About Me
The Nightingales "Live In Paris" CD (Big Print Records) mail order now, cheaper and prior to being in record stores (August 11). Write for details.
BIOGRAPHY
The Nightingales was formed by former members of Birmingham's original punk group The Prefects. With an ever fluctuating line up, based around lyricist/singer Robert Lloyd, the band recorded a bunch of singles, three albums and many radio sessions for John Peel before splitting up in the late '80s.
Following occasional reformations, in 2004 The Nightingales re-grouped in earnest. Since then they have released five 7" vinyl singles and two albums, toured the UK, mainland Europe and USA several times and recorded numerous radio sessions.
The group have a new CD - "Live In Paris" - released by Big Print in the Summer 08. Recorded on their Euro 07 Tour this record is officially released on August 11 but is available mail order from the end of June.
In March 08 the group recorded a new album (the final one starring teen guitar sensation Matt Wood) - "Insult To Injury" - with Jochen Irmler and Andreas Schmid at the Faust Studio in Scheer, Germany. This record, the 'Gales best yet, will be released in October on the Klangbad label. Following the album's release the group will be touring Germany and Austria.
After fucking about with various wastrels, precious sorts and mercenaries (plus TGS Matt Wood) the group's current line up features Lloyd, original Prefects guitarist Alan Apperley, ex Pram drummer Daren Garratt, guitarist Christine Edwards (from Christy & Emily) and Andreas Schmid (Faust Studio engineer) on bass.
For further information on the group (& free downloads) visit the website - www.thenightingales.org
PRESS
What's Not to Love takes all the elements that powered Out of True – the furious drumming, the lyrical vitriol, the chaotic, post-everything guitar work – up a notch. The six songs are so clamorous, so headlong, so brutal that the record seems like a milestone. You can tell that the band's been playing together for a while by the way it continually skirts the edge of chaos and continually fails to fall in. Opening cut "Plenty of Spare" emerges out of a rapid-fire maelstrom of a-melodic guitar notes and furious drum skitters, an almost free-jazz ooze that somehow births a song. Or, sort of a song. It's too complicated to be punk, too hard and fast to be anything else...maybe it's time for the Nightingales to invent their own genre. After all, it's not like they ever fit very well into the existing ones. - DUSTED
Robert Lloyd, the Black Country Captain Beefheart, steamrolls his unwitting inheritors. Lesser talents plough the comeback trail, but the Nightingales press onwards - scratchy guitars scribbling furiously over exploratory drumming - the group reaching new heights in its third decade. - SUNDAY TIMES
It's hard to warm to an album when the first track opens with almost an entire minute of out-of-tune guitar noise. 'Plenty Of Spare' gives us this, and sadly, more. This is a deeply un-enjoyable song, having no regard to rhythm, melody, or indeed any sense of cohesion. - THIS IS FAKE DIY
The Nightingales are morally sound, cynically sweet, disturbingly comedic. All carelessly and unconsciously cool, Nightingales are grown men with something to say and sparse, post-punk soundtracks to back them. So, back them - UNPEELED
Nightingales are unreal. The level of playing and songwriting after their post-punk hiatus is unparalled by any of their generational comeback cohorts - TERRE T/WFMU
This is that rarest of achievements: a comeback album that actually adds to an already illustrious reputation. Out Of True finds the Nightingales not merely back to their best, but actually improved - DAILY TELEGRAPH
Brilliantly awkward Brummie buggers, the most fabulous melange of indie, punk, rockabilly, country and (weirdly) British folk you could imagine - WHISPERIN' AND HOLLERIN'
This is a record that manages to sound more youthful and vibrant and packed with genuine humour and vitriol that any band currently pedalling themselves as post-punk, or anything near it, will no doubt be left feeling deflated - TASTY
After 20 years off, the Nightingales made a comeback with the outstanding album of the year for sheer brilliance of writing and originality - GUARDIAN UNLIMITED: ARTS BLOG
Songs tumble past, pasty faced and brimming with mother's pride, as fresh and corruptible now as when they started twenty years back. Age has neither dimmed their rage or diminished their satire - PLAN B
The first Nightingales LP for 20 years is their most cohesive work to date. A top album of this or any year, 'Out Of Tue' is out of this world! - INDIEPENDENT
The Nightingales in Southend on Friday (19 May 06) jetted in to my top ten gigs of all time - PHILL JUPITUS/BBC 6 MUSIC
The Nightingales revisited their past and offered up the future. Still stunningly relevant - LONDON EVENING STANDARD
The Nightingales - they're back and they're marvellous - MARC RILEY/BBC 6 MUSIC
They show up today's runty excuses of art rockers for the soiled bags of old washing that they are - KITTEN PAINTING
With The Fall getting Lifetime Achievement awards and Gang Of Four canonised it is long past time the wayward genius of Robert Lloyd and his cohorts was recognised - RECORD COLLECTOR
Forget all these NME Band Of The Week types who make out they don't care, won't compromise, etc, because rock 'n' roll rarely gets as uncompromising as this - PLASTELIN
The Nightingales best material is delivered with a driving, manic intensity, that makes them sound like The Fall covering Captain Beefheart. Their execution is sharper now but they haven't lost their nervy edge - CHICAGO READER
Lloyd is the most underestimated songwriter of his generation - THE INDEPENDENT
The greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world - DAVE HILL, THE GUARDIAN
The Nightingales turned in a performance of the type that will serve to confirm their excellence when other infinitely better known bands stand revealed as charlatans - JOHN PEEL, BBC RADIO ONE
OUT OF TRUE:1 Record Of The Year 2006 - TERRE T/WFMU.1 September 06 Playlist Chart - WNYU.5/5 - ROCK MIDGETS.****1/2 - BIRMINGHAM POST.**** - MOJO, UNCUT & SUNDAY TIMES
LET'S THINK ABOUT LIVING:Track Of The Month (May 06) - OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY.Single Of The Week - BBC 6 MUSIC.1 Single Of The Year - TERRE T/WFMU
IN THE GOOD OLD COUNTRY WAY:***** - BIRMINGHAM POST. **** - RECORD COLLECTOR, MOJO & UNCUT
PIGS ON PURPOSE:***** Reissue Of The Year 2004 & Top Ten Albums Of The Year 2004 - SUNDAY TIMES
