Article

Nick Gilder

Published Online April 9, 2007

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Nick Gilder. Singer, songwriter, b London, UK, 21 Dec 1951. Nick Gilder moved with his family to Vancouver at 10, and sang with a number of amateur bands until joining Rasputin with high-school friend Jim McCulloch, a guitarist.

Gilder, Nick

Nick Gilder. Singer, songwriter, b London, UK, 21 Dec 1951. Nick Gilder moved with his family to Vancouver at 10, and sang with a number of amateur bands until joining Rasputin with high-school friend Jim McCulloch, a guitarist. By 1974 the band had become Sweeney Todd (with Budd Marr, bass, Dan Gaudin, keyboards, and John Booth, drums), and displayed the influence of British "glam rock" acts like David Bowie and Slade. The band contracted with London Records in 1975 and released an eponymous album that produced the hit single "Roxy Roller." Sweeney Todd was a rare debut album that sold more than 100,000 copies in Canada.

Early Solo Career
Gilder and McCulloch left in 1976, moving to Los Angeles, where Gilder signed a contract with Chrysalis Records and produced the solo album You Know Who You Are (1977), before finding international success with City Nights (1978). That album yielded the single "Hot Child in the City," an international hit. Subsequent recordings failed to achieve similar success, but Gilder wrote a number of popular songs for other artists, including Bette Midler ("Is It Love?"), Pat Benatar ("Rated X") and Patty Smyth ("The Warrior"). In 1979 he released Frequency on Chrysalis before moving to Casablanca Records, which produced Rock America (1980) and Body Talk Muzik (1981).

With a high-pitched voice and a theatrical performing style, Nick Gilder was a distinctive presence in pop music in the late 1970s.

Later Recordings
In 1985, without McCulloch, Gilder released a self-titled album on RCA. Nick Gilder was his last new recording on a major label. It was 12 years before his next album, Stairways (Spinner Records). He returned to Canada in the mid-1990s and enjoyed regional success performing his hits, which continued to be featured in films and on television programs like "That '70s Show" and "Sex in the City." In 1999 he released Long Time Coming on his own label with reworkings of "Hot Child in the City" and "Roxy Roller." The career retrospective The Best of Nick Gilder: Hot Child in the City was released by BMG in 2001. Also in 2001 he began a series of tours as The Nick Gilder Sweeney Todd Group, with original drummer Booth and other musicians.

Awards
Ironically, Gilder had already left Sweeney Todd when "Roxy Roller" received a Juno award for best-selling single of 1977 (his replacement, Bryan Adams, accepted the award). In 1979 Gilder won Juno awards for most promising male vocalist and best-selling single. He received SOCAN Classics awards for "Hot Child in the City" and "Roxy Roller" in 2006.