Ian McNabb

In 1981 Ian formed The Icicle Works with Chris Sharrock (drums), and Chris Layhe (bass and vocals).

They quickly gained a following through their debut single release, Nirvana, and extensive live performances up and down the country. The Icicle Works became part of the Liverpool renaissance movement of the eighties, alongside acts such as Echo And The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, WAH!, Heat, OMD, Black, Dead Or Alive, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Lotus Eaters, and China Crisis.

They signed to Beggar’s Banquet records, and under the guidance of Martin Mills scored a top 20 hit with Love Is A Wonderful Colour in the U.K ; and top 40 placings in the U.S, Canada, and Europe with Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream), with their eponymous debut album.

The Icicle Works achieved top 40 placings in the UK for all four of their albums - The Icicle Works, The Small Price Of A Bicycle, If You Want To Defeat Your Enemy Sing His Songs, and Blind - until they split up in 1988.

Muff Winwood signed Ian to Epic records in 1989, paying a buy-out fee to Beggar’s Banquet; but Muff’s insistence on using The Icicle Works name, (with new musicians Roy Corkill and Zak Starkey) when the original band had ceased to be, caused friction, and after one disappointingly received album, Permanent Damage, Ian was dropped from Epic’s roster.

Ian began a collaboration with his friend and previous Icicle Works producer, Ian Broudie - a number of songs featured on subsequent Lightning Seeds records, which became hugely successful. Ian signed to Andrew Lauder’s new imprint, This Way Up, in 1992, which yielded 3 albums : Truth And Beauty (which Ian had recorded at his own expense by remortgaging his house), Head Like A Rock, which was recorded in part with Neil Young’s band Crazy Horse in L.A and subsequently nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in 1994, and Merseybeast - the latter 2 albums achieved top 30 placings; the first was heralded as “One of the best records released in Q magazine’s lifetime”.

This Way Up records ceased to be in 1997 and Ian found himself without a deal once more, so accepted an invitation to join his friend Mike Scott (The Waterboys) on bass guitar for a lengthy European and Japanese tour.

Ian self financed another record in 1998, A Party Political Broadcast On Behalf Of The Emotional Party, which featured Danny Thompson (John Martyn, Nick Drake amongst others) on upright bass. They toured together that Autumn to promote the record. At the end of the decade Ian released the live disc Live at Life, recorded over two nights at Liverpool’s Life Cafe. Ian then joined The Waterboys on keyboards for a European tour. When this was completed, Ian accepted Ian Broudie’s invitation to record on ‘The Barge’ - Pete Townshend’s studio which Broudie was currently renting, moored next to Pete’s Eel Pie complex. The resulting album - Ian McNabb - saw a return of Ian’s love of guitar driven pop/rock and was released on Sanctuary Records in 2001. 

Ian briefly played bass guitar in Ringo Starr’s band in 2002.

In 2009 Ian unleashed his autobiography - Merseybeast - which has become something of a cult classic amongst the rock fraternity (Peter Buck of R.E.M contacted Ian recently to tell him that he’d only just discovered the book and loved it!) - it has since been released as an audio book, narrated by Ian himself.

In 2024, original Icicle Works bass player Chris Layhe, reunited with Ian to perform a handful of headline shows in the UK. Since 2017 The Icicle Works popularity has grown with the inclusion of Bird’s Fly (Whisper to a Scream) in season 2 of the Netflix smash hit show Stranger Things.

Subsequently, Ian toured the USA in 2025, and plans are afoot for a return visit in 2026.  Now in his 65th year, Ian continues to write and record prolifically.

Since the 1990’s all Ian’s albums have been self financed and issued on his own Fairfield Records imprint to his dedicated fan base. His current album – ‘65’ – is his 26th offering. The previous release “If It Wasn’t For The Music”, saw the title single reach the no1 spot on the Heritage Chart.

Ian rarely ties himself down to one particular style and is not afraid to experiment ; Little Episodes, Eclectic Warrior, and Kruggerands are harder rocking albums which both feature the band Cold Shoulder ; and then there’s ‘Respectfully Yours’ (a long promised album of cover versions), and ‘Fleetwood McNabb’, which speaks for itself.

Between 2015 and 2019 Ian released a trilogy of albums – ‘Star, Smile, Strong’, which features collaborations with Prof. Brian Cox, a co-write with Ralph Molina (from Crazy Horse), and the unexpected return of Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock (who had gone on to work with The La’s, World Party, Del Amitri, Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger, Robbie Williams, Oasis, and both Liam and Noel Gallagher in their solo endeavours); ‘Our Future In Space’, which once again features Cold Shoulder, and the song Aquamarine co-written with R.E.Ms Peter Buck; and ‘Utopian’ - his 20th solo studio album.

Owing to hold-ups brought about by the pandemic, Utopian was not officially released until April 2021. At the time, Ian quipped “It’s possible that we now hold the World record for the longest pre-order”.

The pandemic held other surprises for Ian. His notoriety grew on social media when a controversial opinion landed him in a spat with actor Russell Crowe in January 2021. The twitter exchange in which Crowe defended a comment that McNabb made about ‘Master & Commander’, was first picked up by Vanity Fair, and within hours was being covered internationally - we lost count at 130 outlets who published the story. Despite the hold up’s with ‘Utopian’, Ian pressed on, and 2021 saw the release of another new album – ‘Ascending’ - which re-visits the Icicle Works, earliest cassette demo’s.

This was closely followed by ‘Nabby Road’ ; named after the studio which Ian set up at home during lockdown - “It’s been my salvation, really - and while I do write stuff to keep myself entertained, I record it for the fans - they make all of this possible, and I love them dearly!”

2026 is his 50th year of performing live, and he shows no signs of slowing down.

There is never a shortage of new stories to tell, coupled with a solid two hours of greatest hits, which Ian loves to share with all those who choose to turn out to see him.