Wally Nightingale

Warwick Alan "Wally" Nightingale (3 January 1956 – 6 May 1996) was an English musician. He was best known as the guitarist and founder of the band that eventually became the Sex Pistols. According to guitarist Steve Jones, Nightingale left the band in 1975 after Malcolm McLaren agreed to manage the band, but "... only if we got rid of Wally."

Nightingale died in May 1996 from complications of substance abuse.

Nightingale and the Sex Pistols

Born in West Kensington, there are few public details of Nightingale's life. In the documentary The Filth and The Fury, drummer Paul Cook said "I think it was Wally, the famous Wally Nightingale, who had said 'Well, let's start a band' ," accompanied by pictures showing the early band, which consisted of Nightingale on guitar, Steve Jones on vocals, and Cook on drums.^[1] The band was formed in 1973 and named "The Strand", after Do the Strand by Roxy Music.^[2] Nightingale was in the same class at Sir Christopher Wren School as Cook.

The Strand rehearsed frequently, mostly upstairs at Nightingale's house on Hemlock Road in East Acton during the day when his parents were working. The band had a very fluid line-up; at one point Paul Cook's uncle handled the bass guitar duties,^[3] and at one point Steve Hayes played bass guitar with the outfit.^[4] Jimmy Mackin played organ with the band from 1974 to early 1975, and the band also had a conga player, Cecil.

By 1975 the band was rehearsing at Crunchy Frog, a studio near the London Docklands. They were at the time managed by Bernie Rhodes, who tried to organize shows. The only reported gig during the entire existence of The Strand, which by this time had been renamed to "The Swankers", was in early 1975 at a birthday party for one of Cook's friends above Tom Salter's Café on Kings Road in Chelsea, London. At the short, three-song gig, The Strand consisted of Steve Jones on vocals, Wally Nightingale on guitar, Del Noones on bass and Paul Cook on drums. Nightingale recorded the performance on a cassette tape, but accidentally erased the tape two years later. Noones, despite being married to Cook's sister and thus being his brother-in-law, was ejected from the band shortly afterwards, due to his unreliability and unwillingness to rehearse. In the early summer of 1974, Glen Matlock stepped in as a permanent bass player at the suggestion of Malcolm McLaren.

After persistent requests by Jones, McLaren agreed to become manager of The Swankers. However, McLaren thought Nightingale was "too nice", and by early 1975 Nightingale and Jones were in disagreement over the direction the band should take. Having been after McLaren to manage them for some time because of his previous connections in the music business (primarily as a brief manager for The New York Dolls), Cook and Jones eventually decided to take McLaren's advice. Jones switched to lead guitar and backing vocals and the band continued on without founder Nightingale. Nightingale was informed of the decision upon his arrival to a rehearsal. In interviews he stated he "was so gutted that I didn't say anything. I even went for a drink with them that evening."^[5]

With the personnel changes, the band initially changed their name to "QT Jones & his Sex Pistols"^[6] at McLaren's suggestion, but the name was later shortened to The Sex Pistols. McLaren considered Jones's singing unsuitable and John Lydon (soon renamed Johnny Rotten) was recruited in August. Sex Pistols played their first gig on 6 November the same year, a little over six months after Nightingale had left. When Nightingale saw them play at the 100 Club and later said "they 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. After I left, Steve and the others slagged me off in the music press really badly. I never really knew why; I never did them any harm." About the person who got him fired, he simply stated "McLaren was devious but 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."^[7]

After The Swankers

After Nightingale was ousted from The Swankers he tried to form a new band but without lasting success. He developed an addiction to heroin after his father, an electrician and part-time film technician at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, died in 1981. He was subsequently jailed in the early 1980s after receiving a 6-month sentence for undisclosed "drug-related offences".^[8]

Wally co-founded the band Key West in 1981 with Ron Evans on guitar, Steve Giles on bass, Bob Stocker on drums and various singers including Gary Martin and Shaun Newnham. A demo of four songs written by Nightingale and Evans was submitted to Warner Brothers who showed interest. They played at The Kensington Ad Lib club and played for eight months before disbanding. Key West had an MTV video made which was aired, and made several recordings at Fastbuck studios in Chiswick.

Nightingale performed as a one-off guest guitarist with Brentwood punk rockers Beat of the Beast in 1989.

On 16 November 1995 Wally played guitar on the track "Rich Girls" on Mat Sargent's Sex Drugs and HIV album, using the name Wally Pistol. Wally also performed live with the HIV project band Rock'n'Roll Gypsies on 18 November 1995.

Nightingale died in May 1996 from drug related complications.

Authorship

The only original songs from the "Nightingale period" band that can be verified are an unreleased track called "Scarface" (with lyrics penned by Nightingale's father, according to Matlock) and the track "Did You No Wrong" (which Nightingale wrote the music for while Jones wrote the lyrics).^[9] The lyrics to the latter were subsequently rewritten by Johnny Rotten and in 1977 the song was released as the b-side to the Sex Pistols second single "God Save The Queen". It was later included on the compilation album Flogging a Dead Horse and has regularly been played live by the Sex Pistols during their reunion shows in the 1990s and 2000s. The Warner Chappell Music database recognises Nightingale as co-author;.^[10]

Fictional portrayals

A character based upon Nightingale, billed as "Wally Hairstyle", appeared in the 1986 Sid Vicious biographical film Sid & Nancy, portrayed by Graham Fletcher-Cook.

References