Nikki Sudden - Treasure Island (Reissue) (2011)

Nikki Sudden has been working on the songs found on Treasure Island since finishing his last proper album, 1998s Red Brocade. With a short list of around 40 numbers to choose from (many of which had been demoed in Bavaria and Berlin), Sudden and his band The Last Bandits (John Clifford Barry on bass and Stephane Doucerain on drums) assembled themselves for initial sessions in mid-2002. This motley group of expatriates whod exiled themselves to Germany set up shop at John Rivers WSRS studio in Leamington Spa, England, a home away from home where Sudden has recorded the vast majority of his work during his extensive 30-year career which spans his pioneering early work as a founder of the Swell Maps (who released two critically acclaimed & highly influential full-lengths and a slew of singles), his albums with the revered Jacobites, over a dozen solo albums and the dark masterpiece Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc, his 1987 collaboration with Rowland S. Howard. Treasure Island is a stunning achievement, boasting Suddens best songwriting in twenty years.

The album features incredible guest performances from rocknroll hall-of-famers Ian McLagan (The Small Faces, The Faces, Billy Bragg) and Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones, John Mayalls Bluesbreakers), as well as Terry Miles (Bernard Butler), Dave Kusworth (Jacobites), and Anthony Thistlethwaite (The Waterboys).