Nutmeg City Group was started by drummer Rhod Burnett and Bass player Ady Gillespie in Glasgow, Scotland in 1987. The group has existed in various forms since then. This is the story of how they developed their sound.

Rhod Burnett first started playing in groups with his brother Seori. One group called Hela and the Headhunters got some reviews in the music press and released a self-financed single but after about eighteen months the group split in two. They had been inspired to start playing music by the Nuggets and Pebbles albums so Rhod and fellow band members Ian McManus and Alistair MacGuire decided to pursue the garage punk sound. Recruiting a friend of Ian's called Ady Gillespie on bass they formed the Swampmen.

Ady taught himself to play bass and played with various local groups. He had learnt by playing along to Alice Cooper Group records and the great bass playing of Dennis Dunaway. He fitted in with the group immediately. The Swampmen were a garage punk band in every way although newer influences such as Detroit high energy rock and roll and the Benny Goodman Orchestra had started to alter their sound. To people who asked how you could combine these different types of music the group would reply that this music was all riff based with a counter melody over the top. This became the blueprint for their sound together with the twist that gives a band it's own sound. The Swampmen recorded a couple of demos before splitting up. Although short-lived the group provided a valuable opportunity to experiment with effects such as vibrato and delay. Guitarist Alistair MacGuire's interest in pushing these effects to their extreme opened many new doors for the future Nutmeg City Group.

After The Swampmen split Ady played with other local groups including his brother's band. Rhod was playing with another Glasgow band called The Primevals. They had been started by singer songwriter Michael Rooney and were very much rooted in garage punk. The Primevals had some success locally and released an independent single which led to them signing with the French label New Rose. The group recorded three albums for the label, the last two of which were produced by Richard Mazda. The group already knew of Richard Mazda due to his great production on the first two albums by The Flashtones. The Primevals toured Europe supporting The Cramps as well as playing extensively in the UK and doing various radio and TV shows. Their story is told in full on their own website. It was while in The Primevals that Rhod Burnett first had his own songs released. The group's second album "Soundhole" saw the first appearance of the song "Nutmeg City" After recording an album with Scottish band The Hucksters Rhod spent six months in London playing with his brother's band before returning to Glasgow and starting Nutmeg City Group with Ady Gillespie.

Ady had been writing riffs and songs almost since he started playing so the new band had two sources for new material. After early rehearsals with various guitarists it quickly became apparent that the songs would need a different instrumentation. Ady's brother Ian came in to play organ and piano and was followed by a friend of a friend called Andy who played tenor saxophone. As many of the songs were instrumental the sax was better suited to playing the lead melody and solos with the keyboards and bass providing melodic support. The group were now listening to saxophonists like Art Pepper and Sonny Rollins and had appreciated the potential power of the instrument. It seemed natural to combine it with the power of garage punk and the dynamics and drive of the swing big bands......the ones that didn't play for dancing.

With this line up Nutmeg City Group started playing in and around Glasgow and recorded five songs at Sing Sing Studios. Being able to add extra instruments in the recording studio meant that the full arrangements could be heard for the first time. When the band played live they were getting a good response but it was becoming obvious that some arrangements were too complicated to reproduce out of the studio with only a four piece band. Andy left and was replaced by Pauline Copeland who had more experience. Jim Fleming was now playing keyboards but extra musicians were required so the band started advertising. This proved to be a frustrating process. Most saxophonists wanted to play out and out jazz and the people into garage punk only wanted to play garage punk. Unable to find extra musicians the group started to drift apart.

Rhod moved to London and started playing with his brother's band Summerhill who had been signed by Polydor. With the band he recorded a Pat Collier produced single and did two british tours as well as TV and radio. Before the last tour the band's bass player left so Ady came in and did the tour and some TV shows.

On leaving Summerhill Rhod and Ady, now both in London, started writing and rehearsing new Nutmeg City Group material. Once again the problem of finding musicians willing to learn arrangements and improvise proved difficult. Former Primevals colleague Michael Rooney was now in London and asked Rhod and Ady to play with his new band called Beanspasm. With a name like that they couldn't refuse. The group played in and around London as well as recording at Chiswick Reach Studio. With Richard Mazda on keyboards they did a short tour of northern Italy and discovered many fine new wines. Beanspasm finished when Michael Rooney returned to Glasgow. Ady returned to Glasagow not long after Michael and Rhod joined various London bands before forming a short lived line up of Nutmeg City Group.

This version of the band had Rhod on drums and vocals, John Wood on fuzz guitar and Dennis Usher on lead guitar. They played around London and recorded a three song demo. Due to the two guitar line up arrangements had to be simpler and more direct and this band recorded the first versions of "A Moment in Time" and "You drive me Mental". This line up stopped when John left London but this proved to be the starting point for the current Nutmeg City Group.