Nick Lowe

Born Nicholas Drain Lowe in 1949 and educated at Woodbridge School in Suffolk, he began playing music in 1967 in Kippington Lodge alongside schoolfriend Brinsley Schwarz, renaming the band after its guitarist in 1969. An early management stunt flying journalists to see them at New York's Fillmore East backfired badly, and the band rebuilt its reputation on London's pub rock circuit instead, where Lowe wrote both "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" and "Cruel to Be Kind".

After leaving Brinsley Schwarz in 1975, Lowe became Stiff Records' in-house producer, opening the label in August 1976 with his own single "So It Goes" b/w "Heart of the City", funded by a loan from Dr Feelgood's Lee Brilleaux. He produced the Damned's debut and Dr Feelgood's Be Seeing You, and released the joke-titled EP Bowi as an answer to David Bowie's Low, later repeating the gag by producing the Rumour's Max against Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

He produced Elvis Costello's first four albums, and Costello's 1979 version of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" carried the song internationally. "Cruel to Be Kind", co-written with Ian Gomm and drawn from Labour of Lust, gave Lowe a US top 40 hit and a Canadian gold certification.

He joined Rockpile as bassist and co-lead vocalist with Dave Edmunds in 1975, though contractual splits meant only one album, Seconds of Pleasure (1980), was ever credited to the band, with Lowe's Labour of Lust and Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary effectively serving as Rockpile records in all but name. Lowe also produced Carlene Carter's Musical Shapes during this period.

From the 1990s onward he moved toward a quieter, crooned style built on spare, country- and soul-inflected arrangements, writing about ageing and regret with the same dry wit. In recent years he has toured and recorded with the instrumental group Los Straitjackets.