In April 2025 the Nightingales released a new album “The Awful Truth” and were due to embark on a UK tour shortly afterwards before a serious illness interjected and fucked up the year’s plans.
The album came out via Fire Records who were responsible for the deluxe reissues of the band’s earlier records plus the “King Rocker” movie (see below) but “The Awful Truth” was the first all new album for the label.
Recorded in a remote spot in the old DDR, the album contains 13 songs produced by the band’s bassist Andreas Schmid and comes packaged in a beautiful sleeve featuring a painting by Tomasso Salini.
It is the Nightingales’ first release since September 2023’s “Live In Balsall Heath”, a (now sold out) limited edition double LP which is an unadulterated 68 minute document of a live show that the ‘Gales played in Birmingham, augmented by guest musicians, including sax god Terry Edwards.
Following that album’s release the group were pleased to undertake their first post pandemic tour of mainland Europe, featuring visits to Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Czechia and a long weekend of shows in Ireland.
The Nightingales were less busy than usual in 2024 but did play the Rockaway Beach and Green Man festivals in addition to their own headline ‘Off The Beaten Track’ tour in May, featuring gigs in some smaller, less visited towns.
First shown on Sky Arts in February 2021 “King Rocker” is the critically acclaimed documentary feature film about Robert Lloyd and the Nightingales written and presented by Stewart Lee, directed by Michael Cumming and produced by James Nicholls for Fire Films. The movie’s cinema debut was at the respected Sheffield documentary film festival and it has since been screened at assorted cinemas, music and film festivals, from Glastonbury to Perth, Australia. It is also available as a bookback DVD.
Since the film – and it’s soundtrack album – the band released “The Last Laugh” described by critics as, “a rollocking, sardonic, sprawling, cuddly beast of a new album from Birmingham’s finest”, “a brilliant album”, “a masterpiece”, blah, blah.
“The Last Laugh” was the final release of Nightingales material in 2022. Earlier there had been “The New Nonsense”, a 12” EP featuring radical reworkings of tracks from the band’s previous album “Four Against Fate” by top techno DJ Surgeon, the Go! Team and German wunderkind Randy Kuntz. Then, continuing the series of unreleased material and reissues, the group’s second album “Hysterics” was released as a ‘deluxe’ double album, followed by an expanded reissue of “In The Good Old Country Way”
In April 2023 the ‘Gales were chuffed to be special guests of The Damned on a highly successful tour of most of the UK’s major cities and, following a rather quiet 2024, the group were looking forward to their own headline UK tour in May ’25.
Unfortunately, but familiarly, the Gods conspired to knock the band back a year on their plans but… 2026 will involve a GB tour in February, a few gigs in Ireland in May, a new album later in the year and assorted other stuff.