About Nizlopi

Nizlopi are an English folk duo from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. The duo is comprised of Luke Concannon (vocals, guitar, bodhran) and John Parker (double bass, beatbox, guitar, backing vocals). They were initially school friends friends who formed the group while still in their teens in 1993. They take their band name from a Hungarian girl that Luke had a crush on at school. Nizlopi released their first album, Half These Songs Are About You, in 2004 under FDM Records. It featured the singles "JCB" and "Girls". In 2007, Nizlopi received an 'Impala Platinum' award recognising sales of Half These Songs Are About You in Europe. "JCB" was written about the dyslexia suffered by Luke at school and his escape to accompany his father at work, and was released as a single in June 2005, reaching number 160 in the UK Singles Chart. The single was then re-released in the UK on 12 December 2005, reaching number one the following week on 18 December 2005, selling more than twice the number of copies than their closest competitor, Westlife. Dermot O'Leary gave the track extensive airplay on his BBC Radio 2 show. Some bookmakers put it in the running for the honour of Christmas number one, but it was beaten by the winner of the second series of the UK version of The X Factor, Shayne Ward's debut single, "That's My Goal." "JCB" topped the charts for five consecutive weeks, giving them a Gold Single in the UK and a Double Platinum Single in Ireland. Both the single and video spent time at #1 on iTunes in the UK and Europe, with 100,000 plus downloads and 1,000 full track downloads to cell phones in one week. A mini-EP containing six songs, titled ExtraOrdinary, was released on 4 September 2006. The six tracks included two that had been released before -- "Helen" and "Yesterday" which were previously released on the JCB and Girls EPs respectively. The band's second album, Make It Happen, was released on 31 March 2008. The album includes Martyn Barker (percussion/drums), Andy Simms (piano), Jonnie Fielding (violin), Jack Hobbs (vocal/scratching), Rory Simmons (trumpet), Kadially Kouyate (kors & Senegalese vocals), The Individuals Dedicated to the Ministry of Christ choir and a contribution by the poet Benjamin Zephaniah. On 10 February 2010 an e-mail was sent out to all mailing list subscribers confirming that the band had split up after being together for 17 years. Luke Concannon stated "And that after many wild meanderings and much confusion I feel I must go on, on my own from here. That my dream is now to do another project, not Nizlopi, and to build a new life. So.this is good bye from Nizlopi. We are no more! Wow, there you go I said it. Scary as it is." In 2012, the duo announced they would perform at the Union Chapel as a tribute to their friend Tony Moore. They officially announced their reunion in 2013, posting on their website that "Nizlopi have decided that we would love to play some shows together this year. So we are!" They have since played several festivals and headlining shows in the UK and Europe.