Nash The Slash

Multi-instrumentalist James Jeffrey "Jeff" Plewman was born Born in Toronto, Ontario on March 26, 1948.  Better known by his stage name Nash The Slash, he started working as a solo musician in 1975 and primarily playing electric violin and mandolin, as well as harmonica, keyboards, glockenspiel and other instruments he described as "devices".
 

Nash formed the Canadian Progressive Rock band FM in 1976, recording ‘Black Noise’ in 1977, an album that later received a gold record award. 
Nash left the band in 1978 to resume his solo career, but rejoined them twice – once during the 80’s and again for a period during the mid 90’s.

The first Nash The Slash solo release came in 1978: ‘Bedside Companion’, a 4-track 12” Vinyl EP that could be played at two different speeds. 
From there he made several solo albums throughout the 80’s and 90’s, continuing to record into the new millennium.  All his releases sold extremely well at CDS Towers during the 90’s and into the first few years of 2000, due to heavy promotion of the catalogue by Andy Garibaldi, who was part of the CD Services team and a stalwart supporter of the music by the man behind the bandages.

So, how did the “bandages” thing happen?  At a gig in the late 70’s Nash pulled a stunt to raise awareness of the threat from the Three Mile Island disaster, where he walked on stage wearing bandages dipped in phosphorus paint and glowing in the light, exclaiming: “Look, this is what happens to you”.  For future appearances Nash realised that this look could serve as a stage prop to keep his true identity the subject of speculation, and in 1979 he started to perform with surgical bandages covering his face, adding this “garment” to the dark sunglasses, top hat and tuxedo jacket he’d previously been known for wearing on stage.

This look became his striking Nash The Slash “trademark” image!

Nash was a real concert performer in every sense of the word. He was first seen in the UK in the early 80’s as the opening act for Gary Newman shows, a musician who had been inspired by Nash and with whom he had developed a friendship with over the years.  Nash also guested on Numan’s ‘Dance’ album.

In addition to giving concert performances, Nash has composed and performed soundtrack music for silent films, presenting these works ‘live’ in movie theatres to accompany screenings of the films.

In later years another venue for his music was audiovisual performances to accompany the viewing of paintings by surrealist painter Robert Vanderhorst.

The music of Nash The Slash covers an eclectic range, varying from instrumental—mood-setting music, to rock and pop music with vocals that even includes a few “covers”.  He has always been above category, so you won’t find his work highlighted in one of CD Services specialist genre (‘Prog’, ‘Psych’ or ‘Synth’) listings, so much so that at one stage we gave him a small catalogue of his own!

Although classed in some respects as “electronic”, he never uses keyboards or synthesizers to create his music – playing his stringed instruments through a series of electronic boxes and “devices” creates all his unique sounds!

The quality and originality of the music he played and produced over the years was always the consistent and dominant factor, with every new track being a new musical adventure.  From the cover versions to the early tracks designed to be played at different speeds on a record player (now just seeing the light of day on CD for the very first time in 2016) - All Nash The Slash’s releases are fantastic - both new and old sound great, and all come highly recommended.

In 2012 Nash The Slash decided to call music a day and in May 2014 he sadly passed away!

2016 brought a revival campaign for the entire Nash The Slash’s catalogue on CD and Vinyl LP (some on a new format for the very first time) from a small Canadian record label, and as such CDS Towers can once more start to offer the catalogue of this enigmatic musician once more, along with a bunch of unreleased and harder to find stuff!