In the early days Jimmy Nail was a welder and worked for a double glazing firm in Newcastle. He was a singer in a 70's rock band called the King Crabs, he formed the group and geordie celebrity Mickie Hutton was the drummer. Jimmy's party piece for the band was wearing a girls dress on stage!
In 1985 Jimmy starred in Morons from Outer Space with Griff Rhys Jones. He played a moron named Desmond Brook.
Auf Wiedersehen Pet was Jimmy Nail's big break. He played Oz a lunatic cowboy builder from Newcastle. Auf Wiedersehen Pet was a big hit it had over 6 million viewers for the 1st series and 13 million for the second. This also stared;Kevin Whatley, Tim Healy, Pat Roach, Timothy Spall, Gary Holten & Chirstopher Fairbank.
After Auf Wiedersehen Pet Jimmy tryed out his music skills and realsed an album in 1986 called Take It Or Leave It with Virgin Records. Making a brillient cover of Love Don't Live Here Anymore.
In '91 '92 & '93 he co wrote the hit TV detective series 'Spender' with Ian La Frencais. Who wrote Auf Wiedersehen Pet with Dick Clemant & Frac Roddram. They had three sucsesful series of Spender. With Jimmy Nail as the main star of the series too.
In '92 he realsed his 2nd album Growing Up In Public with the American company Warner. The hit from that album was Ain't No Doubt.
'94and he's back with a new record & a new TV series starring himself. The series was called "Crocodile Shoes" so was the album. He wrote the series by himself. He played Jed Shepaard. It also starred James Wilby & Sammy Johnson. All the music from the series made the album. The big hit was "Crocodile Shoes" was a hit in '95 and in '96 got the triple platinum.
'95 he realeses another album "Big River" again with Warner Music with the big hit " Big River" and a cover of John Lennons "Love".
In '96 he had a role in the film "Evita" as Agustin Magaldi. He had a few songs out of it & got to star with Madonna.
Also in '96 he wrote another brillient series of Crocodile Shoes and realesed the album "Crocodile Shoes II". Which was realesed with Warner Music.
Then in '98 he was casted for the Dick Clement & Ian La Frencais film "Still Crazy". He was Les Wickes. He worked with Billy Connely, Timothy Spall, Steaphen Rea & Bill Nighy. It was about a 70's rock band. He performed 3 songs in the film; Bird On A Wire, What Might Have Been & The Flame Still Burns.
'99 he realeses another album with Warner Music "Tadpoles In A Jar". Then in '01 he realesed a new album with a new record label. This time Papillon records. It is called 10 Great Songs & an OK Voice. It is a mixture of 10 of his favourite songs by diffrent artsits some are; Sting, The Animals, Alan Hull & Stevie Wonder.- James Croll (24/02/02)
