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The TIGER LILLIES 7
deadly sins show London / backdrop by Lukas M. Hüller
THE TIGER
LILLIES / 7 sins album / lyrics
The Seven Deadly Sins
The inspirations:
Martyn Jaques was first inspired to write a collection of songs about the Seven
Deadly Sins during a visit to the Academie of Fine Arts (Akademie der Bildenden
Künste) in Vienna. The west wing of the oldest academy in Central Europe is
dominated by Hieronymus Bosch’s impressive triptych “The Last Judgement”, dating
back in the early 15th century. It was Bosch’s depiction of man’s transition
from Paradise to Hell throught the earthly realm that triggered the writing of
seven new Tiger Lillies songs, one for each of the Seven Sins: Luxuria (Lust),
Gula (Gluttony), Avaritia (Greed), Acedia (Sloth), Ira (Wrath), Invidia (Envy)
and Superbia (Pride or Vanity), according to Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”.
BIOS
Martyn Jaques – voice, accordion, piano, ukulele
Martyn Jacques, the founder of The Tiger Lillies, spent much of his early years
living above a brothel in London's Soho. He is a self trained musician and
singer, playing (mostly) the accordion, the piano and the ukulele and singing in
a distinct falsetto voice. His songs describe (in lurid detail) pimps,
prostitutes, drug addicts, losers and other unsavory characters. He wrote the
music for numerous theatre shows in the UK and abroad, including the music for
the West End cult hit Musical “Shockheaded Peter”. His memorable performance in
“Shockheaded Peter” won him an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in
a Musical.
Adrian Huge – drums, percussion, toys
"James Joyce on drums" exclaimed David Byrne on seeing Adrian Huge at work with
the Tiger Lillies. Adrian has worked in butchers, pie shops, banks, motorcycle
shops, and as a ham-fisted-but-cheap car mechanic before co-founding, in 1982,
Dover's only surreal, theatrical jazz/punk/calypso comedy ensemble: Uncle Lumpy
and the Fish Doctors. The group floundered shortly after arriving in London in
1989, which coincided with the formation of The Tiger Lillies and the start of
his bashing ever smaller, re-cycled drums, toys and kitchen-ware. The man that
once turned up to gig in the Czech Republic expecting to find a drum kit waiting
for him only to discover a pile of freshly polished kitchen utensils instead.
This did not deter him for a second as he went on to deliver an amazing
performance that night armed only with pots, pans and spatulas. With his usual
drum kit looking like a cross between a modern sculpture and a children’s toy
shop it’s all in a days work for Adrian.
Adrian Stout - contra bass, musical saw, vocals
Adrian Stout had played Blues, Jazz, Country, and other primitive musical forms
in various known and lesser known bands throughout the UK, Europe and as far
afield as India, and recorded two albums for Blues diva Dana Gillespie before
being co-opted by The Tiger Lillies for 1995's Edinburgh Festival. This once
serious musician has since then found himself dancing in leider hosen, making
love to inflatable sheep and dressing as a cheap prostitute. He has been
occasionally spotted playing with Stuart A Staples of the Tindersticks. Adrian
also works with Sexton Ming, with who he co-wrote all the songs of the cd “Taste
of Wood”. “Taste of Wood” was recorded, mixed, produced and mastered by Adrian
and was released in 2007 on Adrian and Sexton’s Crapping Clown label.
Nathan Evans – creator & puppeter of “Punch and Jude”
Nathan was part of the Olivier award-winning “C’est Barbican”. His short film
ROCK'N'ROLL SUICIDE won the lo-budget award at the 2006 Halloween Film Festival,
has screened at the ICA, Curzon Soho, the NFT, and toured nationally with the
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Previous film THE SIGNIFICANT DEATH OF
QUENTIN CRISP was broadcast on Channel 4 and toured internationally with the
British Council. BUYING TIME, a short drama, screened in the Raindance and
Portobello Film Festivals. Short script BUG CHASING was short-listed for Film
London's Pulse 2004 scheme.
In 2003 Nathan was awarded an ACE bursary to write SUBMISSION, a play researched
with a development grant from The Bush. Previous plays include BABY, in the
Royal Court Young Writer's Festival, and GUERILLA GARDENING, which started at
BAC Scratch and went on to the Pleasance Edinburgh.
Nathan hosts VAUXHALLVILLE - a weekly cabaret at the Vauxhall Tavern and plays
oboe with the London Gay Symphony Orchestra. He was featured in the last ever
issue of The Face.
The original version of PUNCH & JUDE, an update of the English children’s
classic for the age of civil partnerships, was commissioned by Duckie for Gay
Shame 2004 at the Coronet in London. Nathan’s other shows include PUPPETRY OF
THE POPS, a trio of tributes to Morrissey, Bowie and Bush, RATHER BE DEAD THAN
GAY, an ironic look at gay culture through personal sexual and romantic
disasters with pop songs, striptease and cookery, and ATOMIC, a lipsync
spectacular inspired by the Blondie back-catalogue. He’s performed at venues,
clubs and festivals including The Drill Hall, Komedia, The Arches, The Tron, The
Unity, The Junction, The Barbican, Sound, The Cochrane, Hoxton Hall, Madame
JoJos, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, Bistrotheque, Turnmills, Kashpoint,
Tartan Heart, Latitude, Aldeburgh, Bestival & Glastonbury.
SONG LIST
1. Adam and Steve
2. Gluttony
3. Hearts of Dove (Pride)
4. Lust
5. Life is Mean (Greed)
6. Envy
7. Anger
8. My Baby is Dead (Sloth)
9. Knock you About
10. Down to Hell
11. Know What it Means
1. ADAM AND STEVE
Here they stand Adam and Eve eating apples from a tree
But Adam’s Mr. Punch and he’s a nasty little …
So from Eden chased away down to Earth their sins to pay
So now the fallen children face the seven sins and disgrace …
2. GLUTTONY
See him stuff his face he wants to be fulfilled
Yet each mouthful that he takes is just a bitter pill
That leaves a gaping hole of emptiness and grief
So the gaping hole will grow gluttonies’ deceit
He salivates and farts he gobbles and he slurps
Engorging the void within how resonant his burp
When he has finished how foul will be the shit
That he will emanate from his anal lips
The stinking rancid odor the fat from him hangs
Yet the emptiness within leaves hunger with its fangs
In aimless misery he gobbles and he farts
Until one day it does give out his fat and bloated heart
3. HEARTS OF DOVES (PRIDE)
Of all the sins in all the world the worst of all is pride
But it’s the one oh my love we don’t see till we die
How swiftly do we wreak such harm on the ones we love
The scars and wheals that we inflict we shoot the hearts of doves
It is not simply men who are cast out from the sky
But angels to have fallen inflicted by pride
For as we walk as blind men losing every love
Breaking hearts of angels shooting hearts of doves
You proudly swagger flying like a bird
With pride you will be shot down a maggot-ridden turd
A rotting cadaver pride will eat your love
There is no greater cost than pride we shoot the hearts of doves
4. LUST
You want to fuck the world the heat between your legs
It burns so hot it will explode like a powder keg
You want to open wide every object of desire
Only when your lust’s fulfilled will you put out the fire
Then when you have had your fill new objects of desire
Will keep the grasping monkey greedy and on fire
So you gasp and gobble and greedily consume
Satan licks his lips ‘cos you will be his soon
That cock is never big enough or that pair of tits
If only they were bigger still then that would be it
5. LIFE IS MEAN (GREED)
I pull the tourniquet and I’m left to drift away with my dreams
My life is just a wreck, all hands have left the deck but I dream
The drugs they fill my veins no one is to blame and I dream
The world’s a golden glow, a happy winning show and I dream …
Then cold turkey strikes and all these neon lights; life is mean
I’ll sweat and puke and blab until I’m on a marble slab; life is mean
I crave for the next score as a thief or as a whore; life is mean
It’s a luxury u bet to have any self-respect; life is mean
Then I commit the crime and it’s back to scoring time with my dreams
So the cycle spins and no one ever wins in my dreams
And this they call a crime trapped in addiction time; life is mean
Life is mean, Life is mean…
6. ENVY
Don’t forget to envy every man
His suffering and his torment is a lifetime planned
So don’t forget to envy something that don’t exist
A phantom of your fantasy that writhes and licks and twists
Look he’s got a big car you’d like to fuck his wife
You’d like to have his money, you’d like to have his life
So you burn with envy soon you’ll burn in hell
Soon you’ll burn … oh well
You be nasty to him, you be so unkind
Every kindness you become blind
So you burn with envy soon you’ll burn in hell
Soon you’ll burn, soon you’ll burn … oh well
If only you had this or that then it would be fine
You’d like to take it from him he’s just a filthy swine
Stab the bastard in the back it’s just what he deserves
He’s just a little toe rag he’s just a little turd
7. ANGER
Are you angry in the morning? Are you angry in the night?
Are you always ready with violence to fight?
Well that anger is an illness that will take you away
It’s a never-ending tragedy and it runs from day to day.
If you’re angry. Are you angry?
You shove me I’ll hit you, won’t let you get away
You cut your car in front of mine I’ll make you rue the day
You’re different from me so you I’ll have to hit
If there’s something you don’t understand it’s safest to kill it
You’re angry. Are you angry?
Well I heard you’re a black Jewish homosexual queer
I’m afraid I must exterminate you fill me full of fear
It’s bad for my blood pressure it puts me under strain
One day I’ll die there’ll be so much pain
You’re angry. Oh you’re so angry …
8. BABY’S DEAD
My baby, baby is dead silicon tits and giving head
My baby is dead, my baby is dead
My baby served lust now baby is turning to dust
My baby is dead, my baby is dead
The men in her would thrust to satisfy their lust
My baby is dead my baby is dead
My baby I did use for me let men abuse
My baby is dead my baby is dead
My baby got old and fat through her away I scrap
My baby is dead my baby is dead
I lied I said it was bad in fact it was just sad
My baby is dead my baby is dead
I sent baby to hell soon I’ll go there as well
My baby is dead baby is dead … she’s dead … DEAD!
9. KNOCK YOU ABOUT
Who’ll be the thief the piece of meat
So the pawn in the game the fodder to blame
Do you still have some pride or in excrement lie
Are you just rank and file remember to smile
If you play the game then you they won’t blame
Your self-loathing creeps and into me seeps
Shall I knock you about shall I fill you with doubt
Or mourn your decline with a glass of red wine
Should I feel some remorse as you follow your course
Should I keep my mouth shut as your throat you cut
As you slide down and in excrement drown
10. DOWN TO HELL
A band plays in the market square people laugh and they don’t care
A wife-beater meets his wife he’ll beat her all her life
A cut-throat with a switchblade knife meets and kills Johnny’s wife
A junky searches for a vein, a drunk vomits down the drain
The wife-beater beats his wife into shape, the pedophile a child does rape
Pickpockets pick, a whore a rancid cock does lick
Street singers they curse and swear, a streetwalker takes a fare
Torturers find victims new, they beat them black green and blue
They pull out fingernails, their vital organs they impale
They burn and singe naked flesh, their testicles a bloody mess
A red hot poker up your arse, hear Satan and his angels laugh
We’re all going down to Hell, each one of you as well
11. KNOW WHAT IT MEANS
Just for effect the angel of death asks you to confess your dreams
I’m prepared to bet you wouldn’t expect or even know what they mean
They’ll burn in the fire all your desires when you emerge you will be clean
So you contrive all the time you’re alive to effect that you know what it means
You know what it means you effect that you know what it means
You smile and you joke at desire you poke is there anyone left now to dream
The gambler bets the old men forget and nobody knows what it means
Is there good or bad or are you just mad do you have a card to redeem
At your funeral dirge you’ll be free to expurge that it really didn’t mean a
thing
The gambler bets the old men forget and nobody knows what it means
Is there good is there bad or are you just mad
do you have a card to redeem
QUOTES on the Tiger Lillies
“There is nothing else like them. Any description of them is an injustice – they
are completely peerless.”
Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand
“The Tiger Lillies make ideal music to get married to.”
Marilyn Manson
“Just brilliant and utterly fantastic!! You'll never hear more perverse and
twisted as well as haunting and sorrowful songs. Just get a ticket by hook or by
crook, if there's any left (which I doubt) and catch them while you can.”
Marc Almond
“This delicious dark cabaret is Kurt Weill as scripted by Aleister Crowley, and
the execution is impeccable throughout. Phenomenal.”
Ian Gittins, The Guardian
“Bigger, prouder and fleshily engorged with the pustule throb of the garishly
gaudy and gloriously obscene.”
Time Out London
”A Tiger Lillies gig is a journey into wild emotion that passes right through
melodrama and out the other side into bizarre beauty.”
Evening Standard
“In an ideal world, the Tiger Lillies would represent Britain in the Eurovision
Song Contest.”
The Times Online
“Performed with a manic crispness and glee that reduced the audience to helpless
paroxysms, such material also points an implicit accusing finger back at us:
what on Earth are we doing, laughing at this stuff?”
The Scotsman
“Imagine Kurt Weill conjuring up images of prewar Berlin while a falsetto
vocalist screams, squeaks and squawks his way through every number like some
rambling madman.”
Time Out London
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