The Nightingales were either a more robust Fall or a brilliant indie Beefheart; they recorded a lot of John Peel sessions, and their label Vindaloo gave the world both We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Going To Use It and the great Ted Chippington.
The Nightingales, out of Birmingham via The Prefects, were an extraordinarily witty, angular and excellent band, led by the charismatically dour Robert Lloyd, who even briefly enjoyed a solo career on Virgin Records. Like many great bands, they split up with no accolades. Also like many great bands, they are back again, with a line-up that prunes members from various other line-ups.
This time round, the sound is possibly a bit less angular, which means they sound like Black Sabbath trying to remember what XTC sound like.
Songs like Born Yesterday and Mutton To Lamb riff and spar like nobody’s business, while surprise ballad The World Of Nothing Really sees Lloyd unravel like a heartless Guy Garvey.
