The Nightingales with support from Ted Chippington

“This year we toured a bunch of the UK’s big cities with The Damned & also took our super schtick to Preston, Blackpool & Belfast, covering (most of) the standard British rock n roll stops. All good, but – as you hear ad nauseam – 2024 demands change, so…

After blasting Bognor Regis at Rockway Beach in January we are gonna gleefully grace a few paths less trodden with our dubiously titled ‘Off The Beaten Track Tour’ which includes half a dozen towns we have never played before &, as sure as eggs is eggs, it will be a cracker.

It goes without saying that if you live near one of these lucky areas you should calm your smugness & get yourself a ticket pronto. & obviously if you live further afield it is truly holiday time, so don’t dither, sort yer travel out n book your gig admission.”

Deadpan stand-up Ted Chippington – who Stewart Lee credits with inspiring him to go into comedy – will be opening for the Nightingales. Chippington avoids observational comedy in favour of anti-humour and jokes which are mostly variations on the same theme, delivered in his West Midlands monotone. 

He also frequently performs his own versions of well-known songs in a similarly listless style – and he has been known to leave audiences bemused or hostile.

Lee has described Chippington’s act as ‘a mixture of surrealism and insolent provocation and uncompromising boredom’ and citing him as ‘the first post-alternative comedian’. He retired in 1990 but made a comeback in the late 2000s thanks to Lee sparking more interest in his work, and has frequently toured with The Nightingales ever since.