The Real Tuesday Weld

The Real Tuesday Weld
Background information
Origin United Kingdom
Genres Indie pop, lounge, electro swing, dark cabaret, music hall
Years active 1999–present
Labels AntiqueBeat Crammed Six Degrees Records
Website www.tuesdayweld.com
Members Stephen Coates
Jacques Van Rhijn
Clive Painter
Don Brosnan
Matt Snowden
Josephine Lloyd
Past members David Guez
Brian Lee
Jed Woodhouse
Geraldine McEwan

The Real Tuesday Weld are a British band, founded by lead singer and producer Stephen Coates in 1999. They are known for producing jazzy cabaret-style music with subtle electronica influences, a style dubbed "Antique Beat" by Coates.[1] They have released six albums, many singles and EPs and many tracks on compilations. Their combination of big band jazz era sounds with electronica has been influential on the current range of electro swing artists and DJs.[2]

The band is named after American film actress Tuesday Weld. Coates once had a dream involving Weld and 1930s vocalist Al Bowlly, and cites it as inspiration for the band's particular style.

At present, the band is signed to Crammed (Europe, Australasia, South America) and Six Degrees Records (North America). They have previously released recordings with Antique Beat, Kindercore Records, Dreamy Records, Bambini Records, PIAS Recordings and Motorway Records. A German alt-country band by the name of Tuesday Weld that released a CD "Starscene 98" on Glitterhouse Records is not related.

"The Clerkenwell Kid" is often cited as the band's producer / re-mixer but is an alter ego for Coates himself. The 2009 album "The Clerkenwell Kid: Live at the End of the World" is an imaginary live recording of a concert on the 'eve of the apocalypse'. The Clerkenwell Kid is also the main character in a London based mythology Coates has developed around his love of the city's history and stories.

Their live shows are usually accompanied by visuals in the form of bespoke films and animations.

The band's last full length album is a soundtrack to the novel "The Last Werewolf" (2012) by childhood friend Glen Duncan reprising their joint work on Duncan's novel "I, Lucifer" (2004). In 2010 - 2011, Coates also co-wrote and produced an album "Horseplay" as "Lazarus and the Plane Crash" - a collaboration with Joe Coles of UK cult garage rockers The Guillotines which was released on Antique Beat in 2012. Every year since 2003 the band have released a Christmas ep of songs and spoken word elements.

According to the band's website, for the last few years Coates has been working on scores for indie features, Russian music related projects, various arts events and is recording a new full length album for release in 2017.

Film Scoring

The band have worked with many animators and filmmakers, particularly the Russian animator Alex Budovsky and the American animator George Fort on several international award winning films. Their "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" cut (from the "I, Lucifer" album) appears as the soundtrack for Budovsky's innovative multi-award winning short film of the same title.

Coates has written music for various independent features including Paul Cotter's Bomber and the US indies "Meeting Spencer" (2009), "The Suspect" (2013) and Meet Me in Montenegro (2014) as well as the French movie Encore heureux (2016) Directed by Benoit Graffin . He has also written for several documentaries and short films including US cult series 'The Midnight Archive', 'The Man Who Married Kittens' a biopic of anthropomorphic taxidermist Walter Potter, several 'Everyman' programs for BBC 2 and most recently the theme music for the sitcom series 'Bull'.

The band have had many existing tracks used in films, television shows and commercials. Their song "I Love the Rain" was used in a commercial for Chevy in 2011. The 2013 Apple iPad commercial featured the piano instrumental "The Lupine Waltz' from The Last Werewolf album. The song "Last Words" (from the album "The London Book of the Dead") is cut throughout and plays over the final scenes of Sony pictures' 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by indie cult director Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas).

Other Music

The band have re-mixed several artists including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, David Byrne and The Puppini Sisters in their burlesque style re-make of Crazy in Love by Beyoncé Knowles. They have collaborated widely artists including Brazilian electronic chanteuse Cibelle, English nu-folk diva Mara Carlyle, Guillotines vocalist Joe Coles, The Tiger Lillies, Pinkie Maclure and Claudia Brücken.

In 2007, Coates was commissioned to write music for the Rothko room at the Tate Modern, London and the band re-scored the surrealist cult film Dreams That Money Can Buy for the British Film Institute.[3] Other commissioned arts projects include 'Propaganda from the State of Love' at London's Victoria and Albert museum for the 2008 'Cold War Modern' exhibition.

In 2010/2011, he was commissioned to write and produce the original songs for the Rockstar Games title L.A.Noire. The recordings feature the German singer Claudia Brücken of Propaganda and ACT.

X-Ray Audio

In 2014, Coates launched the 'The X-Ray Audio Project' an initiative to provide a resource of information about 'Roentgenizdat' Soviet bootleg recordings of forbidden music made on used X-Rays in the 1940s and 1950s.[4] The project archives visual images, information, audio recordings and interviews made during travels in Russia with photographer Paul Heartfield as the basis for a book 'X-Ray Audio: The Strange Story of Soviet Music on the Bone' published in November 2015 by Strange Attractor Press.

The pair have made 'a short documentary film' of the same name with UK organisation The Vinyl Factory and the longer form 'Roentgenizdat' due for screening in 2017.

Coates and sound artist and researcher Aleks Kolkowski cut new X-Ray records as a demonstration of the process involved, originally in a live event at London arts venue The Horse Hospital and subsequently in other locations in the UK, US and Europe. He delivered a talk on the project at TEDx in Krakow in June 2015.

Other Work

Coates has worked extensively with various London arts organisations. His label Antique Beat presents the monthly 'Salon for the City' in Westminster and curates various arts events including '32 Londoners' and London Month of the Dead' based around the city's history and mythology. His involvement with Brompton Cemetery has encouraged speculation that it contains a working time machine.[5] He is an occasional contributor to Londonist.

In 2008, he wrote and presented a series of eight radio programs: "US and THEM: Sounds of Propaganda and the Cold War" on London Arts radio station Resonance 104.4fm. In 2012 he appeared on the Fiona Shaw directed arts project "Peace Camp" providing a vocal take on Nick Cave's lyrics to the song Into my Arms" with A. L. Kennedy.

In February 2015, he wrote and narrated an essay for the BBC Radio 3 series Just Juvenilia telling the story of his visit to the underground river Fleet in London, the time he lived in a Buddhist monastery and the circumstances surrounding the forming of The Real Tuesday Weld in the late 1990s.

In November 2015, his publishing company Antique Beat and Earth Recordings released 'Film Music' a three album set of music by the Russian film composer Mikael Tariverdiev a project Coates had been working since he first heard the composer's music in Moscow in 2011.[6] In November 2017 a follow up release was made of the complete soundtrack to the Soviet classic comedy of errors The Irony of Fate.

Discography

Most of the band's albums have had multiple versions released in different territories. They have also issued several private releases including an 'Audio Christmas card' with exclusive tracks each year since 2001. This discography is not complete, though it does cover the major releases.

Albums

EPs

Singles

Compilation Tracks: A selection

Cover Versions

Remixes

References

  1. ↑ "collective - (the real) tuesday weld interview". BBC. 2004-06-07. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  2. ↑ Interview Nicholas Raggenau Paris Djs, 16 August 2006.
  3. ↑ The Stuff of Dreams Imogen Tilden, The Guardian, 16 August 2006.
  4. ↑ Bone music: the Soviet bootleg records pressed on x-rays. Peter Paphides, The Guardian, 29 January 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  5. ↑ Brompton Cemetery: The sealed mausoleum believed to be a fully-functioning time machine. Richard Jinman, The Independent, 12 December 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  6. ↑ Mikael Tariverdiev Film Music. John Garrat, Pop Matters, 16 December 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.

External links

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