She’s not likely to say it, so I’ll state (arguably somewhat obviously) that Fliss Kitson has made a mighty impact on The Nightingales’ machine since joining this cherished indie outfit’s ranks in late 2010, not least through her ongoing promotion of these great post-punk survivors.

Her enthusiasm (and she’s not really the pushy sort, I’d venture – it’s perhaps more a charm offensive) is apparent to all those who have dealt with the ‘Gales in recent times, and as band founder and kingpin Robert Lloyd put it to me in March 2021, on joining ‘she started helping out and proved far more enthusiastic and better at it… booking gigs and what-have-you, and tons of incidental stuff.’

Alongside her studio craft and stage presence, Fliss is behind much of the cracking sleeve art we’ve seen from these Midlands-based stalwarts in recent times, and as Robert added in our interview, ‘As well as being a really nice, fun person and an excellent drummer, she’s also turned out to be a right grafter. There are things like social media that we wouldn’t have {dealt with} otherwise.’

And that’s where we started our recent conversation, me suggesting social media is a necessary evil these days for any band looking to be properly heard.

“Oh, God, yeah, it is, and I am kind of shameless. This is what I do, and if you can’t toot your horn, why should anybody else?’ I want to spread the word, and there’s nothing wrong with that, so I’ll take that on board.”

That way, Rob can instead put all his energy into the music and, erm, be perceived as a bit curmudgeonly, yeah?

“Ha! Exactly. I’ll say, ‘Can we take a photo?’ and he’ll be like, ‘Ugh, oh God.’ But he rolls with it, and that’s why we work well together.”

Do you feel as a unit you’re still riding the wave of a resurgent interest in light of the cult success of Stewart Lee’s wonderful 2020 King Rocker documentary?

“Yeah, it’s amazing, really, for a band going four decades to get that tiny step up. We’re still really not that popular, but to even get some interest, it’s really difficult when you’ve been going that long. It was everything I’ve ever wanted, and I’m so pleased for Rob as well.

“But this year, we’ve taken a little break from touring, giving ourselves a little breathing space in the UK. Because you can just over-saturate it. We don’t want, for example, to play Birmingham every week, in case people decide to see us next week instead.”

It can be a bit of a tightrope, money too tight to mention Mick Hucknall and all that.

“Yeah, you just want to make it special, and for those tours to be special. It takes so much work to put them together, and it’s really disheartening if people get complacent about it. But I don’t know, next year if we tour, we might just become unpopular again!”

Is that the team goal?

“Ha! It might be Robert’s goal. He’s more destructive than me! It’s definitely not my goal. We shall see. But we’ve just come off tour with The Damned, so that might have spurred some people on.”

Indeed, and what did The Damned and their loyal fan-base make of The Nightingales on that April tour?

“That’s the question I should be asking! But it went exactly how I wanted it to go. We bamboozled a lot of people, and that’s good – I think it would be really weird if we didn’t. That’s just what we’re like. It’s not super-easy listening, but we won quite a lot of people over, and that was really nice.

“It’s the first time we’d ever done a tour support while I’ve been in the band, and quite a few years before that. It was an amazing experience, and I really loved it. Also, going on early and being looked after… it’s kind of a different world playing with The Damned, and at those venues… we were quite overwhelmed by it all, not very used to that.”

Did The Damned come over well?

“Oh, they were so lovely. They really looked after us. They hung out with us and watched us from the side of the stage most nights. Paul Gray, especially, watched us most evenings, and the general consensus was that we were their favourite tour support they’d had in recent times.

“I think it’s because we weren’t just the kind of straightforward punk band. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I think also because they were playing their new album in full they were also challenging the audience, so we kind of warmed the audience up for a challenge rather than a punk rock party!”

You didn’t feel the need to throw in a Nightingales take on ‘New Rose’ or even ‘Eloise’ any night then?

“That would have been great! I really wanted Rob to come out in a beret and white glasses on the last night, but he wasn’t up for it.

“Actually, one of our songs, ‘Little Lambs’, starts with the same drum beat as ‘New Rose’, and we added that to the set, which I thought was quite funny. That was our little homage, you know.”

It would have been interesting to see the surge away from the bar for that, casual punters thinking the headliners were already on.  

The Nightingales have been out on the circuit for longer than Robert Lloyd would probably care to remember, formed out of the remnants of Birmingham’s original punk group The Prefects, who were part of The Clash’s 1977 ‘White Riot’ tour and recorded two sessions for legendary BBC Radio 1 presenter John Peel.

Described by John Robb in post-punk compendium Death To Trad Rock as ‘the misfits’ misfits’ and comprising an ever-fluctuating line-up based around lyricist/singer Robert Lloyd, the ‘Gales enjoyed cult status in the early ’80s and were championed by Peel, who said, ‘Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans.’

They recorded several critically acclaimed singles – many becoming ‘Single of the Week’ in the music press – and three albums, alongside eight Peel sessions between 1980/86, while regularly touring the UK and Northern Europe.

In the late ‘80s, they stopped working, but finally re-grouped in 2004, in time – after ‘fucking about with various part-timers, starry-eyed wastrels, precious sorts and mercenaries’ – arriving at what has proved to be their longest-standing line up, Robert now accompanied by my interviewee, Fliss, plus Andreas Schmid (ex-Faust) on bass and James Smith on guitar, the latter headhunted after being spotted by Robert playing with Damo Suzuki.

In their second coming the group have certainly proved far more productive – releasing eight 7′′ vinyl singles, a 10” EP, two six-song mini-albums and eight full-length studio albums, continuing to regularly tour the UK and mainland Europe and also the USA, while appearing at various festivals and recording many radio sessions, and they’ve been ‘going steady’ with the Tiny Global Productions label since 2017.

Feature-length Nightingales documentary film, King Rocker, written and presented by stand-up comedian Stewart Lee and directed by Michael Cumming, also proved a game-changer. And beyond that there was May 2020’s Four Against Fate, largely seen as their best album to date. An accompanying UK tour was postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the film’s TV premiere on Sky Arts in early 2021 was hugely well received by the public and critics alike.

Since then, a wealth of produce has included a deluxe double-LP reissue of debut album, Pigs On Purpose, the first of a series of expanded, remastered reissues of the earlier catalogue, then September 2021’s Four Against Fate LP and its four-times-rearranged, largely sold-out UK tour, a special package soundtrack album to King Rocker, and October 2022’s The Last Laugh, recorded in Spain the previous September, its tie-in short run of UK dates in Spring 2022 featuring an increased seven-piece line-up, a year before those Damned support dates.

And my excuse for calling Fliss is a date on the horizon on my adopted patch in Lancashire, The Nightingales playing The Continental in Preston (see ticket link at the foot of this feature/interview), handy for an appearance at Blackpool’s Rebellion Festival and at a venue the band know well. Not as if they’ve played there for a while… despite their best intentions.

“I hate to bring this up, but we were supposed to play there during lockdown, then it got cancelled, booked again, booked again, then it fell through. So it’s been ages since we’ve been. We have a nice crowd there normally, so hopefully they’ll trust us – that we are going to turn up this time, and it is going to happen.”

Have you seen Uhr, your support band on the night?

“I haven’t, but I’ve been following them for a bit. And I’ve met Jack {Harkins}. He’s really nice. I’ve met the drummer as well.”

Ah, Dave Chambers, of Cornershop, Formula One, and The Common Cold near fame.

“Exactly, and I’ve listened to their music and videos, really like it, and it seems fun. And for me it was a good pairing.”

As it is, next year marks 20 years since Robert reconvened The Nightingales. Will there be tie-in celebrations for that looming landmark?

“Well, we have some planning to do, because next year we want to do a lot more… and do things differently. On our last UK run we just did four dates and did it with a bigger band – with horns and brass. That was real fun, mixing it up. But yeah, 20 years, wow! That’s amazing.”

I’m not sure if this is an original thought or if I heard something similar elsewhere, but I see The Nightingales in the same realm as the likes of The Membranes in that you’re both somewhat cherished in post-punk circles but a relatively high proportion of those who like you couldn’t easily name too many of your songs.

“I was thinking about this earlier, about the popularity of bands that mainly have songs that you could sing along to. But when people come and see us, they’re not really waiting for a song at all. And I guess that’s quite strange. I was thinking, I wonder what bands I could compare that to. There’d always be a couple of songs that I’d want to hear, but… we don’t have any hits!”

I discussed that notion with John Robb about The Membranes and he gave it a positive spin, suggesting it gave him more freedom when it came to choosing setlists, not being encumbered by a fixed number of songs he felt they had to perform on any given night.

“Oh God, yeah, that is amazing, and that’s what Robert would say. He really enjoys curating sets, because there’s so much to pick from, and it’s all quite enjoyable to play for us… and we just want to have a good time. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth doing. We’re not in it for the money.”

I think that’s fairly clear. And despite saying that as a band you should be blowing your own trumpet or horn as nobody else will, I get the feeling you’d be reticent to admit your own impact on the ‘Gales, on and off stage. And I love the way your voice works with Rob’s. It sounds a bit obvious to come up with a list of acts that do something similar, featuring female vocalists – from The B-52’s to Girls at our Best – but you give us something slightly off the wall that proves rather special.

“Thank you. That’s really nice. I do enjoy it. It took me a while to feel confident with that, like, ‘What is this female voice doing over the top of our beloved Rob? But I think I’ve warmed to that, and really do enjoy it. I think we go well together. Our voices do add a different dimension really.”

I love the quirky nature of the way the ‘Gales head one way in a song then suddenly veer off elsewhere. For instance, on ‘I Needed Money at the Time’ – towards the end it’s almost becomes Buzzcocks-esque.

“Yeah. That’s how we write, and often, we have these bits and then just stick them together.”

Well, if it was good enough for The Beatles… on Abbey Road, for instance.

“Well, there you go! And it’s always fun.”

Your most recent LP, The Last Laugh, carried on, for my money, where you left off with Four Against Fate, the album that arguably paved a way for the renewed interest, brilliantly timed in that respect, in light of King Rocker and all that.

“Oh, thank you, yeah, that was a really… it seems ages ago since we put it out, yet we’ve hardly really played it. We played it on the tour with a big band, but only did those four gigs then. But it was a really great album to write, and I took on the role of writing a lot of that album, which was real fun.

“That’s where the brass came in, because I found the brass section on GarageBand and just got very excited about it. I can’t actually play any other instrument apart from drums. But GarageBand kind of lets you express yourself differently.”

The bigger live band mentioned included recent WriteWyattUK interviewee and brass session legend, Terry Edwards, who has his own links with Fliss’ old patch in Norwich, through his time with The Higsons while studying at the University of East Anglia.

In fact, it seems that Terry {tenor/soprano sax, trumpet, maracas}has populated around 25 per cent of my recent interviews through his many contributions to records and live shows. And he definitely adds so much to the two songs he features on for The Last Laugh.

“Oh God, yeah. What an honour! Also, him and Beth{Hopkins, alto sax, clarinet, guitar} wrote their own parts for those songs. And we recorded one of those gigs, in Birmingham, and we’re releasing that as a live album soon.

“Live albums can be a bit hit or miss… and often miss, so we didn’t record it to be like, ‘We’re gonna release this.’ But Andy, our bass player, worked his magic on it in the studio, and it really does capture that. Terry, Beth, and Natalie {Mason, viola, keys}, are outstanding. It was such an honour to hear those songs recreated like that.”

That live LP is set to land in September via this Bandcamp link or the band’s live shows, and the following month the ‘Gales are due to travel to mainland Europe (with details of that tour announced soon), no doubt a little easier for Germany-based Andreas Schmid (bass). And while we’re talking geographical conundrums, with Andy overseas, Norfolk born and bred Fliss and James Smith (guitar) based in Birmingham, and Rob in Telford, how does it work these days?

“We all meet in Wolverhampton, kind of in the middle, and practise most weeks, just us three… though it obviously doesn’t sound as great without Andy’s magical bass. But he doesn’t need as much practice as we do, because he’s a proper pro. We need to oil ourselves up a bit before.

“We’ll get back to that then hopefully do some songwriting again. It’s been ages. There’s a house in Wolverhampton where our road manager, who does our merch and has been part of the Nightingales family forever, is, so we all stay at his when we can.”

The most recent album was recorded in Valencia. Was that a working holiday, away from it all?

“It was lovely. Our label, Tiny Global, is based there, so he was able to put us up, which was amazing, and found a really great studio. Rob really likes swimming, so every morning he – and some of us, if we were up – would go in the sea, a really nice start.

“Then we’d go to the studio, and because Spain is kind of closed in the afternoons, we’d get to do all our work in the day and have fun at night, have some good food. It was great, we had a really good time, and it was really productive. I’d love to do that again.”

How did this 37-year-old, originally from Dereham, end up with a legendary post-punk outfit from the Midlands led by a 64-year-old? And tell us more about your East Anglian roots.

“When I was growing up there, in my late teens when I started playing music and drums, it was really inspiring to be in Norwich, because there were so many women in music. I didn’t know that wasn’t that common. My first drum teacher was female. Only later did I realise that’s not really the reality of it. But it was very inspiring.”

I have a soft spot for that part of the world, maybe stemming from a love of The Farmer’s Boys, The Higsons and Serious Drinking in the days when John Peel featured them all regularly. Then there were my visits there in formative years (plus the fact that my Wyatt ancestors go right back to the Suffolk side of the border).

“It is gorgeous. I love going back. I just don’t want to live there. But that’s the same as most people where they grow up – you don’t want to bump into everyone they know all the time.”

Was that where your previous band, Violet Violet, hailed from?

“Yeah, that was Norwich. That was amazing, some of the best times ever. We were at sixth form and there was a battle of the bands’ competition. There were some boys that started a band to take part in it and we wanted to just beat the boys, so we started a band.

“I was already having drum lessons, and a couple of my friends started to play the bass and guitar and stuff. We didn’t really know what we were doing. We were just having lots of fun. We didn’t win, but we did beat the boys! And we decided to carry on.

“Some of the girls weren’t as passionate about it or didn’t want to spend that much time making music. They had other stuff they wanted to do. They went off and it was kind of me and Cheri {Amour}, and we carried on. We had an amazing time… and that’s how I met The Nightingales.

“We got to support them and travelled around Europe and America and the UK with the ‘Gales. It was so much fun. We just loved it.”

Incidentally, Cheri Amour, Fliss’ former bandmate from Violet Violet, these days presents The Other Womxn show on Soho Radio. Were the girls aware of The Nightingales when they first supported them?

“No. Robert contacted us on MySpace, when that was in fashion, and said, ‘Do you want to support The Nightingales on tour?’ And honestly, we just replied, ‘Why?’ We kind of looked at them and thought, ‘This bunch of blokes want us to join them on tour… a bit odd.’ But then we did some research and were like, ‘Oh, okay, actually this band seem kind of cool.’

“That’s where my kind of post-punk era started, and where I got into all that, at 18 or 19… maybe a bit older. That’s how we got to know and love them. And honestly, the most fun of touring with The Nightingales was watching them every night. We were singing along to every song, and I was in awe of Daren {Garratt} – his drumming was so inspiring.”

I see another band he’s associated with, Pram, are also on your Void Artists live band roster (as are New Zealand’s The Chills and recent Fall alumnus collective House of All, among many more).

“Yeah, and I really enjoyed watching Daren play. A great time.”

Did he put a word in when he was set to leave the ‘Gales?

“Err.. well, Daren and Rob tell this story of the first time they saw Violet Violet, years before I joined The Nightingales, when Daren went up to Rob and said, ‘I suppose I’m sacked, chief.’ I think Rob said, ‘If there ever becomes a shift in the line-up, I’ll ask Fliss.’ And that of course did happen.”

For this website’s March 2021 feature/interview with Robert Lloyd of The Nightingales, head here. And for all the latest from The Nightingales, visit their website. You can also follow them via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The Nightingales, with support from Uhr, visit The Continental in Preston on Friday, August 4^th, with doors at 8pm and tickets £17 in advance via this link.