Lloyd Cole

After growing up in Chapel en le Frith in Derbyshire, Lloyd Cole (born on 31 January 1961) studied English and philosophy at Glasgow University where he met the fellow members of his first band, the Commotions. With songs mostly written by Cole, their debut album Rattlesnakes was released in 1984 and included the hit single "Perfect Skin." Their more obviously commercial second album Easy Pieces (1985) did even better with two hit singles, "Brand New Friend" and "Lost Weekend," and they made one more album Mainstream (1987) before splitting in 1989. Lloyd Cole then moved to New York, where he worked with various artists, including Matthew Sweet and Fred Maher and launched his solo career with the albums Lloyd Cole (1990) and Don't Get Weird On Me, Babe (1991). He continued working solo through the 1990s but in 2000 he teamed up with some younger New York musicians as The Negatives. He subsequently resumed his solo work through the 2000s, with sixth studio album Music in a Foreign Language arriving in 2003 and taking in the likes of 2013's Standards and 2019's Guesswork along the way. Lloyd Cole released his twelfth studio album On Pain in June 2023.