King Rocker selected for Sheffield Doc/Fest

A film Stewart Lee made about Birmingham post-punk band The Nightingales is to receive its world premiere at the Sheffield Doc/Fest.

King Rocker – which Lee shot with Brass Eye and Toast of London director Michael Cumming – has been officially selected as part of the event n this autumn.

the 90-minute film focusses on frontman Robert Lloyd, whom Lee describes as ‘Britain’s ultimate post-punk survivor’, a musician who has been ‘buoyed by endless critical acclaim, but hampered by ongoing commercial indifference’.

And it weaves his story into that of  Birmingham’s forgotten public sculpture of King Kong, which once stood in the city’s Bull Ring.

King Rocker also features Frank Skinner, who briefly performed with Lloyd’s earlier band The Prefects, before Lloyd took over. 

Although much of Sheffield Doc/Fest has moved online this year, organisers are still planning festival weekenders in venues across the city in October and November, if permitted, where King Rocker would be screened.

Established in 1994, Doc/Fest is the UK's biggest documentary festival and marketplace, and the third largest in the world

Lee  has supported the Nightingales on tour, performing his 1980s stand-up routine as their warm-up.

Published: 8 Jun 2020