Wally Nightingale

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 and The Swankers 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. During this period Nightingale wrote the music for "Did You No Wrong", a song which eventually became the B-side of the Sex Pistols' single "God Save the Queen".

By this time, Bernie Rhodes had shown an interest in managing the band (which was now called The Swankers), but their only public performance was in early 1975 at a birthday party for one of Cook's friends in Chelsea. At the short three-song gig, the line-up consisted of Jones on vocals, Nightingale on guitar, Matlock on bass and Cook on drums. 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. 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." During the same month he also performed live with the HIV charity awareness project band the Rock'n'Roll Gypsies.

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

Song writing credits The band that went on to become the Sex Pistols played mainly cover versions of other bands' work, and wrote only two original songs before the arrival of Glen Matlock and John Lydon. One was called "Scarface" (with music by Nightingale and lyrics written by Nightingale's father, according to Glen Matlock)