Craig Nicholls
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Craig Robert Nicholls (born August 31, 1977 in Sydney, Australia) is the lead singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist of the rock group The Vines.
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[edit] Early days
Craig is the youngest of four. He has two sisters and a brother. He spent his childhood listening to the The Beatles or painting. Craig Nicholls dropped out of school during his tenth grade year of High School. As Craig was interested in painting, he chose to enroll himself in an art school to study painting. He supplied his vocation with money earned at a food service job (at a McDonalds restaurant in South Hurtsville, Sydney). There he met his future bandmates, Patrick Matthews( who left the band in 2004) and David Oliffe (former drummer).
To form a quartet, Craig invited his school-mate Ryan Griffiths to join in the band. Craig said in an interview that he had kept the band's name as Rishikesh pertaining to the place in India where his favourite band The Beatles had gone. However during their gig days, the newspapers would misprint their band name as 'Rishi Chasms'. So Craig decided to change the name to The Vines, a reference to his father's frontman role in the 1960's band The Vynes.
Craig had never written songs until they started playing their gigs. He said in an interview that once he started writing songs he started loving it and continued to write more and more songs. He said that writing was a good outlet for him.
Due to their gigs, which included playing for backyard parties, they gathered a following in Sydney and eventually reached the notice of Capitol Records. Nicholls continued his painting, and his original pieces have graced the covers of Vines albums.
[edit] Success
The Vines recorded their debut album Highly Evolved with producer Rob Schnapf in Los Angeles. During the recording process drummer David Oliffe left the band, to later be replaced by Hamish Rosser. The single "Highly Evolved" gained critical hype, and charted at #32 in the UK. "Get Free", "Outtathaway", and "Homesick" were released as singles. Highly Evolved went on to sell over 1.5 million records. They were the first Australian band to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone in 20 years on the September 19, 2002 issue. Instant success was difficult for Nicholls and brought strain to the band. Concerts would end between electrifying and total chaos, and performances on Jay Leno and David Letterman led to bans from the shows. In 2004 the band went to Bearsville Studios, Woodstock and began recording the follow up to Highly Evolved. Winning Days debuted at #7 in Australia #23 in the US and #32 in the UK, first single "Ride" was sold to Apple Computers for licensing in an iTunes commercial.
[edit] Asperger's Syndrome and Vision Valley
During a promotional show for Triple M radio, bass player Patrick Matthews walked off stage after Nicholls bleated at the audience and demanded the crowd to not talk during the performance. Nicholls kicked a photographer and charges were pressed. Patrick Matthews would never play with The Vines again (he has since joined Youth Group) and Triple M banned The Vines from being played on their radio station indefinitely. Craig was accompanied by his brother Matt and his manager and friend Andy Kelly in Balmain Local Court in Sydney on 19 November 2004. There it was revealed that Craig had Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism.
This was known by Craig's guitar technician, English roadcrew veteran Tony Bateman who had toured with The Cure, Sisters Of Mercy and Black Sabbath. He suspected that there was something clinically different with Craig and so downloaded information about Asperger's Syndrome and handed it over to Andy Kelly. The judge dropped all charges against Craig on the condition that he sought immediate treatment. Craig yelled "I'm Free!" upon leaving the courthouse.
He was under medical treatment and underwent therapy for six months. He has given up his intake of fast food and marijuana habit.
In mid 2005 the band announced they were recording their third album in Australia with producer Wayne Connolly. The album Vision Valley was released in Australia on April 1, 2006 and April 4 in the United States, to critical acclaim.
