The Tiger Lillies
The Tiger Lillies Band History and Film/Theatre/Dance Credits
Grammy Nomination
The Gorey End Best Classical Crossover Album
Olivier Award 2002 winners
Shockheaded Peter - Winner Best Entertainment
Shockheaded Peter -Winner Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical (Martyn Jacques)
"Bigger, prouder and fleshily engorged with the pustule throb of the garishly gaudy and gloriously obscene." - Ross Fortune, Time Out
"Brilliantly twisted" - The Guardian
"It's not surprising that their cult following is worldwide - a Tiger Lillies gig is a journey into wild emotion which passes right through melodrama and out the other side into bizarre beauty" - Evening Standard
The Tiger Lillies defy any singular description and operate within their own eccentric definitions. Formed in 1989, they tour the world both with the Shockheaded Peter production and by themselves, developing a dedicated following from New York and San Francisco in the US to St Petersburg in Russia. Their songs (once described as 'Surrealist Pornography') are captured on numerous self-released albums including Brothel to the Cemetery, Farmyard Filth, Ad Nauseam, Shockheaded Peter and Circus Songs.
Misery Guts Music
PO Box 10578, London SW1P 4DY, UK
Tel/Fax: +44 171 821 9457
Live Shows
The Songs of Shockheaded Peter and other Gory Verses
The Tiger Lillies are the Godfathers of alternative cabaret. Selling out London’s West-End and the Edinburgh Festival The Songs of Shockheaded Peter and other Gory Verses celebrates 20 years of dark and deviant theatrics. Performing songs from the Olivier award-winning smash Shockheaded Peter, their Grammy nominated album The Gorey End and other deranged favourites, The Tiger Lillies will embark on their first UK tour in 2010.
‘Fleshily engorged with the pustule throb of the garishly gaudy and gloriously obscene’ Time Out
‘There is nothing else like them, they are completely peerless’ Alek Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand.
By Mina Courtauld 17/5/96
The Criminal Castrati's Anarchic Brechtian Blues Trio
The Tiger Lillies are an extraordinary three piece band with a large cult following in London. They are fronted by singer Martyn Jacques who trained himself as an opera singer with a castrati style voice of heartbreaking beauty, whilst living alone above a strip joint in Soho for seven years. Accompanied by drummer Adrian Huge, whose appearance was described by David Byrne as James Joyce on drums, and double bass player Adrian Stout, Jacques plays accordion and sings savage and passionate songs about prostitutes, drug addicts and losers, his voice soaring and growling like a man possessed. Ken Campbell has described him as "the criminal castrati", and with his dickensian style of dress, long pigtail and bowler hat, his corrosive lyrics and his astonishing voice, all the while singing with his eyes closed, he makes an indelible impression. Jacques sings about life at the bottom of contemporary Britain with the voice of an angel.
The music is a startling mixture of opera, gypsy song and left bank Paris, but what really marks out this band from any other is the emotional charge and raw passion of the delivery. Because they are impossible to pigeonhole, the band has not yet had a wide commercial success, despite being picked up by David Byrne, with performances at the South Bank, as well as festivals and foreign tours, but this cannot last for much longer as their reputation is spreading very fast in the art culture underworld.
Recently they returned from a tour of the Czech Republic, with wild stories about driving around in their moss covered old car to venues that ranged from roofless shacks in caravan parks to baroque theatres. At one place Jacques was accosted by a gypsy woman who accused him of seducing her daughter, only to discover it was just a ruse to steal his wallet.
Like many of Britain's artists and musicians, The Tiger Lillies live in poverty and obscurity whilst achieving international cult status. The nineties may prove to be a time of great flowering of culture, as human voices break out of the straightjacket of style, fashion and commercial thinking that characterised years of conservative government. The emergence of this band is clear evidence that the times are changing.
Film credits
The Swords, Dir. Tony Scott -1997- Songs - Whore
Plunket and Macleane - Dir. Jake Scott - 1999 - Songs - Whore, Hell, Heroin and Cocaine, Sailors
Tiger Lillies in Concert. - 2000 - NVC Arts/Ovation
Before founding the Tiger Lillies, Martyn Jacques spent seven years training himself as an opera singer with the castrati style of voice for six years while living in solitude above a brothel in London’s Soho. These were auspicious beginnings indeed for the man who would soon front this indefinably eccentric three piece band whose songs are littered with countless shifty characters from contemporary Britain’s dark underbelly. Rendering the stories of pimps, prostitutes, con-men and thieves with his angelic voice, Jacques is a one man crusade against the powers of censorship, repression, and mediocrity. Jacques’ unique musical mayhem is anchored by percussionist Adrian Huge who is not afraid to use a drum kit consisting solely of silverware and spatulas, and double bass player Adrian Stout who cavorts around the stage dressed in leder hosen and a kilt, in a bizarre tribute to the folk dances of Austria. This special night of music features the Tiger Lillies in New York performing their frenetic mixture of musical styles, including songs from their latest album Shockheaded Peter.
The Quickie - Dir. Sergej Bodrov Snr. - 2001 - Songs - Alone with the Moon, Same Old Story, Sailors,
Theater Credits
Fungus the Bogeyman : Dir. Ken Campbell, 1995
Shockheaded Peter : Dir. Pheleim McDermott and Julian Crouch, 1998 - 2005
Winner of 2 Olivier Awards 2002
Tiger Lillies Variete : Dir. Sebastiano Toma/Tiger Lillies, 1998 - present
Punch and Judy : Dir. Tiger Lillies and Karen Bayerlyn, 2004
The Little Match Girl : Dir. Dan Jemmett, 2005 - 2007
Mountains of Madness : Dir. Alexander Hacke, Danielle de Picciotto and The Tiger Lillies, 2006 - 2007
Die Weberischen : Dir. Stephanie Mohr, 2006 - 2008
7 Deadly Sins : Dir. Nathen Evens, Tiger Lillies, 2007 - Present
Dance credits
Circa : Holy Body Tattoo 2000 - 2004
Advertisting Credits
Swimwear Advert - 'Crack', 1997
PAL Dogfood - 'Jesus', 1999
EXCLUSIVE REPRESENTATION TIM WHITEHEAD @ TIM WHITEHEAD MANAGEMENT
01422 847 015 tim@tim-whitehead.com