Martyn Jacques

Not to be confused with Martin Jacques.
Martyn Jacques

Martyn Jacques during a live performance with the Tiger Lillies in Kaserne Basel, Switzerland on December 29th 2007.
Background information
Born (1959-05-22) May 22, 1959[1][2]
Occupation(s) singer, songwriter
Instruments accordion, piano, ukulele
Labels Misery Guts Music
Associated acts The Tiger Lillies

Martyn Jacques (born 1959) is a British musician, singer and songwriter mostly known as the founder and front man of cult British trio The Tiger Lillies.

Life and career

Martyn Jacques during a live performance with The Tiger Lillies in Kaserne Basel, Switzerland, on December 29th 2007.

Martyn Jacques grew up in Slough. His song "Slough" on YouTube on the 1996 The Tiger Lillies release "The Brothel to The Cemetery" concerns his childhood memories, echoing John Betjeman's 1937 poem.

As a child, he had piano lessons from Florence De Jong.[3]

In his early 20s he dropped out of Lampeter's Theology and Philosophy course and headed to London where he initially lived in a squat in Finsbury Park and then in a flat in Soho's Rupert Street where he got a pretty good taste of the lowlife which became his main source of inspiration. He spent his whole 20s training as a musician and singer and developing his characteristic falsetto voice,[4] which has led to him being known as the infamous Criminal Castrato , a description first coined by Ken Campbell.

In his Tiger Lillies appearances, Jacques commonly sings about "sexual perversions, seedy underbellies, the gruesome, macabre and visceral".[5] Jacques has been described as enjoying when audience members walk out of his shows, noting "It's always funny when people are offended by what I do ... after all, I'm just an entertainer."[6]

Jacques' songs range from hilarious, dark, up-beat music, even darker, strange and mysterious songs and some cover versions, such as "My Funny Valentine" and "Send in the Clowns". He is the musical director of the junk opera Shockheaded Peter.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "It's Martyn's birthday today!", By @TheTigerLillies, Twitter, May. 22, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  2. ↑ "its 1959 people", By @TheTigerLillies, Twitter, May. 22, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ Wonfor, Sam (10 Aug 2014). "Screening of silent film classic brings Tiger Lillies frontman to Heaton Park". The Journal. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  4. 1 2 "The Tiger Lillies set to test limits at Royce Hall on Halloween", By Emily Baraff, The Daily Bruin, Oct. 30, 2009. Retrieved Jan 20, 2010.
  5. ↑ Bragge, Lily (2007-02-17). "Cabaret - The Tiger Lillies". The Age.
  6. ↑ Board, Jackson (2009-07-24). "Merry men of melody and mischief". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 12.

The Independent On Sunday (14 May 2006), "The Tiger Lillies: Funny. Peculiar."

Further reading

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