No, not that one! The London-based baroque pop duo became unwitting trailblazers of progressive rock when they created one of the first narrative concept albums ever released with 1967’s The Story Of Simon Simopath. Perhaps best known for the singles Tiny Goddess and Rainbow Chaser, Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos’ left-field music won the approval of John Peel, and even Salvador Dalí. So now we have to ask: how prog were Nirvana?

Words: Kris Needs

PRESS: GERED MANKOWITZ/BOWSTIR LTD 2020/MANKOWITZ.COM

Nirvana duo Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos come from a time before the term ‘progressive rock’ existed, psychedelia exploding all around when Tiny Goddess manifested with exquisite baroque loveliness as their Peelchampioned first single in July 1967. Three months later, Nirvana’s The Story Of Simon Simopath pipped The Moody Blues’ Days Of Future Passed by a month as the first modern concept work and rock album released by Island Records.

The first song to deploy ‘phasing’ all the way through, Rainbow Chaser was Nirvana’s minor hit that became their signature classic in 1968, appearing alongside Traffic, Jethro Tull and Fairport Convention on You Can All Join In, Island’s budget-price sampler that crystallised and propelled progressive rock into the UK Top 20. Having beaten the Third Ear Band as first to use an amplified cello onstage, Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos laid further prog templates touring European cities accompanied by classical musicians hired from local orchestras to play their ornate arrangements, presaging Deep Purple and Procol Harum.

Such lofty qualifications, along with Campbell-Lyons’ early 70s stint with Vertigo, place Nirvana as unwitting trailblazers at the birth of British prog and are consolidated on current release Songlife: The Vinyl Box Set 1967-1972, which covers their five albums, plus 1972’s unreleased Secrets.

Born in County Waterford, Ireland, in 1943, Campbell-Lyons hit the UK and Ealing Art College at 18, the seismic local R&B scene propelling his forming Second Thoughts with future uberproducer Chris Thomas. Playing the vibrant London club circuit, the band worked up to supporting the Stones before splitting in 1965. Recording demos with Thomas in summer 1966 took him to Denmark Street’s publishing epicentre and lifeblood café La Gioconda, where he clicked with keyboardist Alex Spyropoulos, who’d gone to school in Athens with Vangelis and had a loose band.