The Smiths cover dedicated to Annie Nightingale
Annie Nightingale was the first female DJ on the BBC and one of the longest-serving DJs in radio history. Her trailblazing influence as both a Radio One disc jockey and a presenter on the legendary Old Grey Whistle Test greatly impacted the lives of many music fans, including one Frank Sidebottom.
Frank, the alter ego of musician Chris Sievey, was notable for his giant papier-mâché head and unique sense of humour. Over the years, the character took various forms, appearing in television shows, comic strips, animations and advertisements. However, he was most revered for his covers of various pop songs. Everybody from the Sex Pistols to Madonna got the Frank treatment at some point, with Sievey’s character often reimagining their classic hits using a Yamaha keyboard and distinctively quaint lyrics.
Many of his covers centred around his home of Timperley, a small, quaint village in Greater Manchester where Sievey lived for much of his life. For instance, Eddie Cochrane’s ‘Summertime Blues’ became ‘Timperley Blues’, and ‘Waterloo Sunset’ by The Kinks became ‘Timperley Sunset’. By contrasting the rock excess and globalism of mainstream pop with a quiet life in a Greater Manchester village, Frank subverted expectations in an incredibly endearing and comedic way. In 1993, the character covered fellow Mancunian legends The Smiths and their hit single ‘Panic’.
Released as a single in 1993, Sidebottom’s reimagining of ‘Panic’ not only paid tribute to the indie rock outfit of Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mick Joyce but also to Annie Nightingale. Among many references to “Panic on the streets of Timperley” and name-dropping local landmarks like the ‘Naked Child’ village pub, Frank also took the opportunity to shout out one of his favourite disc jockeys.
The iconic “hang the DJ” line penned by Morrissey was the singer’s sideswipe at the state of pop and the commercialism of the music industry. Sidebottom, on the other hand, was a disciple of pop music, owing largely to Sievey’s obsession with The Beatles, and so he altered The Smiths lyric to read “Anne the DJ” in reference to Nightingale. The song continues, “Oh Anne Nightingale what’s your blinking game? I waited for your roadshow but your roadshow never came.”
Responding to a question about the track during an online Q&A with The Guardian in 2015, Nightingale shared, “I was deeply moved by Frank Sidebottom making this cover version about me. There was a line in it about I waited for your roadshow, but your roadshow never came…I feel awful about this now, that I never got to meet him properly,” adding, “But I support all the films being made in his honour.”
The films that the DJ is referring to are Frank, an indie comedy loosely based on Sievey’s character – written by Jon Ronson, who once formed part of Frank’s backing band – and the excellent 2018 documentary Being Frank, which was crowdfunded. Chris Sievey passed away in 2010, but Frank Sidebottom lives on in the hearts and minds of his cult following as one of the greatest comic creations of all time. Nightingale’s appreciation for the cover would surely bring a smile to the papier-mâché face of Timperley’s finest – you know it would, it really would.
