Lloyd Cole

Lloyd Cole (born 31 January 1961) is an English singer, songwriter and musician.

He was lead vocalist of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989 and subsequently worked solo.

Cole was born in Buxton, Derbyshire, England.

He grew up in nearby Chapel-en-le-Frith and went to New Mills Comprehensive School and later attended Runshaw College in Leyland, Lancashire.

He studied a year of law at University College London but switched to the University of Glasgow, where he studied philosophy and English, and also met the future members of the Commotions.

The Commotions' debut studio album, Rattlesnakes (1984), contained literary and pop culture references to such figures as Arthur Lee, Norman Mailer, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Simone de Beauvoir, Truman Capote and Joan Didion.

The band produced two more studio albums, Easy Pieces (1985) and Mainstream (1987), before disbanding in 1989.

Songs by the band include "Perfect Skin", "Rattlesnakes", "Forest Fire", "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?", "Lost Weekend" and "Jennifer She Said".

Cole subsequently relocated to New York City and recorded with various musicians, including Fred Maher, Robert Quine and Matthew Sweet.

This solo setting produced two studio albums, Lloyd Cole in 1990 – preceded by the single "No Blue Skies" – and Don't Get Weird on Me Babe in 1991.

The latter was recorded in two parts: one side continued the New York rock of his debut solo studio album, while the other side featured a session orchestra, much in the style of Burt Bacharach or Scott Walker.

While he remained with Polydor as his record label, the US distribution contract with Capitol Records ended.

(US rights were picked up by Rykodisc.) "She's a Girl and I'm a Man", "Weeping Wine" and "Butterfly" were released as singles.

"Downtown" (from Lloyd Cole, 1990) was featured in the American psychological thriller film Bad Influence (1990) – starring Rob Lowe and James Spader – while "Pay for It" (from Don't Get Weird on Me Babe, 1991) was on the soundtrack of When the Party's Over, starring Sandra Bullock.

It produced a minor hit with the song "Like Lovers Do", affording Cole a mid-1990s appearance on Top of the Pops.

Cole recorded Bad Vibes in 1993, a collaboration with producer and remixer Adam Peters, using a harder sound.

"So You'd Like to Save the World" and "Morning Is Broken" were released as singles.

Love Story (1995) was recorded with the help of Stephen Street (who has worked with Blur and the Smiths) and former Commotion Neil Clark.

The album was released in the US by the One Little Indian label, which also collected a number of outtakes (recorded from 1996 to 2000) on 2002's Etc. and released an instrumental ambient electronica album, Plastic Wood, the same year.

Cole has mentioned Music in a Foreign Language as his favourite studio album.

It featured new versions of Nick Cave's "People Ain't No Good" and his own "No More Love Songs".

Both the title track and "Late Night, Early Town" became staples in his live sets.

In 1997 and 1998, Cole played with some New York musicians under the name the Negatives.

The group consisted of Jill Sobule, Dave Derby of the Dambuilders, Mike Kotch and Rafa Maciejak, who recorded an eponymous CD, released mainly in Western Europe and North America.

Songs from the album like "Past Imperfect", "Vin Ordinaire" and "No More Love Songs" returned to Cole's live sets regularly throughout his career.

In 2000, Cole took time out from recording to "learn Macromedia Flash and build the first Lloyd Cole website."

Macromedia Flash was a popular web authoring tool at that time.

The official Lloyd Cole website has subsequently been redeveloped.

He has since released solo albums on smaller independent labels.

Sanctuary Records released Music in a Foreign Language (2003) in the UK.

Recorded largely by Cole himself (including tracks recorded directly onto a Mac), the songs had a stark, folk-inspired singer-songwriter style.

In 2004, to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Rattlesnakes, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions reformed to perform a one-off tour of the UK and Ireland.

The reformation was never intended to be permanent, and Cole released another solo studio album in 2006, Antidepressant, using his usual home recording outfit by playing all the instruments himself with friends like Sobule, Derby and the guitar work of former Commotion Neil Clark on some tracks.

The album included "Woman in a Bar" and "The Young Idealists" a.o. Cole has mentioned "Rolodex Incident" as a personal favourite.

In 2009, Cole released Cleaning Out the Ashtrays – a collection of outtakes, B-sides, rarities and alternative versions of his solo work.

Notable cover versions include Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel #2", T. Rex's "The Children of the Revolution" and Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times", which he recorded with Jill Sobule.

Broken Record, released in September 2010 preceded by the single "Writer's Retreat", marked a departure from his solo recordings, as it was performed by a band of longstanding friends and working partners, including Fred Maher, Joan As Police Woman, Rainy Orteca, Dave Derby and Blair Cowan – as well as two musicians, Matt Cullen (guitar; banjo) and Mark Schwaber (guitar; mandolin), with whom Cole tours, billed as 'Lloyd Cole Small Ensemble'.

The recording of the album was entirely financed by advance purchases by his fans and contributions from Tapete Records, which later distributed the album and also oversaw and negotiated the rights to release a boxed set with his complete collection of B-sides, alternative takes and previously unreleased material, under the title Cleaning Out the Ashtrays.

A further album co-funded by fans, Standards, was released in June 2013, and includes contributions from Fred Maher and Matthew Sweet, Blair Cowan (The Commotions) and Joan Wasser (a.k.a. Joan As Police Woman).

It was preceded by the single and music video "Period Piece".