Hugh Nicholson is the son of the former owners of Greenhall House during the early 1960’s. Born on 30th July 1949 in Rutherglen, he became an accomplished musician and songwriter.
His brothers are producer Matt Nicholson and guitarist David Nicholson. During the 1960’s he became a member of band, ‘The Poets ‘ who were produced by Paul Raven, aka Gary Glitter, when they recorded on the Immediate label.
He moved on shortly after to a new group Trash and then Marmalade who had already seen a No. 1 success in the late 1960’s with Lennon & McCartney’s “Ob La Di, Ob La Da”. His membership ran from 1971 to 1973 when he would write songs for them such as “Radancer” and “Cousin Norman”, which both reached No 6 in the UK charts.
In 1973 he broke away to form the band ‘Blue’ with Ian MacMillan and Timi Donald and he would become their main songwriter as well as lead vocalist. They would become a popular touring band and release several albums, where they were produced and joined on two by Elton John, but would only see chart success with the single “Gonna Capture Your Heart” which had moderate success on both sides of the Atlantic. They disbanded in 1979 and in 1984 he released the single “Love You Made a Fool of Me”. He went on to work with the new wave artist Gary Numan on Nicholson/Numan 1987-1994 Sessions and writing, Gary’s hit ‘Radio Heart’, which also featured Elton John and Ray Cooper.
His album ‘Heartstrings’ in the 1980’s contains music specifically written about Greenhall in High Blantyre. Hugh now lives out with Scotland, but still immersed in the music industry. He’s pictured on the left with fellow Blue band members Timmy Donald and Ian Macmillan in the mid 1970s.