Tiger Lillies
Encyclopedia
The Tiger Lillies are a three-piece band, formed in 1989 and based in London
. They have toured worldwide and won acclaim with their opera Shockheaded Peter
.
Their surreal style has been described as dark, darkly humorous, strangely humorous, Brecht
ian, and gypsy cabaret
. They are also notorious for singing controversial songs involving bestiality, prostitution and blasphemy. In 1999 their work was featured in the film Plunkett & Macleane
.
The Tiger Lillies were nominated for a Grammy award for their 2003 album The Gorey End, which was a collaboration of sorts with the writer and illustrator Edward Gorey
and the Kronos Quartet
.
Their newest show, Cockatoo Prison, starts on 20 May 2010 at Cockatoo Island in Sydney. The show is based around songs about a group of prisoners, each of whom is introduced song-by-song.
The band were chosen by Matt Groening
to perform at the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties
festival he curated in May 2010 in Minehead, England.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. They have toured worldwide and won acclaim with their opera Shockheaded Peter
Shockheaded Peter (musical)
Shockheaded Peter is a 1998 musical using the popular German children's book Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann as its basis.-Productions:* 1998 West Yorkshire Playhouse* 1999 Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater* 2002 Piccadilly Theatre...
.
Their surreal style has been described as dark, darkly humorous, strangely humorous, Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
ian, and gypsy cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
. They are also notorious for singing controversial songs involving bestiality, prostitution and blasphemy. In 1999 their work was featured in the film Plunkett & Macleane
Plunkett & Macleane
Plunkett & Macleane is a 1999 British historical action comedy film directed by Jake Scott, and starring Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Liv Tyler. It follows the story of Captain James Macleane , and Will Plunkett , two men in eighteenth century Britain who are both struggling to survive...
.
The Tiger Lillies were nominated for a Grammy award for their 2003 album The Gorey End, which was a collaboration of sorts with the writer and illustrator Edward Gorey
Edward Gorey
Edward St. John Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books.-Early life:...
and the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
.
Their newest show, Cockatoo Prison, starts on 20 May 2010 at Cockatoo Island in Sydney. The show is based around songs about a group of prisoners, each of whom is introduced song-by-song.
The band were chosen by Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
to perform at the edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties
All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)
All Tomorrow's Parties is a music festival which takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex and Butlin's holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset, England....
festival he curated in May 2010 in Minehead, England.
Band members
- Martyn JacquesMartyn JacquesMartyn Jacques is a British musician, most notable for being a founder of the independent band Tiger Lillies. He is a lyricist, vocalist, and musician who plays accordion, piano, and ukulele....
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, ukuleleUkuleleThe ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
and banjoleleBanjoleleThe banjolele is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck. "Banjolele," sometimes also spelled "banjelele" or "banjulele" is a generic nickname given to the instrument, which was derived from the "banjulele-banjo", introduced by Alvin D...
. - Adrian Huge (born Adrian Hughes) - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
and backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
. - Adrian Stout - double bassDouble bassThe double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, musical sawMusical sawA musical saw, also called a singing saw, is the application of a hand saw as a musical instrument. The sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin...
, thereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
and backing vocals.
Albums
- 1994 - Births, Marriages and Deaths
- 1995 - Spit Bucket
- 1995 - Ad Nauseam
- 1996 - The Brothel to the Cemetery
- 1996 - Goodbye great nation (with Contrastate)
- 1997 - Farmyard Filth
- 1998 - Low Life Lullabies
- 1998 - Shockheaded Peter
- 1999 - Bad Blood and Blasphemy
- 2000 - Circus Songs
- 2000 - Bouquet of Vegetables - The Early Years
- 2001 - 2 Penny Opera
- 2003 - The Sea
- 2003 - The Gorey End (with Kronos QuartetKronos QuartetKronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
) - 2003 - Live in Russia 2000-2001
- 2004 - Punch and Judy
- 2004 - Death and the Bible
- 2005 - HuinyaHuinyaHuinya is a collaboration between the Russian band Leningrad and the British trio The Tiger Lillies. All but two of the songs are Tiger Lillies songs translated into Russian and performed by Leningrad; the remainder are Leningrad songs sung by The Tiger Lillies in English. The album was recorded in...
(with LeningradLeningrad (band)Leningrad , also known as Gruppirovka Leningrad and Bandformirovanie Leningrad , is a popular Russian ska punk band from Saint Petersburg , led by Sergey "Shnur" Shnurov....
) - 2006 - Die Weberischen
- 2006 - The Little Match Girl
- 2007 - Urine Palace
- 2007 - Live in Soho
- 2007 - Love and War
- 2008 - Seven Deadly Sins
- 2009 - Sinderella
- 2009 - Freakshow
- 2009 - Live at the New Players Theatre - London 2009
- 2010 - Cockatoo Prison
- 2010 - Here I Am Human!
- 2011 - The Ballad of Sexual Dependency(with Nan GoldinNan GoldinNancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...
) - 2011 - Woyzeck
DVDs
- 2006 - Mountains of Madness (with Alexander HackeAlexander HackeAlexander Hacke is a guitarist, bass guitarist, singer, experimental / industrial / electronic musician from Germany....
(Einstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
) and drawings by Danielle de PicciottoDanielle de PicciottoDanielle de Picciotto is an American born artist, musician and film maker. She was born in Washington, USA, but now lives and works in Berlin, Germany...
) - 2006 - Shockheaded Peter and Other Songs - Live in Concert in New York
- 2009 - The Tiger Lillies - The Early Years
Books
- 1998 - The Ultimate Shockheaded Peter Book - ISBN 3-932909-99-2
- 2003 - Farmyard Fantasy Book
- 2007 - "The Tiger Lillies Book" - www.tigerlilliesbook.com
- 2007 - "The Tiger Lillies - Selected illustrations of songs" - by Anne-Sophie Malmberg
- 2008 - "The inquisitorial skeleton shooting" - limited edition www.tigerlilliesbook.com
External links
- The Tiger Lillies Official Website
- The Tiger Lillies Forum
- The Tiger Lillies Book - The complete lyrics from 1989-2007 and 340 most unreleased pictures shot by b7UE
- concert pictures (2005)
- Pictures of the concert in St.-Petersburg (11.09.2005)
- Pictures of another concert in St.Petersburg, Russia (13.06.2007)
- "The Little Match Girl" - a theatre production of a different kind
- A Tiger Lillies Video Interview
- Outdoor Session with 'They Shoot - Music Don't They'
- Tiger Lillies video "Living Hell"