Steve Nardelli

Stephen Louis "Steve" Nardelli (born 10 April 1948 in London) founded The Syn in 1966 with Chris Squire, Martyn Adelman and others. In 1968, Nardelli left the band for a business career in the fashion and sports industries before reforming the band in 2003 with Adelman and Peter Banks. Banks left the reunited band, but Squire joined and the band recorded a new album, Syndestructible.

As a musician and song writer

Nardelli began playing the guitar at 12.^[1] The Beatles, The Who and The Animals were early influences.^[2] Inspired by the scene at the Marquee Club, at fourteen Nardelli formed his first group called High Court, an R&B band. Not long after, High Court changed its name and amalgamated into The Syn with Nardelli, Chris Squire, Andrew Pryce Jackman, Martyn Adelman and John Painter. The Syn are considered a significant part of the pre-history of Yes.^[3]

Nardelli's first composition was "Grounded", a freakbeat song that he wrote when 14. He co-wrote "14 Hour Technicolour Dream" in 1967, which was reviewed as “one of the best British psychedelic singles by any band,”^[4] and voted by Time Out magazine one of the best ever top 100 songs written about London. Both were singles performed by The Syn. Nardelli is a prolific song writer and has iconic status as a singer and song writer and is revered as a founding father of progressive music.

Nardelli continued to write music after The Syn of the 1960s and had a solo recording contract with Decca. Nardelli reformed The Syn with Peter Banks and Martyn Adelman in 2004. The line-up changed, re-uniting Nardelli with Chris Squire, and together they wrote Syndestructible (2005) with contributions from Gerard Johnson and Paul Stacey. This was followed by the album Armistice Day, the title track being written by Nardelli and Johnson. Squire, Johnson and Stacey all left the band, and Nardelli formed a new line-up with Francis Dunnery and Tom Brislin. They released Big Sky in 2009. Nardelli is currently working in collaboration with Swedish band Moon Safari on a new album from The Syn called Trustworks. In an interview for Progzilla radio in October, Nardelli announced that The Syn Live at Rosfest album was being released early in 2015, together with a newly commissioned film The Syn in the 21st Century, as a prelude to the release of the new studio album Trustworks.^[5] In January 2016 Umbrello Records announced that the Trustworks album would finally be released worldwide on 25th March, 2016, having been five years in the making.

In business

After The Syn disbanded, Nardelli, along with his partner Ian Ross, a member of the Ross Foods family and a founder of Radio Caroline, opened a chain of fashion shops in Chelsea and Kensington.

Continuing a connection with the music industry, Nardelli teamed with Tommy Roberts, known for his fashion shop Mr. Freedom^[6][7] and launched a record label, Fresh Records through WEA.^[8]

In 1997, Nardelli acquired from the government of Belgium's Walloon region the Donnay sports brand.^[9] He also worked with Mike Ashley (businessman) to successfully purchase the Disport retail chain in Belgium and the Longoni Sports retail chain in Italy. Nardelli also founded Umbrello Records with Chris Squire, and the IPTV music station theONE.tv.

In 2009, Nardelli formed P3 Eco Group (Portfolio Property Partners) with Graham Johnson and Brigadier Ian Inshaw, a Deputy Lord Lieutenant to the Queen and former High Sheriff of Oxfordshire. The company is one of the new eco developers and their site at NW Bicester ^[10] was selected by Government to be one of four new eco towns. The Master Plan architect for the project is Sir Terry Farrell and the town will be built with full eco credentials and to the new code 6 standards set by Government. Work started on the 6000 house development in 2014 and it will be the first eco town to be built.^[11] P3 Eco selected Housing Association A2 Dominion to deliver the 30% social housing requirement on the entire site and the initial exemplar village and under the leadership of Nardelli jointly secured the land assembly for most of the 1000 acres development. P3 Eco will develop and build the exemplar village centre as well as the next stage of the eco town, approximately 250 acres to be called Himley village.^[12]

Discography

With The Syn

Solo singles

• "I'll Never Find Another You"/"Mile End Road" - Decca/1978
• "Don't Ever Change"/"Dance Little Rita" - Decca/1978

With 14 Hour Technicolour Dream V-band

• "Reasons & Rituals" - download/2008

References

External links

• The Syn official website