by Richard Skelly » Mon Jan 15, 2018 2:39 pm
Hot Child In The City, No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100...and quite possibly the final kick at the can for ‘70s glam rock. Not shabby for a pair of castaways from Canadian glamsters Sweeney “Roxy Roller” Todd. (About a year earlier, Nick and collaborator/guitarist James McCulloch bolted Todd and headed south.) Sporting long blond hair and an affected high voice, Bryan Adams was Gilder’s second Todd replacement.
No doubt Hot Child benefited mightily from being produced by esteemed knob turner Mike Chapman. Nick later had success with songs covered by Pat Benatar, Joe Cocker, Suzi Quatro, Bette Midler and, especially Scandal with Patty Smyth. The latter act’s The Warrior soared on American charts and became a chart-topper in Canada. According to Wikipedia, Nick remains the only domestic talent to achieve #1 hits up here in a group, as a solo artist and a writer for a non-Canadian act.
The only mystery: whatever became of old partner McCulloch? Attempts floundered to reunite the original Sweeney Todd in the 1990s. There’s some great, fairly recent web footage of Nick Gilder and a reconstituted Todd—with himself the only original member— rocking out in Port Alberni