I know that Nicky was an ice dancer and that he partnered Karen. But how good was he really?

I saw an interview with him in a magazine during the last series where he appeared to hold quite alot of resentment for Jayne and Chris. I know it can't have been easy being in T&D's shadow, but Karen doesn't seem to have the same issues. Nicky also said he had fallen out with Karen when she deiced to join Jayne and Chris's tour.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Well there is this wiki entry with his competitive stats but I haven't seen many Barber/Slater programmes so I can't really give you much else Spark. Except that having watched the Eurosport coverage of the CD this afternoon he appears to be obsessed with costume...

I think resentment is a bit of a strong word, and then some but perhaps he just felt a little uncomfortable being second best to Jayne and Chris?
He probably felt inside of himself that they were "Stealing his and Karen's Thunder" - But... Who knows, no-one other than Kni...I mean Nicky himself.

I remember reading at the time that he wasn't happy at Karen's decision to turn professional when she did, as he wanted another crack at the Olympics

They were a long term partnership and I think he knew that it would mean the end of his competitive career too as he was unlikely to find another partner.

Still they do at least seem able to be reasonable friends again

Shame really as they did some lovely routines - I remeber a Chinesey one - and a Charlie Chaplin one.....

Coo that's not bad after 20 odd years!!!!!

Barber and Slater were very good they were consistently top 5 in the world with T and D in first and Bestemianova and Bukin in 2nd. When T and D retired they would have expected to move up the rankings but in fact dropped to 6th being beaten by two couples who had always been behind them. For the 1985 freedance programme, Dragon Dance, they had had music written for them by Mike Batt and I think their costumes were designed by Elizabeth Emannuel. There were a lot of high expectations.

I I obviously can't say whether this was the only reason behind the split but after that championship, Karen left to join T and D on tour rather than continue on to 1988 Olympics as would have been expected. All of the dancers in the show competed against each other at the very highest level throughout the early to mid eighties.
Last edited by alij : 23-01-2007 at 23:08

Interesting.

So clearly Karen and Nicky were supposed to carry on where T&D left off? But obviousley that didn't happen.

Following on from alij's post, ITV also sponsored Karen & Nicky to train at Oberstdorf in Germany, where T&D had trained, for the 1984/5 season, so they had all the advantages, but unfortunately the results didn't come, and Karen said her competitive spirit died, Nicky said Lady Luck had left them, and that was the end for them.

Yes they were good, but they never had the same innovative style that T&D had, nor indeed did they appear to have the same dedication to their art. I may be completely wrong, but that's how it came over to me.

After 1984 there were too many other ice dancers that were latching onto the T&D style, and whilst it would have been great if they could have taken up where T&D left off, IMO I don't think it would ever have happened.
Last edited by MJS : 24-01-2007 at 13:36

I am putting together a series of cuttings about karen and nicky from my past collection so you have an idea what they were about back then it will be ready to post in the next few days.

dvj140
jane

Nicky went off to get married at that time too.

dvj140
Jane

The following links show newspaper and magazine articles about Karen Barber and Nicky Slater from 1984/1985.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN1.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN2.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN3.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN4.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN5.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN6.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN7.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN8.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN9.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN10.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN11.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN12.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN13.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN14.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN15.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN16.jpg

The following 5 links are pages of an article from the Daily Mail of Thursday 5th September 1985 entitled We Were To Close Even For Love in which Karen talks about the ending of her skating partnership with Nicky. I have not scanned the article because it is to big to scan properly. I think this article summarises the story of Karen and Nicky's ice skating partnership so well:-

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN17.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN23.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l1...140/KN19-1.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN24.jpg

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN21.jpg

The following link is a picture of the lady that Nicky married.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l135/dvj140/KN22.jpg

dvj140
jane

[quote=dvj140]The following links show newspaper and magazine articles about Karen Barber and Nicky Slater from 1984/1985.

Thank you for that. Very interesting. Is Nicky still with his wife do you know? She looks like Caroline Aherne ( Royle family)

I thought his scores were very inconsistent tonight, all over the place.

Dave

[quote=Melodybear]
I have no idea if nicky is still with his wife really, it is something I would like to know too. From the few bits I have seen of the series this year and last year I did not see nicky wear his wedding ring so maybe he is not with her any more. You are absolutely right melody bear about his wife looking like caroline aherne fromthe royal family she does indeed look like her I had not thought of that before well done for spotting it.

dvj140
Jane

Karen and Nicky were hugely entertaining to watch and I still have clips of them on video from the 1980s. "New Fangled Tango" is probably the one I enjoy the most. They never had the speed and precision of Jayne and Chris though. I can't remember if it was 1980 or 1984 where they had a disaster in their short programme and Nicky sat on Karen which completely scuppered their chances in that particular competition, although they did a very good humoured interview afterwards even though they must have been completely fed up. I seem to remember that in 1984 there was general disappointment because their long programme, good though it was to watch didn't have sufficient level of difficulty to be right up there with the very best.

Nicky is divorced and has been for a long time, I believe. There was an interview with him last year after DOI where he talked about the rift between him and Karen and he also said that he would love to find a wife.

I have just had a look at his myspace after doing a search on his name and it says he is getting married in may, so we have our answer

I can remember seeing a programme at the time and Karen was always crying, and it seemed as if he was almost bullying her, or that is how it was made to come across.
She said something about not being able to stand the pressure.

Thank you melodybear and vienna81 for that information about nicky it is sad that his marriage to jo ended but it is good to hear that he is getting married in may, lets hope that he will be happy this time around.

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Jane

A bit OT, but am I the only one that thinks its a little surreal that some of the faces from TV shows such as DOI and SCD have myspace accounts, and you can be listed as one of their 'friends'? I know the likes of Russel Brand and the american child stars such as Paula Creamer (golf) and Vanessa Anne Hudgens (drama + music) myspace account are monitored and run by their agency, but some of the dancers and judges ones are more than likely actually done by themselves.

That probably makes no sense!

Dave

I agree pingman it is very surreal indeed.

dvj140
jane

Here is the link to Nicky Slater's website to see what he is doing these days.

http://www.nickyslater.com/

dvj140
Jane

Did Nicky fall out with his mother? It certainly sounds like it from one of those articles.

I really can not remember what happened between them at the time sparklebabe, but Nicky's parents divorced if I remember correctly.

dvj140
jane

If they did, they must have resolved it because I am certain she was on last years DOI and Nicky looks like a male version of her!!!