From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V7 #287 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Monday, October 4 2004 Volume 07 : Number 287 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [idealcopy] 80p well spent......... ["j.hobson" ] Re: [idealcopy] the nightingales [MarkBursa@aol.com] Re: [idealcopy] the nightingales ["Keith Astbury" Subject: Re: [idealcopy] 80p well spent......... > (is that what it costs? i bought the 12" but i've never ventured into the > odd world of paid-for downloads) p Odd OK..aimed at people who can't add up. You pay the same money for no packaging, you do the pressing on your own disc and are limited to a a couple of burns. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2004 16:16:56 -0400 From: MarkBursa@aol.com Subject: Re: [idealcopy] the nightingales >>Saw The Nightingales last night in Shrewsbury. Great stuff!! Tiny, tiny venue(room above a pub). Really good atmosphere.<< Tiny rooms above pubs are the natural domain of the Nightingale. However, 24 hours later they were in a rather larger room in the basement of a typically dour Brummy boozer which despite a fabulous location (literally across the road from the new landmark Selfridges store) had obviously not seen a lick of paint since around 1979. >>To be honest The Nightingales were more a band I *liked* rather than loved, but they were excellent - I'd seen them once before, way back in 1986 << Having spent most of the early 80s in Birmingham, the Nightingales were an unavoidable feature fo the local gig scene, usually as part of a double-header bill with the equally fabulous Cravats, in crummy rooms above pubs such as the Fighting Cocks or the Bournbrook, long-since lost to the world of rock venuehood. So I must have seen them a dozen times between 1980 and 84, with an ever-shifting line-up whose only constant is lumbering NHS-bespectacled frontman Rob Lloyd. Not for nothing were teh Nightingales referred to back then as 'The Birmingham Fall'. A historical note - the Nightingales evolved from The Prefects, the gretest of all lost original Punk bands; bottom of the bill on the Anarchy tour, and so on. In fact the revival of activity resulted from a Prefects reunion gig a couple of years ago, part fo a 25 years of Punk event organised by Wolverhampton Uni, whose professor of popular culture (or some such) is the Prefects/Nightingales guitarist Alan Apperley, whose profession Keith correctly identifies! >>- and they were good then, but this was better, which i think - 18yrs on! - is a remarkable achievement.<< It's taken a couple of years for them to get this good. They did a few gigs as the Prefects and then simply changed to being the Nightingales again. The line-up has shifted about - various other ex-members of the band have already been and gone - but now they seem to have settled into an optimum configuration which, as you say, sounds as good as, if not better than, back in their 80s heyday. >>They played Parafin Brain, Cakehole and a few others I knew that I can't put names to as I haven't played them in a long time, but I was chuffed they played The Crunch (from Pigs On Purpose) which was always a fave. The last two tracks were excellent - a sort of swampy number and then a really relentless one with a great beat that again I can't put a name to. They also played a glam one which was funny - if someone had walked in at that point and seen some some overweight bloke in glasses gyrating to a glitterstomp whilst the punky looking guitarist was mincing about a la The Sweet's Steve Priest, they would surely have wondered what they'd walked into! I think the c&w number should go, though.<< The oh-so-wittily titled Black Country has already been released as a single! Did they not also do their version of Alvin Stardust's My Coo ca choo? Right up your street, Keith ;-) >>What a strange looking band though - they all look like they should be in different bands! There's an aging bassist who looks like a roadie,<< This is Eamon Duffy, original 1980 'Gales bassist, but only present on their first single andfirst Peel session. Constantly back in the band since the Prefects reunion, he's the main songwriting collaborator with Rob. Great bass player too. >> whilst one guitarist looks like a college lecturer<< Correct, as already stated! Co-founder of the Prefects, but never a Nightingale until 2001, fact fans! >>and the other looks like he should be in the Angelic Upstarts.<< This is the legendary Peter 'Tank' Byrchmore, guitarist in the late-period Nightingales, when they got very Beefheartian. Really makes a difference, as does the addition of Brum legend Fuzz Townsend (Bentley Rhythm Ace etc) on drums. >> As for singer Robert Lloyd, he somehow manages the unenviable task of resembling both a Northern comedian and a bulky John Major!!<< He's hardly changed in 20 years too. More info here http://home.clara.net/kidd/nightingales.html and here http://www.thenightingales.org.uk/ Mark ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 00:28:30 +0100 From: "Keith Astbury" Subject: Re: [idealcopy] the nightingales > Tiny rooms above pubs are the natural domain of the Nightingale. Thinking about it, it was an upstairs room in that rock'n'roll capital, Oswestry, that I saw them the first time. Mind you, it was like the G-Mex compared to the size of The Albert, Shrewsbury! > So I must have seen them a dozen times between 1980 and 84, with an ever-shifting line-up whose only constant is lumbering NHS-bespectacled frontman Rob Lloyd. You may have seen a friends band, Natsat Patio, then. They supported the Nightingales a number of times circa '82-83. Rumour has it that after NP had done their soundcheck, the Nightingales said "Do us a favour lads, do our soundcheck for us. We're off to the pub!" >Not for nothing were teh Nightingales referred to back then as 'The Birmingham Fall'. The missing link btwn The Fall and The Smiths IMO. In fact, when I first heard Hand In Glove I thought it sounded very like The Nightingales, and thought the Smiths would become a band of a similar stature commercially. I was slightly off-radar with that one! > A historical note - the Nightingales evolved from The Prefects, the gretest of all lost original Punk bands; bottom of the bill on the Anarchy tour, and so on. Going Through The Motions is a real post-punk classic. > In fact the revival of activity resulted from a Prefects reunion gig a couple of years ago, part fo a 25 years of Punk event organised by Wolverhampton Uni, whose professor of popular culture (or some such) is the Prefects/Nightingales guitarist Alan Apperley, whose profession Keith correctly identifies! Spooky!! BTW That name sounds supiciously like Graham Fellows latest incarnation, Brian Appleby, who just happens to be a...professor of popular music!! > The oh-so-wittily titled Black Country has already been released as a single! Did they not also do their version of Alvin Stardust's My Coo ca choo? Right up your street, Keith ;-) Sadly they didn't! > This is Eamon Duffy, original 1980 'Gales bassist, but only present on their first single andfirst Peel session. Constantly back in the band since the Prefects reunion, he's the main songwriting collaborator with Rob. Great bass player too. Excellent bassist. Was really imprssed with some of the runs that lay beneath all that angular riffing. > >>and the other looks like he should be > in the Angelic Upstarts.<< > > This is the legendary Peter 'Tank' Byrchmore, guitarist in the late-period Nightingales, when they got very Beefheartian. Really makes a difference Yeah, he's an excellent guitarist. Manages to sound very Beefheartian, glammy, c&w, punky. There's usually three of those descriptions per song! Incidentally, I am reliably informed that some of Tank's pedals started life with amon duul II, were flogged to Marc Bolan & somehow ended up under the Tank's feet!! > as does the addition of Brum legend Fuzz Townsend (Bentley Rhythm Ace etc) on drums. He's gone - they've got a new drummer (Lloyd made a point of mentioning how well the drummer had done since he'd only played with them for the first time the previous Sunday! Apparently, he's the drummer in another band, Volcano the Bear. I'm seriously considering going to see them at the Manchester gig next week if I can make it. I was *that* impressed!! Keith ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V7 #287 *******************************