Screenings of his Nightingales rock doc ... plus Q&As

Stewart Lee is taking his film about underground post-punk band The Nightingales on the road.

King Rocker will be screened at six cinemas across the UK this month and next – each followed by a Q&A with the comedian and the film’s director Michael Cumming, whose other credits include Brass Eye and Toast Of London.

Lee is a long-time fan of the Birmingham-based band, its frontman Robert Lloyd and his previous outfit the Prefects and says the two years he spent writing and presenting the project was ‘a labour of love’.

The documentary weaves the band’s story with that of a sculpture of King Kong that was erected in the city’s Bull Ring shopping centre in 1972, but was largely unloved by the city’s residents.

King Rocker had been due to play cinemas last autumn following a debut at the Sheffield Doc/Fest - but Covid put paid to that, and instead it made its debut on Sky Arts in February.

The screenings are:

November 9: Everyman Broadgate, London TICKETS
November 10: Everyman Bristol TICKETS
November 11: Everyman Liverpool TICKETS
November 18: Everyman Leeds TICKETS
December 16: Dalston Rio, London TICKETS
December 18: Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham TICKETS

The film also features Frank Skinner, who briefly performed with Lloyd’s earlier band The Prefects, as well as comics Kevin Eldon, Nish Kumar, Bridget Christie, Andrew O’Neill and Seann Walsh – and even 1970s softcore sex comedy actor Robin Askwith.

Here is our review of King Rocker, and here’s a new trailer for the cinema dates:

Published: 1 Nov 2021