The Nightingales

Formed in Birmingham in 1979 in the wake of the Prefects, The Nightingales has revolved from the start around singer and lyricist Robert Lloyd, with a frequently changing line-up that turned the band into a post-punk outfit of variable geometry. Their music mixes British alternative rock, nervous tension, angular guitars and a vocal delivery that is often dry or off-kilter, in an aesthetic more abrasive than melodic. Initially active until 1986, The Nightingales released the albums Pigs on Purpose (1982), Hysterics (1983) and In the Good Old Country Way (1986), while recording several John Peel sessions for BBC Radio 1 and playing shows across the UK and Northern Europe. After a split and Robert Lloyd’s parallel projects, The Nightingales reformed in 2004 and relaunched their career with a series of singles followed by several albums, including Out of True (2006), Insult to Injury (2008), No Love Lost (2012), Mind Over Matter (2015), Perish the Thought (2018), Four Against Fate (2020), The Last Laugh (2022) and The Awful Truth (2025). This second phase established The Nightingales more firmly on the independent scenes in Britain, Europe and the United States. The 2021 documentary King Rocker revisits the trajectory of Robert Lloyd and The Nightingales.