Hello
I was looking info on him at Wikipedia one day - and I could not help the impression, that some of that stuff is made up - or is it? does anybody know?
As a big Steppenwolf fan as a kid, I recognized the name but didn't know about the in-n-out from the band until I saw that Wiki article myself when posting that Sparrow history.
AFAIK all the stuff in that Wiki article is true. When there's doubt there's usually a "Citation needed" note.
"Famous Groupie" Pamela De Barres coyly avoids naming him in her book "I'm With the Band" but her story would coincide with his tenure in T.I.M.E/Steppenwolf and also explain why he's the Oo Oo Man on the GTO's album (Des Barres was one of the GTO's).
THIS sounds like St. Nicholas might have written it himself as a bit of self-promotion:
"
St. Nicholas was one of the driving forces in music of the hippie counterculture movement, the Summer of Love. Having booked the band at the Matrix club in San Francisco, on May 14, 1967,[5] two live shows were recorded, including a 20-minute version of The Pusher. These are the live recordings released by ABC Dunhill Records as Early Steppenwolf.[6]
I've never seen his named mentioned in any of several books I've read about the period, and it's a subject near and dear to my heart.
As I understand it the Matrix was Marty Balin's club. Think probably St. Nicholas was handling bookings for his band the Sparrow? But makes it sound like he was some kind of big-time promoter...
And
Early Steppenwolf was one of my favorites when I was a kid, got it when it was almost newly released. Right up there with JA's
...Baxter's and Quicksilver's first 2...
I have a nice black&white photo of him - I took it when we were at Berns. He was nice guy to work with.
That's nice to hear.
One kind of wondered why he had so much conflict with Kay, but then Kay's rep isn't all that great itself.