Wally Nightingale

Wally Nightingale
Background information
Born
Warwick Alan Nightingale

3 January 1956
OriginLondon, England
Died6 May 1996 (aged 40)
InstrumentGuitar
Years active1972–1975, 1981, 1995

Warwick Alan "Wally" Nightingale (3 January 1956 – 6 May 1996) was an English guitarist. He co-founded the band that went on to become the Sex Pistols.

Early life

Nightingale was born in West Kensington, London. He attended Christopher Wren Boys' School, in Shepherd's Bush, where he met Paul Cook and Steve Jones, who were also pupils.

The Strand

In 1972, at the end of their school years, Nightingale told Cook and Jones they should start a band. The three called themselves The Strand, after Roxy Music's song "Do the Strand"; Jones was the singer, Nightingale played guitar, and Cook was the drummer. Jones and Nightingale stole high-quality instruments and equipment from professional headline musical acts (including Bob Marley, Rod Stewart, and David Bowie) by breaking into venues where they were due to perform. The band began rehearsing at Nightingale's home in East Acton during the day when his parents were out at work. They soon added Del Noones (Paul Cook's brother-in-law) as a bassist, as well as a couple of Steve Jones's friends from Christopher Wren Boys' School, Steve Hayes and Jimmy Macken. They briefly had a conga player named Cecil as well.

By late 1974, the band had begun rehearsing at one of the sound stages of Riverside Studios where Nightingale's father was working. Noones was fired from the band for not attending rehearsals; he was replaced by Glen Matlock, a part-time shop assistant at Malcolm McLaren's clothing shop, where Jones and Cook had begun socialising. ,

By early 1975, Bernie Rhodes had shown an interest in managing the band (which was now called The Swankers). Their only public performance was in early 1975 at a birthday party for one of Cook's friends in Chelsea. The Strand played mainly cover versions of other bands' work, and wrote only two original songs before the arrival of Glen Matlock. One was called "Scarface" (with music by Nightingale and lyrics written by Nightingale's father, according to Glen Matlock) which was never released. The other song was "Did You No Wrong", for which Nightingale composed the music and Jones wrote original lyrics. Jones' lyrics to the latter song were subsequently in 1976, but Nightingale's musical arrangement remained unchanged, and the song was released as the b-side to the Sex Pistols' second single “God Save The Queen”, with Jones' original lyrics being rewritten by John Lydon.

Jones, who was impressed by McLaren's prior involvement with the New York Dolls, repeatedly requested that McLaren become the band's manager, and in mid-1975 he agreed. However, McLaren thought Nightingale did not fit the image of the band he had in mind, and told Jones and Cook he would only manage them if they fired Nightingale. Jones, who did not feel comfortable in the singer's role, had been covertly working hard for several months to learn to play guitar. Nightingale was informed that he was being fired upon his arrival for a rehearsal.

Later life

With Nightingale gone, the band changed its name to QT Jones & his Sex Pistols at McLaren's suggestion, but the name was soon shortened to The Sex Pistols. McLaren began looking for a new singer, and settled on John Lydon, who frequently hung around his shop. The Sex Pistols played their first gig on 6 November 1975 at the St Martins school of art, six months after Nightingale's departure. In a later interview Nightingale recalled watching them perform at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, commenting "[Jones and Cook] wouldn't even talk to me. In hindsight I suppose I'm proud to have been involved in the punk scene, though I don't go around telling everyone of it. After I left [the band], Steve and the others slagged me off in the music press really badly. I never really knew why, I never did them any harm." However, with regard to his views in retrospect on McLaren's part in removing him from the band, in the same interview Nightingale stated: "McLaren was devious and clever. He'd see things which other people didn't see, and I suppose that's what gave him his edge. Malcolm made the Sex Pistols."

After his father's death in 1981, Nightingale developed an addiction to narcotics, and was subsequently imprisoned in the early 1980s for six months for a conviction associated with it. His subsequent public musical appearances were rare and sporadic, appearing as a one-off guest guitarist with the Brentwood punk rock band Beat of the Beast in 1989. In November 1995 he played guitar on the song "Rich Girls" on Mat Sargent's Sex, Drugs & HIV album. During the same month he also performed live with the HIV charity awareness project band the Rock'n'Roll Gypsies.

Nightingale died on 6 May 1996, of a drug-related illness at the age of 40.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jones & Cook interview, 'There'll Always be an England', Julien Temple, Freemantle Home Entertainment (DVD), 2008.
  2. 1 2 Jones & Cook interviews, The Filth and The Fury, Julien Temple, Film Four (DVD), 2000
  3. ↑ Savage, Jon (18 January 2002). England's Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 77. ISBN 0312288220.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Membery, York (1993). "Interview With Wally Nightingale". Rock Compact Disc Magazine (14).
  5. 1 2 Jones, Steve (11 January 2017). Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306824814.
  6. ↑ http://latestnews.virginmedia.com/news/entertainment/2008/06/17/life_and_times_of_the_sex_pistols [permanent dead link]
  7. 1 2 3 Matlock, Glen (1998). I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0711918171.
  8. ↑ "Search results".
  9. ↑ 'Malcolm McLaren: Artful Dodger', television documentary, British Broadcasting Corporation, 2010.
  10. ↑ savage, Jon (4 August 2010). The England's Dreaming Tapes. University Of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816672929.
  11. ↑ "Archived copy". www.reocities.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ↑ "Sex Pistols timeline". Sex Pistols Official Website.
  13. ↑ Cramp, Nathaniel (24 July 2006). "The pistols are born: It happened here". Time Out London.[permanent dead link]
  14. ↑ Strongman, Phil (2008). Pretty Vacant: A History of UK Punk. Chicago Review Press. p. 252. ISBN 978-1556527524.
  15. ↑ "The Launch". littlelondonstudios.com. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  16. ↑ Moskowitz, David V. (10 November 2015). The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time: A Guide to the Legends Who Rocked the World. ABC-CLIO. p. 583. ISBN 978-1440803406.
  17. ↑ Chimes, Terry (1 June 2015). The Strange Case of Dr Terry and Mr Chimes. Wilkinson Press. ISBN 978-1922178244.