the story so far...
Virtual Alien (V.A.) (Nick Peterson) came up with the concept for his one-man band Virtual Alien at the tender age of 14. He was born in 1973 in Perth, Scotland and grew up in London.
He unleashed his debut, War of Love in 1988 and sold four million singles. The album of the same name featured "War of Love" and "Heaven" in perfect harmony with the music of the time. The album only sold 1M. units. A series of dark and gothic EPs and singles followed between 1988 and 1990 all released under the name of "Old Nick": "Twist, Fate and Heaven", "The White and Black Side", "Well Red".
He was hit by a cab in London in 1989, went into a coma and wasn't able to leave the hospital for five months.
He returned to recording in 1990 and released "King of the World", with the video from the title track that commented on the Gulf War. The album was a stark departure from the pop and techno world that characterised "War of Love". The album featured the quintessential rock anthem: "King of the World" written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. This grunge-inspired album was the most expensive to record to date. It featured the hits "Thundering Typhoons" first released in 1992, 1993, 1997 and 2002 and sold over 3M units. "With a Mouse (to Your Mouth)" and the song described as containing some of the best lyrics in Rock: "Knocking on Heaven's Door". The "King of the World" video was banned at the time by MTV for containing graphic images of war during the coming Gulf War. Unhappy with the lack of attention the album received, Nick Peterson dropped out of music, studied Dramatic Arts in London, achieved a degree in English Literature and continued his studies from which he received a M.A. in Interactive Multimedia in 2000. The "King of the World" album was re-released 3 times and by 1995 finally achieved the recognition it deserved with 4 Million units sold.
In 1991 V.A. launched The Edge magazine in Islington, North London with a European Community and Islington grant as the two were extremely keen in promoting the image of Islington as the "Real London". The Edge had then a circulation of 25,000 ex. The Edge used a special imported Kraft paper from France made out from 100% recycled textile with green and red ink. In 1992 the issue 6 received the ultimate accolade when MTV saw a copy and sent a fax saying how "fabulous" the magazine was. By 1995, The Edge magazine was selling well with huge export to the U.S. and at its peak achieved a circulation of 45,000, but wasn't commercially viable so it was time to pull the plug.
In 1995 V.A. published his first book: "Map of the Universe". In 1996 Virtual Alien spends 6 months recording a new album: "Loud Mouth". A mixture of Bass and drums with Techno and Jungle. The single was released in January 1997 at the height of the ‘bass and drums’ period but to little acclaim. It flopped in the charts on a major scale with just 100,000 copies sold. The album was then dropped. MTV refused to play the video, described as too ‘hallucinating’ with stroboscopic and fluorescent lights rotating in turn for 4 minutes. The album will be released for the first time to coincide with the nineties revival in late 2007.
In 1999 whilst at college, V.A. meets Tom Norwood a young Computer Science student. Together they will be involved with all the media projects that are set to come out of this new collaboration including the web activities, the infamous Y2K Diary.com and DiaryUnlimited.com.
In 2000, he introduced his Y2K Diary website, a site that commented on the Internet culture. The Virtual Alien track " The Way You Make Me Feel" was used at the website's party launch and eventually received 8,000 downloads the first week. It was enough for MTV Europe to air the track's video in the Party Zone and enough to influence Virtual Alien to work again in music. "The Way You Make Me Feel" a re-mix by the DJ BabyFox was the theme tune to his new "Y2K Showcase" held every month in different London venues.
In 2001 a compilation album "Debut de Siecle" sold extremely well, reminiscent of his "War of Love" heydays. "V.A. presents Old Nick" followed a year later, a compilation of the EPs and singles released under the name of "Old Nick".
In 2001 "Scary Monsters" his first film was released, about Laurent Mercier a fashion designer in Paris presenting a collection on the catwalk. Then "Quick Step Beyond" also shot in Paris followed.
In 2002 "Map of the Universe", a short film based on his 1995 novel came out then "The Memos", a series of short films based on the theme of mental health. "What we see happens inside a contestant's mind inside a TV game show." The game show is "E.S.T" or the Psycho Show. A TV series is scheduled with 18 hours of shows. A feature film "The Complete Map of the Universe" (2006) will epitomise this exploration of mental health. The film contains a lot of male and female nudity and has been mostly shot with infra-red cameras.
In 2002 "Dance" a compilation remixed by various DJs is released.
Whilst still obsessed with the subject of his book "Map of the Universe" during 1999 and 2006 Virtual Alien interviewed members of a Nigerian tribe, the Ijaws from the oil region. This resulted in the feature-documentary: "Burning from the Inside" released in 2007.
In 2006 V.A. worked on a psycho-thriller starring Stuart Mansell and Jenia Emmanuelle: "Speed of Light" (2007), alongside "Digital Broadcast" (2007) a documentary with and based around the life of the American broadcaster Paul Gambaccini.
In 2007 V.A. will continue to work on two new features: "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and "Writing on the Wall".
Most of V.A.'s films: "In and Out of Planet Earth", "EST", "Writing on the Wall", "Digital Broadcast", "Speed of Light" and "The Complete Map of the Universe" have been released as an audio soundtrack album featuring the music and the best of the audio content. All features are due to be finally released in late 2007 and 2008 in theatres, online or on DVD.
2007. V.A. will release his entire catalogue of music (over 500 tracks), all of his albums will be re-mastered and re-released and 21 video clips will be made available as video tones. In December V.A. has announced that he will embark on a world tour for the first time since 1998.
