|
YORK CITY SOUTH |
New Frontiers
The Nightingales - Heroes Return?
With a new album in the bag, The Nightingales began another year on the road. The summer tour got off to a flying start in May and included 2 sell out dates in London before hitting York Fibbers on June 4.
York got off to a bad start. The venue tried to re-negotiate terms. The bands threatened not to play if they did.
Ted Chippington, a Bootham Crescent regular in his Red Rhino days in the 1980s, took to the stage a delivered set mixing some of his classic material with new, whilst bridging the gap between the two with new updates to old classics. At times on the tour, he was back to his 80s best, but given the pre gig atmosphere (which incidentally he did not sing on the night), he failed to hit the same high spots as in London a week earlier when he worked York City into his true greatness spiel.
For someone who spent a lot of time in York in the 1980s, this was the first time Robert Lloyd had brought a band to play in York. For someone dubbed as "The first punk in Birmingham", 35 years too late in my opinion.
The current Nightingales have been together for a couple of years. A mix of backgrounds and experience, they were really on form throughout the tour. I was going to say, The Nightingales get better with age, let me just say The Nightingales get better. The only things the band members seem to have in common is that they are all fine musicians in their own right, were hand picked by Robert Lloyd and are black suited.
No need to describe the songs, except to say with Fliss Kitson behind the drums and 3 basses and guitars (ranging from a young snappers to Prefects veteran), its a tight wall of sound from start to finish, playing a set of recent material and without having to resort to their extensive back catalogue to hit the high spots. No time for chat, Robert Lloyd sang for nearly an hour before having to wrap up to allow the venue to get ready for its regular Monday club night.
To quote MoJo from an earlier show, as I could not put it better myself.
"Recently retrained at the Jochen Irmler Faust Studio, tonight Lloyd and founder Prefects guitarist Alan Apperley field a side barely three weeks old. Bassist Andreas Schmid, a Faust Studio apprentice, is suitably young and severe, the possible leader of some Marxist-Leninist '70s student cell, in academic black suit and socialist haircut. Skinny in black jeans and black western shirt, hair like squid-ink candy floss, rhythm guitarist Matt Wood resembles a teenage Horrors offcast, while from behind her own heavy witch-black fringe ex-Violet Violet drummer Fliss Kitson pounds out the glam-kosmische bin rhythms. As Lloyd takes the stage - stout, bespectacled, wily smile flickering between joy and contempt - the image is complete; it is the embittered Marxist history teacher fronting the school band, the academy in peril".
"With no time for nostalgia, tonight The Nightingales ignore any notion of greatest hits in favour of joyous reinvention. Feeding off the hard-drilled energy of these junior initiates, Apperley spins frayed Bo Diddley riffs around Lloyd's tumbling psychedelic eavesdroppings, allowing the singer to recycle, reinvent and repurpose thirty years of vituperative notebook aphorisms, constructing an intense, breathless narrative from the recycled past to the scorched present. And, like some Christ-like curmudgeon, newly risen to grouse again, Lloyd feeds off the audience fervour".
"The band become yet more powerful, Apperley and the kids locked in a heavy zig-zag groove as Lloyd bellows out caustic images from his mordant world-view, like some Black Country Stuart Staples, holidaying in the window of an Arndale Pound Shop. The cumulative effect is one of euphoric delight, of old knowledge in the hands of new disciples".
Previously, Robert Lloyd, himself, had torn me off a strip when comparing The Nightingales to The Fall. With hindsight (and having seen The Fall recently), I would now have to say The Nightingales are definitely the better. The music, the band and the singer sounding fresh and invigorated and ready to take on the world.
So impressed was one guy that after the gig, he spent 85 quid buying one of everything from The Nightingales / Ted Chippington back catalogues.
The only disappointment being the poor turn out. Where was the crowd from the 80s? Hopefully not celebrating the jubilee with the queen.
For Ted, a chance to meet up with one of his 80s heroes. Step forward The Eight Track Cartridge Family. Thanks Nick.
The word is getting about and when The Nightingales hit London in October, they were greeted by a number of fans who had not seen then for 20 or more years. Their UK tour being followed by a 3 week trek across Western Europe.
The album went on to receive critical acclaim and a place in the MoJo Top 50 albums of 2012. Expect both The Nightingales and Ted Chippington to be back on the road in 2013, go and see them when they¡¯re down your way. Meanwhile check out The Nightingales website for where to buy the CD.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views stated in New Frontiers are solely those of New Frontiers and do not necessarily represent those of York City Football Club or York City South (a branch of The York City Football Club Supporters Club).
Email Chris - New Frontiers editor & YCS site webmaster