23 Facts About Noko

Noko was hired by The Cure as bassist, for a one-off concert in Germany at Alabamahalle, Munich, filmed for television on 30.01.1984 and a live promotional 2-song TV appearance on BBC Oxford Road Show 24.02.1984.

When Luxuria folded in 1990, Noko got together with school friends, brothers Trevor Gray and Howard Gray, and James Gardner and formed Apollo 440.

Noko moved over to electric guitar and lead vocals, Trevor Gray on keyboards, Howard Gray on bass, and ex-Modern Eon drummer Cliff Hewitt was added to the line-up first on electronic, then onto acoustic drums.

In November 2008, Noko was announced as the guitarist of the reformed Magazine, joining his former collaborators Howard Devoto, Barry Adamson, John Doyle and Dave Formula.

Noko scored Eric Valette's next movie, The Prey which was released in France in April 2011 with worldwide distribution to follow later in 2012.

In 2012, Noko stepped in on bass guitar and backing vocals with London neo-grunge trio Levyathan, alongside Simon Maxwell on drums and David Norris on guitar and lead vocals.

The band recorded a Noko-produced debut LP later that year at Apollo Control but it was never released.

Hotei and Noko have been friends since 1997, first meeting when Apollo 440 remixed one of Hotei's tracks.

Since 2014 Noko has periodically toured with Hotei in Europe, US and Japan, playing bass guitar in various line-ups, including drummers Steve Barney, Cliff Hewitt and Zachary Alford.

Later in 2014, Noko produced and mixed Pop Will Eat Itself's "Reclaim The Game " unofficial Brazil World Cup 2014 theme featuring Brazilian rap artist BNegao.

In 2016, Noko reunited with Matthew Glamorre to form SCISM, the 'house-band' at his SCISM audio-visual, multi-media art-happening nightclub on EU Referendum night in London.

Noko composed and produced the music score for director Darren Cavanagh's feature-length documentary Ex-Dominatrix, for release in December 2017.

The nature of the Apollo 440 remix and production process means Noko has played on too many records by other artists to list usefully here.

Noko played bass in 1991 on the Total Abandon EP and Jubilee Twist LP in 1992 by The Heart Throbs, a group from Reading who folded in 1993.

Noko played a number of gigs with the band in 1991 and was in the line up that was joined onstage on 25 October of that year by Only Ones frontman, Peter Perrett at Underworld, Camden Town, London, for a version of The Only Ones' "Lovers Of Today" along with a few other songs.

In 1992, Noko produced the one and only LP by Hyperhead, Metaphasia, which came out on the Devotion label.

Also in 1992, Noko collaborated with Stuart Crichton as Johnny Potatohead, releasing a single, "Johnny Potatohead" on Reverb Records.

Noko made his feature-film debut with a brief cameo appearance as an accordion-playing Parisian street musician in Eric Valette's Une Affaire D'Etat movie in 2009.

Noko had a cameo in Eric Valette's next movie La Proie in 2011 as a harpsichord player in a music-recital scene set in a prison which culminates in a full-scale riot.

In 2011, Noko contributed guitar to two tracks on The Organ Of Corti, an LP by Magazine's Dave Formula and cellist Christine Hanson.

Noko played Pete Shelley's guitar parts and solos for the duration of the show, which was MC'd by Paul Morley and included tributes by original Buzzcocks manager and New Hormones label founder Richard Boon, original Buzzcock Howard Devoto, who provided a short film featuring a world premiere of a Buzzkunst track that he'd recorded with Pete, but was never released and, to end the show, a eulogy and special thanks from Pete's wife Greta.

Appropriately, Noko played two songs, "Boredom" and "Time's Up" on a red 1960s Starway guitar - the same model made famous by Pete during the early Spiral Scratch days of the band, with its missing top-section.

Noko used a 1978 Black Ovation Magnum II bass guitar with Levyathan through a Boss CE-2 and boss OC-2 into a Sansamp Bass Driver and EBS Fafner Bass rig.