The Nightingales release their first studio album since 2022’s much-praised ‘The Last Laugh’. Celebrated in the excellent Stewart Lee-narrated film King Rocker of 2020, where the curtain was raised on the magic of the “long serving punk/alternative rock volunteer” (The Quietus) Robert Lloyd, The Nightingales are as pertinent as ever as they release a poignant tirade on modern times heralded, quite rightly, as ‘The Awful Truth’.
Out 12th February, new single ‘Same Old Riff’ recalls Bowie’s ‘Queen Bitch’ rekindling the class war struggles and throwing sharp focus on the national unrest in the summer of 2024. Released alongside a brand new music video, ‘Same Old Riff’ is directed by Rob Curry (The Chills: The Triumph & The Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps, The Ballad Of Shirley Collins) and is a Situationist call to action inspired by the upheavals of Paris ’68.
“The powerless are the problem, as if, as if”
New album ‘The Awful Truth’ (out 4th April) is a modern mutant music hall interpretation of the day’s news, a haunting jolt into realism narrated with all the angst of an insistent, slightly dishevelled late-night newscaster.
Under such scrutiny, Robert Lloyd’s acidic one-liners trace the collapse of modern society, retaining the harmonious warble of a veteran pub crooner infected with the growl and grouse of The Fall, Nick Cave and at times Beefheart reincarnated.
In the early 80s they enjoyed cult status as darlings of the credible music scene and were championed by John Peel, who said of them – “Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980’s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans.”
Their time has indeed come.
‘The Awful Truth’ is out 4th April. Available for pre-order in Limited Edition Red Vinyl, CD and ‘The Awful Truth Bundle’: Limited Edition Red LP, T-Shirt & ‘Same Old Riff’ Guitar Pick.
TOUR DATES
21 May: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
22 May: Think Tank, Newcastle, UK
23 May: Stereo, Glasgow, UK
24 May: Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
25 May: Castle & Falcon, Birmingham, UK
27 May: Exchange, Bristol, UK
28 May: Chalk, Brighton, UK
29 May: Junction, Cambridge, UK
30 May: Oslo, London, UK
31 May: Bunkhouse, Swansea, UK
