The Nightingales

From the Prefects

The Nightingales formed in Birmingham in 1979 out of the Prefects, who toured with the Clash on the 1977 White Riot tour, when Robert Lloyd was, he recalls, a pretty clueless seventeen year old. Lloyd, born on June 5, 1959 in Cannock, is the only constant member and runs the Big Print label. Their debut single, "Idiot Strength", came out in 1981 (Rough Trade RT075 and Vindaloo UGH4), and "Use Your Loaf" (Cherry Red CHERRY 34, February 19, 1982 per MusicBrainz) followed with "Inside Out" and "Under the Lash" on the B-sides. The album Pigs on Purpose (1982, Cherry Red) was followed by Hysterics (1983, Ink and Red Flame) and In the Good Old Country Way (1986). Cherry Red dropped them after Pigs on Purpose and Ink after Hysterics.

John Peel championed them: Record Collector counts eight Peel sessions, and Lloyd says the band would never have got off the ground if it hadn't been for John; one blog says seven. The band split in 1986, and Lloyd made solo records, including Me and My Mouth for Virgin in 1990. They reunited in 2004 with Alan Apperley, Peter Byrchmore, Eamonn Duffy and Robert Townshend, played SXSW in March 2005 and the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury in June 2009, and have since made albums including No Love Lost (2012), Perish the Thought (2018), Four Against Fate (2020), The Last Laugh (2022) and The Awful Truth (Fire, 2025). The current line-up is Lloyd, James Smith, Andreas Schmid and Fliss Kitson.

King Rocker

The documentary King Rocker, directed by Michael Cumming with Stewart Lee and self-funded, aired on Sky Arts on February 6, 2021, with appearances by Frank Skinner, John Taylor, Samira Ahmed, John Peel, Nigel Slater and Nish Kumar; it was billed as an anti-rockumentary. Lee called Lloyd Britain's ultimate post-punk survivor. John Robb of Death to Trad Rock called the band the misfits' misfits, and Trouser Press hears The Fall as a key influence. Pigs on Purpose was reissued in April 2021, remastered by Stuart Moxham, and Fire Records issued a 7-inch pairing "Ten Bob Each Way" with a Stewart Lee version of "Use Your Loaf" on April 16, 2021.