The Official Weak13 Fansite

About Nick J.Townsend:
Nick J. Townsend was born in 1975 in Kidderminster, a small industrial town in the United Kingdom. Nick was born with a disfigurment on his head, a birth mark and was constantly bullied till the age of 13. After having surgery that year to help remove the mark it was a success and Nick became in the eyes of his hometown a “normal boy again”. Years later Nick felt awkward adjusting to everyday life and decided to shave off the one side of his hair, this was done 13 weeks before the millenium as his own protest to society. His hair has remained that way ever since.

Although bullied at a very early age for his appearence, Nick’s happiest memories were his childhood days, especially the times he spent playing with his toys in the garden with his grandad. His grandad sadly passed away in 2008.

He started life as an artist. As a child he was a big comic book fan, in his college days he created and published his own magazines/comic books. Nick has been an editor of many self-financed Independent British music magazines including: ‘Ban(NE)d magazine‘ (1999-2001), ‘PMT Magazine’ (2002-2004), ‘Nick The Mag‘ (2004-2006). Most of the magazines were distributed throughout the UK in their thousands and have since become cult sought-after memorabilia. An accomplished festival promoter with a love of original music, Nick created many annual music festivals between 2003 and 2008 but his work as a music promoter is best remembered when he ran his own monthly Rock night at an English club called ‘Redwoods‘ (2003-2006). He along with good friend and fellow songwriter ‘King Rich’ organised Live gigs for over 300 unsigned bands and in that time created huge foundations in the British underground music scene.

At school Nick J.Townsend mainly did art but never did music till he picked up his first guitar at 15 years of age. The guitar which he borrowed was from his nextdoor neighbour Jeremy Baker. He later then formed a highschool band called Incision which featured Adam Mancrief, Anthony Hubble, Justin Bodley and Simon Hughes.

His artwork has been used for the series of Children’s Books ‘PigTails’ (2007) written by the author Hollie Day. From 2008-2011 Nick became the host of a global internet radio station called Basementsound and soon became known for his crazy radio show ‘Metal Time‘ which salute many of the writtings from his earlier more humourous magazines such as PMT Magazine.

Photo by Katie Doolan

Nick J.Townsend is best known as a British underground musician, singer and multi-instrumentalist. He operates under the studio name WEAK13. As the only official member of WEAK13 he remains solely responsible for its direction, Townsend recruits a live band to perform with him on stage after recording a WEAK13 album. His music has now been heard by many around the globe thanks to the rise in popularity of the internet and satellite television.

Nick is currently a columnist and writer for Ryan’s Gig Guide Magazine and first started to write for them in 2008. His column is read by thousands every month. He mainly promotes bands from the Midlands area of the UK. Since 2011, Nick continues broadcasting metal podcasts and promotes underground bands with co-presenter Reverend Tool on WestWorld Underground via the MetalTime show.

Photo taken by Mark H.Roberts