January 16, 2013 – Nic Potter was born on 18 October 1951 in Swindon, England.
He left school at 15, originally to train in carpentry. At 16, he joined a late lineup of The Misunderstood however and recorded on their 1969 LP Golden Glass. At the same time as drummer Guy Evans, he joined Van Der Graaf Generator, when they were on a brief hiatus.
When Van der Graaf decided to reform after the release The Aerosol Grey Machine. When earlier bassist Keith Ellis decided to join Juicy Lucy, Evans recommended that Potter join as his replacement.
He first appeared on the album “The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other”, also playing some electric guitar on a few tracks in addition to his usual bass. He left the band in 1970 during the recording of their next album, ‘H to He, Who Am The Only One’, on which he recorded 3 tracks.
He then joined Rare Bird, with whom he recorded two LPs in 1972 and 73. Though no longer a member of Van Der Graaf, he continued to play on singer/songwriter Peter Hammill’s solo recordings, 14 in all between 1971-94.
In 1977, after Hugh Banton and David Jackson had left Van der Graaf Generator, Nic Potter was asked to re-join. He plays on both The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome (1977) and the double live-album Vital (1978).
However, he was still uncomfortable with the dynamic of the band as he had been previously, stating “sometimes it felt like a cloud coming down – a very ominous feeling.” He was particularly concerned at a gig in Annecy, France where he claimed someone was trying to perform an exorcism of the band’s music while on stage, and had to be helped back to the dressing room, feeling very shaken.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s Potter continued to record – he released nine solo albums – and do session work with Hammill and others, including Jeff Beck and Chuck Berry. In those days he was On tour with Peter Hammill, while also being the bassist for the K-Group (from 1981–1985), the Tigers (in 1980) and Duncan Browne (in 1984).
In 1995 Nic Potter produced and played the bass on the posthumous album Songs of Love and War by Duncan Browne. In 2008 Potter published the live album Live in Italy, together with musicians like David Jackson and Tony Pagliuca (L’Orme).
All Potter’s solo albums were published and remastered in 2009.
During the last two years of his life, Nic Potter suffered from Pick’s disease, a dementia like illness. In January 2013, Potter was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia. He died there in the later hours of 16 January, 2013.
