Formation The duo grew up in
Leamington Spa and attended
Trinity Catholic School together. They formed a band and would make up the reason for the name including naming it after a Hungarian girl on whom Concannon had a crush at school. They started out performing throughout England, building a small but loyal fan base. Future musical artist and performer
Ed Sheeran was their
guitar technician at many of their early shows and has stated they were a major influence on his musical style.
Half These Songs Are About You (2003–2006) In early 2004, they released their first album
Half These Songs Are About You with FDM Records. In 2007, they received an
Impala Platinum award recognizing sales of the album in
Europe. It was produced by
Gavin Monaghan, also known for his work with
Scott Matthews and
Robert Plant. Their first release, "
JCB", is their most successful song. The song is about Luke's
dyslexia at school, from which he sought escape by accompanying his father to work. Released as a single in June 2005, it reached number 160 in the
UK Singles Chart. The single was re-released in the UK in December that year. It reached number one on 18 December 2005, selling more than double the copies of their closest competitor,
Westlife. It eventually won the duo an
Impala Platinum award recognizing sales of over 500,000 copies of the song across Europe in 2007.
Dermot O'Leary gave the track extensive airplay on his
BBC Radio 2 show. Some bookmakers put it in the running for
Christmas number one but the winner of
The X Factor,
Shayne Ward's début single, "
That's My Goal" won that honour. The music video received widespread airplay, mainly on the
VH1 music television channel. The video was an animation, Nizlopi performed at the
Glastonbury Festival in 2005, 2007 and 2008. The release was preceded on 17 March 2008 by a digital single, "Start Beginning". In November of that year they completed a tour entitled "Last Nights on Tour". Afterwards they announced using both their official website and on
social media website
Myspace that they would be taking the year 2009 off and would meet while travelling in
Cuba to discuss the band's future.
Sporadic appearances and split (2010–2020) Despite splitting twice during a 10-year spell, the band have always come back together for one-off gigs and festival appearances. The band members confirmed that they split on 10 February 2010, when an e-mail was sent out to all
mailing list subscribers confirming that the band had split up after being together for 7 years, with Concannon stating: Concannon announced that he was working on a solo album and had planned to set up his own website by 2011 via the band's mailing list and previewed new material on Touch FM's "First Break Show". He had also been taking part in song-writing workshops. The split ended with an announcement on their website in late 2011 "Luke and John got back together" to headline a one-off charity concert at the
Union Chapel in London on 22 November 2011. They have since been playing live shows sporadically. Despite the numerous splits, Nizlopi have continued to perform sporadically at numerous gigs across the UK. They duo have also performed many charity events, music venues, festivals and intimate pub gigs. They released a live album in 2014 titled "Nizlopi: Live in London" via
iTunes. The band toured in May 2015 with the Get Radical tour for 10 dates across the UK. They also performed at
Glastonbury Festival and the
Secret Garden Party festivals in 2015. The duo hosted a songwriting residential in June 2019 in Birmingham, UK. In March 2020, the band announced they have split, but did announce they will release a "Best Of" album at the end of the year. Parker is now working as a freelance session double-bassist. Concannon is travelling and writing. Concannon currently resides in
Boston, Massachusetts.
Reunion and opening for Ed Sheeran (2025-) In October 2025, Nizlopi performed a one off show at
The Water Rats in London, seemingly indicating their reunion. They then performed another show at The Moth Club also in London, in November. They opened for
Ed Sheeran on his
Play tour, alongside
BIIRD. ==Live shows==