Nigel Leaper

acoustic guitar - guitar sfx - trumpet - alto saxophone - vocals - whistle - additional percussion

Nigel Leaper was born in 1954 into a musical family. His father was a composer and conductor, his mother an opera singer. He was pressed into piano lessons at 5 years old, took up the guitar at 10, and started learning the trumpet at 11. At 12, he decided to be a car designer.

Nigel went to St Martin's School of Art in London, where he studied for a BA in Fine Art Sculpture. During this time he played guitar and sang vocals in a jazz/rock band. After this he trained as an Art Teacher, and taught for 1 year, but got out of teaching quickly to start a proper life in engineering. He worked for a couple of sports and racing motorcycle companies before joining the Suzuki 500 Grand Prix team to design their GP bikes. After 3 seasons he left to design Formula 1 racing cars at McLaren for 9 years, during the Prost/Senna years. He then spent 1 year at Tyrrell, then moved to Benneton, which then became Renault F1.

While working at Renault F1, a colleague called Jack Lockwood suggested that Nigel joined him playing blues in a local pub. Nigel refused. The rest is history...