TV Personalities, The Beatles, Big Star/Alex Chilton, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Beach Boys, Byrds, Roy Wood, Die Lassie Singers, Leonard Cohen, The Sweet, Slade, Squeeze/Glen Tilbrook, Syd Barrett, Wilco, Prefab Sprout, Dinosaur Jr, Pixies, Pavement, Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian, Tall Dwarfs, Violent Femmes, Velvet Underground, The Who, The Kinks
Sounds Like
A guy who can neither sing nor play guitar properly, doing just that in front of a tape recorder
Nicholas Maycroft is in fact Claus Mayer (and not even that, he REALLY is Claus-Dieter Mayer, but that name he considers far too complicated for the average viewer of such a page), a German, who nowadays lives in the north east of Scotland.
Claus has been playing guitar for 25 years now, but amazingly has managed to not develop any extraordinary skills on this instrument in this time. That doesn't bother him very much though, as his main reason for learning guitar was to be able to write songs on it. He believes that at least in this area he has developed a certain skill by now (but he believes other strange things too, so you should take this information with some caution).
Claus used to play in a German Indie-Rock Band called "The Hydden Treasures" together with his best friend and songwriting rival of many years Tino Beikert (you can find more on the Hydden Treasures and Tino's activities on www.herrbeikert.de, but unless you speak German you should better have your dictionary ready).
Nicholas Maycroft is a pseudonym Claus chose for the band's first tape, released in 1987, which was called "The Sixties are alive again" and sold about 12 copies. He never used that silly name again, but for some reason typed it in when asked for "band's name" when signing into this page. The Hydden Treasures released a second tape in 1989 titled "They could have been bigger than the TV Personalities" which was similarly successful. The names of these two releases already indicate the musical taste of Claus (and Tino), which ranges from classic 60s pop (particularly the Beatles, a band from Liverpool, that used to be quite famous at the time) via glam rock,punk, folk to Indie-Rock. Particularly Daniel Treacy's band Television Personalities have been a major influence for many years (buy their new album "My Dark Places"! And then everything else they did; you won't regret it, promised!).
The Hydden Treasures split up more than 10 years ago but Claus occasionally still writes little tunes and puts them to tape. This is his attempt to bring his music out to the wider world assuming that the world won't listen (ok, that was a cheap joke...). These are no professional recordings, but just a bloke sitting in front of a tape recorder, so don't say you were not warned.
He is happy to accept complimentary comments on his music, but refuses to accept any form of criticism... oh and before I forget: the picture shows the artist as a young man (17 to be precise)...nowadays he is nearly 40, has a beer belly and looks far from glamorous...you wouldn't really want to see that, do you? I thought so...
Hows things Claus? Still up in Inverbervie and happy I hope. I'm back in Moscow Raid and its going great. I've turned my site into one for the band, Ross also uses it now...
He Meister Meyer, natürlich kommst Du, das kann man ja wohl erwarten! Sollst meine musikalische dann auch schon vom Anfang (Mentals, hihi, keine Verzerrer) bis zum Schluss (viele Verzerrer) verfolgen... Aber warte, wollte mich die Tage eh noch bei Dir melden. Bin im April zu 99% für ne Woche in Glasgow. Ob da wohl ein kleines Rendezvous denkbar wäre? Bringe Dir auch ein Pannini-Sammelbildchen von Baumjohann mit... Grüß Gott, Dirli
Horch horch, nichts verlernt hat er, der gute alte Herr Mayer!! Sehr schön und weiter so, dann wird noch was aus Dir! Und jetzt würd ich gern noch irgendwo ..Drowning In The Sound..hören. Liebe Grüße, Dirli
a Nicholas Maycroft christmas album to be released next year? Santa Claus knows I've been a good boy!!// Have you heard the new TVPs single? the b-side is excellent!...bonjour chez vous//Jim
happy new year! we're currently filling up our calendar for january/february as we're running a special introductory rate for those two months only of £300/3 days or £600/week including engineers fees (our normal rate will be £150/day). we offer 16-track analogue recording, a range of valve amplifiers, tape delay and spring reverb units, plus protools/logic editing capabilities. contact us for studio availability. x the green door studio
haha!! So true, so true! It takes one to know one as they say... Love your attitude & songs, esp. the gorgeous & whimsical "I Don't Feel Like James Bond." Didja notice it was on my profile for a week? Addictive song...but lately I've begun to feel like James Bond, so had to change it up. Your voice & very sweet accent are perfect for rock & roll, when will the rest of the world start to realize that & come to their senses already? Well salut, my friend,here's to exquisite taste, Elisa
hello Claus, very kind of you, thanx! I've just realized I am closer to 50 than I am to my birthday. But as they say, the older the wine... And now let me wish you a very merry unbirthday! to you? to you!!
dear mr maycroft, deine kassette zu meinem 18. geburtstag war für mich prägend und sie läuft immer noch. auch wenn sie ein wenig leiert. deine songs sind auch wunderbar. ich freue mich, dass du noch musizierst.
dass du mich nicht erkannt hast!? dafür musst du raten: wir haben dieselbe uni besucht, spielen beide leidenschaftlich gern fußball (sind dabei schon durchaus mal ordentlich aneinandergeprasselt), machen und hören beide viel musik (die unterschiedlicher aber kaum sein könnte), und ich war auf deiner hochzeitsfeier. naaaa? was bin ich? danke auch dir für das freundeskreishinzufügen.
