Nicholas Simper was born in Southall, London, on November 3, 1945. Nick joined his first school group The Renegades in 1960, using a guitar given to him by his father. On leaving school Nick joined The Delta Five and occasionally depped with Lord Sutch's Savages, where he met Ritchie Blackmore.
In search of a more powerful sound Nick put together Some Other Guys. His first professional gig was with Buddy Britten and The Regents, who later went mod and played as The Simon Raven Cult. Nick's next band in early 1966 was Cyrano and The Bergeracs, but after a couple of months he joined Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, cutting one single before Kidd was killed in a car crash (and Nick was injured).
Nick went into session work, before forming The New Pirates in late 1966 with whom he sang and played bass. He then worked in Billie Davis' backing group in the UK and Hamburg and met Ritchie Blackmore again. He also did a short season with Lord Sutch and then joined The Flowerpot Men where he played alongside Jon Lord.
When Lord got the backing to form Deep Purple Simper was invited to join. Nick was fired from Mk1 in July 1969 and after a short time with Marsha Hunt, formed Warhorse in 1970, cutting two albums for Vertigo. He also appeared on a live Lord Sutch album in 1971. Warhorse split in 1974. Nick then formed Dynamite, who cut one European single, and Fandango, cutting two albums with them in 1979/80.
Apart from a couple of singles in the early eighties, Nick started his own company, but still gigs at weekends in a blues band called The Good Old Boys.

More on Nick: www.nicksimper.com

Nigel Portman Smith

Born in Yorks.  Came to London to study music. Varied career playing Bass, Double Bass and Keys with artists across the musical spectrum including Magna Carta, Ralph McTell, Bert Jansch, Stan Webbs Chicken Shack, Eric Burdon, Pentangle and Meal Ticket      

Now divides his time between Gigs and teaching in London.


Dick Baldwin



Dicky Baldwin started playing with local bands around High Wycombe, but rapidly started doing sessions for players. At that time he was playing Country Music and met Gerry Hogan, one of England’s finest pedal steel players. Through Gerry he met and played with Buddy Emmonds, LLoyd Green and many Nashville steel guitarist. He also played with Albert Lee, who is currently touring with Gerry in Hogans Heroes. He then moved into Rock and has played with the likes of Mick Ralphs (Bad Co & Mott the Hoople), Ian Pace (Deep Purple), Martin Chambers (Pretenders), Richard Hudson (Strawbs & Hudson Ford), Robert Hart (Bad Co), Simon Bishop ( Renaissance) & many more. He helped out Mott the Hoople in 2009 before their reunion gigs. He is a very accomplished & solid bassist.