dicing".

Van Eede formed the Drivers with friends Mak Norman and Steve Boorer. In the early 1980s, they signed with a record label in Canada. They had a couple of hits there with "Tears on Your Anorak" and "Talk All Night", plus a studio album, Short Cuts. A music video for the track "Stolen Treasure" from the album received some airplay on MTV.^[3] They had a support band called Fast Forward, whose line up included guitarist Kevin MacMichael. Van Eede was so impressed with MacMichael's guitar playing that the former asked MacMichael to form a new band with him; however, MacMichael could not commit at that time. After a final single release with "Things", a Bobby Darincover, the Drivers broke up in 1983.^[4]

Whilst Kevin MacMichael was with Fast Forward, the band was involved in a car crash which left all of the members except MacMichael unable to continue touring. Ready to begin working with Van Eede, MacMichael moved from Toronto to London, where the two of them gave themselves one year to sign a recording contract. They recruited drummerMartin "Frosty" Beedle, previously a member of the cabaret band on the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), and bassist Colin Farley, a session musician living in Spain. Van Eede came up with the band's name after reading an article in the British rockmagazineSounds, which described the band Queen as a "cutting crew", meaning a band that does not play concerts and instead stays in the studio recording new songs.^[5]

In 1985, Cutting Crew staged a showcase at a London recording studio for representatives from numerous record labels, and signed a recording contract with Siren Records, part of Virgin Records.

The first single to be released by the band was "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" b/w "For the Longest Time", released in the UK in August 1986. After an appearance on the BBC Television music chart television programme Top of the Pops, with the song being regularly played on the radio and its music video shown on TV, the single shot up to number 4 in the UK singles chart and in May 1987 was number 1 in America for two weeks (Virgin's first number one single in America). In total, the song went to No. 1 in nineteen countries.

The next single, "I've Been in Love Before" b/w "Life in a Dangerous Time" failed to break the UK in its first release in November 1986 but was quickly released again to reach No. 50 in the charts. Their debut studio album Broadcast was released shortly, which reached 41 on the UK Albums Chart.

Tras la disolución de Cutting Crew, Van Eede se dedicó a escribir y producir para otros artistas, incluyendo la producción de la demo original del éxito de Cher , " Believe ". En 1996, audicionó para ser el nuevo vocalista principal de Genesis tras la salida de Phil Collins , en un proceso donde Kevin Gilbert , el futuro vocalista de Big Big Train, David Longdon , el ex cantante de It Bites , Francis Dunnery, y el ex cantante de Stiltskin, Ray Wilson, también fueron considerados seriamente para el puesto; que finalmente recayó en Wilson. ^{[ 6 ]}

En el álbum de estudio de Marillion de 2001, Anoraknophobia , se le atribuye a Van Eede la coautoría de la letra de la canción "Map of the World" junto con el líder de Marillion, Steve Hogarth .

En 2005, Cutting Crew lanzó un nuevo álbum de estudio titulado originalmente Grinning Souls . Van Eede también apareció en el programa de ITV Hit Me Baby One More Time , donde interpretó " (I Just) Died in Your Arms " y una versión del éxito de Macy Gray " I Try ". Luego se embarcó en una gira con su nueva formación: Gareth Moulton (guitarra), Sam Flynn (teclados), Dominic Finley (bajo) y Tom Arnold (batería). Recorrieron el Reino Unido (incluida la gira 'Here & Now 2008'), Alemania , Trinidad y Estados Unidos .

En 2015, se lanzó un nuevo álbum de estudio, Add to Favourites . Junto a Van Eede, participaron en el álbum los guitarristas Gareth Moulton y Joolz Dunkley, el bajista Nick Kay, el tecladista Jono Harrison, el baterista Martyn Baker y los Blackjack Horns. Entre 2015 y 2017, la banda realizó giras por Sudamérica , Estados Unidos, Australasia y Europa .

En 2021, Van Eede recibió un premio BMI (Broadcast Music Inc) por 6 millones de reproducciones en la radio estadounidense por "(I Just) Died in Your Arms". ^{[ 7 ]}

Desde 2008, Van Eede es miembro del supergrupo Mandoki Soulmates , formado por el músico húngaro Leslie Mándoki . Junto a Van Eede, la banda ha integrado, entre otros, a Randy Brecker , Bill Evans , John Helliwell , Chris Thompson , Bobby Kimball , Ian Anderson , Chaka Khan , Tony Carey y los fallecidos Jack Bruce y Greg Lake .