Lloyd Cole

Lloyd Cole

Lloyd Cole is a singer-songwriter from Buxton, United Kingdom, born in 1961. He grows up in nearby Chapel en le Frith and attends New Mills Grammar School before studying law at University College London. He later goes to the University of Glasgow, where he studies philosophy and English and meets the musicians who form Lloyd Cole and the Commotions.

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

Cole is best known as the lead singer of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, a rock group active from 1984 to 1989. The band’s debut album, Rattlesnakes, appears in 1984 and is known for its references to literary and pop culture figures including Norman Mailer, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Truman Capote and Joan Didion. The group also releases Easy Pieces and Mainstream before splitting in 1989.

Solo work

After the band ends, Cole relocates to New York and begins a solo career. His early solo recordings feature musicians including Fred Maher, Robert Quine and Matthew Sweet. He releases Lloyd Cole in 1990 and Don’t Get Weird on Me Babe in 1991. The latter is structured in two contrasting halves, with one side continuing the New York rock sound of the first solo album and the other using a session orchestra in a style associated with Burt Bacharach and Scott Walker.

Following his time with Capitol Records, Cole signs to Rykodisc and continues to change his sound. Bad Vibes appears in 1993 and is made with producer/remixer Adam Peters in a harder, grunge- and psychedelia-influenced style. Love Story follows in 1995 and uses a stripped-down, largely acoustic approach, with Stephen Street and former Commotions members Neil Clark and Blair Cowan among the contributors. The album includes the minor hit “Like Lovers Do”.

Later releases and collaborations

In 2000, Cole records an album with the New York band The Negatives, which includes Jill Sobule and Dave Derby of the Dambuilders. He then releases later solo albums on independent labels. Music in a Foreign Language appears in 2003 in the UK on Sanctuary Records, with Cole largely recording it himself, including material recorded directly into a Mac. The album has a stark, folk-influenced singer-songwriter sound. One Little Indian releases it in the United States and also issues the outtakes collection Etc. in 2004, along with the instrumental ambient electronica album Plastic Wood.

Cole continues to tour in an acoustic one-man format, often in small club venues. In 2004, to mark the 20th anniversary of Rattlesnakes, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions reform for a one-off sell-out tour in the UK and Ireland. His later solo albums include Antidepressant in 2006, which features Neil Clark on some tracks, Broken Record in 2010, performed with a band of long-term friends and collaborators including Fred Maher, Joan Wasser, Rainy Orteca, Dave Derby and Blair Cowan, and musicians Matt Cullen and Mark Schwaber, Standards in 2013, which is co-funded by fans, and Guesswork in 2019 on earMUSIC.

Other interests

Cole is also an avid golfer and is known for arranging concerts in towns close to famous golf courses.