The Tiger Lillies sing about everything from bestiality and prostitution, to paedophilia and war. Their macabre ditties and blasphemous ballads have been simultaneously shocking and charming audiences around the world since the group was founded by lyricist Martyn Jacques in 1989.
The disturbing lyrics don’t seem to put off audiences, though. The trio – percussionist Adrian Huge, Adrian Stout on double bass and falsetto singer Jacques – have garnered a cult following from London to Germany and as far afield as Australia. People can’t seem to get enough of the group’s quirky cabaret spectacle, resplendent in their ‘dickensian’ get-up and accompanied by Jacques’ operatic vocals, screaming crescendos and flail-about stage antics. And the critics seem to like them, too. Or maybe they’re just scared?
‘I like to sing about anything really,’ says Jacques, sounding anything but scary. He is, by contrast, softly-spoken and cheerful, with an endearing Woody Allen-esque way of muttering away on inspired ramblings. ‘I don’t see anything as sacred. I’m quite happy to sing about the crucifixion of Christ, or child pornography, or paedophilia, or the gas chambers in Nazi Germany. I’ve sung about all those things. I’m quite happy to be sick about it, twisted about it, nothing’s really sacred.’
A quick glance at Jacques biography is enough to confirm this. The bio proudly states that he once placed a severed pig’s head with a Malboro stuck up its nose on the altar of a church in Wales. According to Jacques he had to be ‘spirited out of the village in the dead of night’ and the Bishop of Wales was called in to reconsecrate the church.
And then there was the time when an attempt to drum up a bit of press coverage for a gig in Islington, London, went terribly wrong. The Tiger Lillies sent out a press release to the daily newspapers about a Good Friday gig, taking place at the Union Chapel. Part of the release read: ‘What better day could there be to hear songs such as “Banging in the Nails”, “Jesus” and “Hell” and what more appropriate place for such a performance. So grab your crown of thorns, polish your nails and head down to the Union Chapel for a night of bizarre and blasphemous balladry.’ Things went awry when the Islington Gazette ran a story on its front page, quoting an enraged member of the local clergy. The concert was subsequently cancelled.
That was in 1997, and things have only been getting better since. Last year, Jacques’ West End hit, Shockheaded Peter, created with Improbable Theatre’s Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott, won two Olivier awards – one for Best Entertainment and one for Jacques himself, for Best Supporting Role in a Musical. The play, which was first staged in London in 1998, was remade for the West End last year but has also enjoyed success overseas, including on Broadway.
‘I don’t mind being successful,’ Jacques admits, ‘as long as I don’t have to compromise what I do [and] as long as I can carry on making the kind of music I want to make, or sing about the subjects I want to sing about. I guess,’ he continues, ‘that means success is kind of limited to a more cult level.’
Jacques success in the West End, bizarrely, took him back to the birthplace of The Tiger Lillies. For about seven years, Jacques lived above a brothel in Soho, training his voice, learning the accordian and writing lyrics. The experience obviously provided invaluable songwriting inspiration.
In 13 years, the trio have recorded 13 albums, delving into bestiality in Farmyard Filth, prostitution and pimps in Low Life Lullabies, and most recently, drowning sailors in The Sea.
And with lyrics like I love a little hampster up my ass, sung to a jovial, folky tune, it’s not surprising listeners might feel a little, err, uncomfortable. But Jacques admits to revelling in the reaction from audiences when he performs.
‘It’s quite nice to have a slightly “worrying” reputation’, he says cheerfully. ‘I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable with becoming a mainstream success. I do quite enjoy being a little, ah, worrying. I like to worry people a bit, and make them feel uncomfortable. When I’m onstage I enjoy that feeling of uncertainty, you know, “What’s he saying? Is he agreeing with that, or is he…”, Jacques trails off. So is the content he sings about, a kind of awareness-raising shock tactic, I ask, thinking of his recent song, War. (Doesn’t matter if you agree/you’re here to kill you see/We’re off to war). Are these actually issues he is angry about?
‘I think I’ve got quite a lot of anger in me, and I think I’m quite repressed in lots of ways,’ Jacques admits. ‘So it’s coming out in a strange, twisted kind of way…I rather enjoy the result. The feeling of amusement and confusion, that I seem to create.’
‘I’m pretty fucked up in way, there’s a lot going on, which I don’t really understand,’ he says, still chirpy. ‘I’m pretty fucked up really, but in a subconscious way.’
‘They do say [when] artists find God or start having therapy, that can be the end of their creativity. So maybe I should just carry on being fucked up and not have therapy, hah hah hah hah!’
Is it anger about growing up in Slough, I joke, indicating the glum industrial town on London’s outskirts, which is also the setting for the comedy series, The Office, where Jacques was born. Yes, he laughs, ‘I grew up in Slough, what do you expect?’
Currently touring internationally, Jacques says The Tiger Lillies repertoire at the moment draws on the most recent album, The Sea, which includes delightful tales of murders, ports and prostitutes, King Neptune and mermaids (ahhh, could The Tiger Lillies be getting soft?).
‘I’m quite interested in [those] sort of transitory, dangerous lives that people like sailors lead,’ Jacques says, adding that he’s feeling a little disoriented himself at the moment, after being on the road for the last 18 months. And a schedule posted on the trio’s website indicates they won’t be stopping any time soon, with the group’s Circus show, as well as accompanying the dance production, Circa (which prompted a Guardian critic to slam the dance routine and praise The Tiger Lillies music), continuing to tour throughout Europe. The group have been performing with Circa, in Germany. At least, Jacques thinks so. But he’s not quite sure. ‘We were doing that somewhere in Germany,’ he muses. ‘ I can’t remember whereabouts it was in Germany, but I’m sure we were there!’
Visit The Tiger Lillies website for Europe and UK touring details.
