“They asked me to play the E string of a Chapman Stick with a bow for six minutes. Somebody else got that gig”: Why Nick Beggs passed on his audition for Blue Man Group – and what he learned from Frank Zappa

Some bassists play pop music, and others play progressive rock, but Nick Beggs – lest we forget, the founder member of 1980s pop band Kajagoogoo – is one of the few that plays them both. Uniquely, the session player extraordinaire also brought the low-end with Steve Hackett, the ex-Genesis guitarist, whose fearsomely complex prog-rock would make lesser players run for their lives.

This wide-angle approach is nothing less than a matter of philosophy for Beggs, as he told Bass Player in the run-up to Kajagoogoo’s reformation in 2011.

“I’m a professional musician because that’s what I’m supposed to do. As ridiculous as it sounds, some people are called to the ministry and some people are called to the music industry, and they’re very different, but there is absolutely a parity of headspace. You know why you were born.”

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Wise words, you’ll agree – and, refreshingly in today’s climate, music is more to Beggs than just a job. “I once turned down a session because the musical director wasn’t affording the musicians the respect they deserved. I think you always have to treat people civilly and with respect.

“I auditioned for the Blue Man Group as well, but they asked me to play the E string of a Chapman Stick with a bow for six minutes without fluctuating from the metronome. I think they could see it in my eyes – they knew I’d end up killing myself. Somebody else got that gig…”

This relaxed attitude may explain why Kajagoogoo, who always suffered from internal dissension despite their success, buried the hatchet and reformed. “Well, Limahl said that we’d all grown up as the years had passed, but I think that’s oversimplifying it a bit. We just found that it was time to do it. It’s not for the money: I didn’t become a professional musician to make a lot of money.”

Like so many bands from the 1980s – the decade of true sartorial disaster – Kajagoogoo’s image hasn’t aged well, in particular Beggs’ hairstyle of the day, a blonde fringed creation that would make grown men weep these days.

But Beggs laughs at the fashion crimes of the day: “Of course, I did look ridiculous, and I probably still do when I go onstage in a kilt, but that’s what it’s about – grabbing people’s attention and retaining it. It doesn’t matter how highbrow you want to be about yourself, you’ve got to be interesting to look at. Frank Zappa did it so well. Every time he opened his mouth he said something outrageous, and he knew how to maximise the effect in the media.”

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Beggs’ musical heroes form a roll-call of progressive rock: “Chris Squire, John Paul Jones, Jaco, Steve Hackett, Steve Hillage, Roger Waters, Geddy Lee, Stanley Clarke, all of them. John Patitucci, although he came much later. And now, if I had to put anyone at the top of the tree, it would be Pat Metheny. There’s no one like him: he’s an avatar.”

Asked how his bass tone varies depending on the artist he’s playing with, Beggs explained: “When I’m with Steve Hackett, I’m using a Stick, a fretless bass, a fretted bass and Taurus bass pedals, so I use a Roland V-Bass system and attenuate the sound that way, along with the preset on the backline which is the best for that particular gig.

“With Howard Jones, I use a Wal 5-string. We did a show and I used a Music Man and a Chapman Stick, and it worked, but I just felt it was time to get the Wal out. All the low-end stuff sounds really beautiful, and there’s something about having the low-B string when you haven’t done it for a while that is lovely.

“I don’t use any effects; Kajagoogoo had some chorus on the basslines but I don’t use it, I just use the Music Man for that, or the Stick on a brighter setting.”

Do musicians get picky about the bass sound which they want from Beggs? “Some artists are quite pedantic about what they need, and you can suss that out just by talking to them. With Steve Hackett, I transcribed every single bass note before I went in, because I was the new boy and everybody else had been in the band for years, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t holding up proceedings.

“On the other hand, Kim Wilde’s MD is her brother Ricky Wilde, who wrote all her hits and is a very intuitive musician, and by and large he leaves you to it. Initially with Kim I was using a Rickenbacker with a plectrum, because I felt it needed that sort of Kids In America feel.”

With so many musicians in line for his services and a successful solo career, you’d forgive Beggs if he let it all go to his head – but that’s absolutely not the case. “I’m not even a fifth of the musician I’d like to be. Tony Levin said it very well once: he said, ‘You can’t be everything.’ You’ve just got to do what you do.”