10 Amazing '80s Bands That Everyone Forgot About
5. The Nightingales
In 2020, masterful comedian Stewart Lee presented a documentary about The Nightingales, who have cut fantastically freewheeling post-punk records for the past 40 years. The intention was to celebrate this unheralded band, but it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to imagine it might boost their profile and drive up streaming figures a little.
It didn’t, and that’s probably just the way fans of the band like it. The Nightingales are a cult band among cult bands, a Fall without the column inches (though they similarly had the support of John Peel). The records go to odd places (though not exclusively - they could cut good riffs and memorable lyrics on the likes of “What A Carry On” and “Surplus And Scarcity”), and there are a lot of albums to dig into.
Sophomore effort Hysterics (1983) may be their most immediate work, with “Crafty Fag” a career highlight. The band went away, worked straight jobs, and came back just as weird every time. 2015’s Mind Over Matter slows down the tempo but has some of their most strangely invasive melodies to date, like the crunching, oblique “Taffy Come Home”.
Few bands have ever had less interest in compromise or softening, and for that reason, if you’re a fan of The Nightingales, you’re all in.