The Tiger Lillies

Date: November 1st, 2006
Venue: Saint Annes Warehouse
City: Brooklyn, New York

Tiger Lillies

was playing in New York, on the night after Halloween 2006 promoting their latest album Die Weberischen. This interview took place at the backstage before the show.

The Tiger Lillies

The Tiger Lillies is a theatrical 3 piece band composed of singer, Martyn Jacques, drummer Adrian Huge and bassist Adrian Stout. The band has been around for a very long time, almost 17 years. They have played in all sorts of places throughout the world from tiny seedy bars to large theatres. But wherever they have played, they have managed to draw an underground cult audience.

Video Interview Downloads

The video interview is about half hour long. But since I incoporated it into my show, I have the full show available to download. The video interview is more on the light hearted merry side and shows a more personal side to The Tiger Lillies. To view the video now, you need to have Quick Time installed.

Ms Divine's Interview with Tiger Lillies - Part 1 Ms Divine's Interview with Tiger Lillies - Part 2
Play Tiger Lillies Interview by Ms Divine - part 1 Play Tiger Lillies Interview by Ms Divine - part 2

MP4 (Mpeg 4) Version available: Feel free to download the mp4 versions of the Tiger Lillies interview on the above pages: Right CLICK AND SAVE TARGET AS on THE NOTE BELOW THE PLAYER. The MP4 (Mpeg 4) versions are for downloading only, and are about 130 Megs each. These versions are clearer, less grainier without much loss to the original quality.

Ms. Divine's Tee Hee Heure

This video interview of Tiger Lillies will be airing on my local sketch comedy TV show called Ms. Divine's Tee Hee Heure. It airs weekly on Mondays at 11:00 a.m on Channel 34 and 8:30pm on Channel 35 in Queens, New York via Queens Public Television. It also weekly in Manhattan, New York Mondays at 10:30pm, Channel 67. These channels are accessible to ALL residents of Queens and Manhattan who subscribe to cable( RCN and Time Warner) TV. Tune in to support open sourced media!


Martyn Jacques, Adrian Stout, Adrian Huge of the Tiger Lillies
Sitting with The Tiger Lillies


I have already aired the Tiger Lillies interview on TV but if you are a resident of either county, send me an email and I will let you know when I repeat it.
Senor Nacho and Ox Malford of Ms. Divine's Tee Hee Heure
Senor Nacho and Ox Malford - sketch characters I play		 My show is a collection of short sketch comedy films.

If you are interested in finding out more, I recommend downloading my sketch film Dancing Girl or " A Most Particularly Peculiar Bank Heist", that is if you are in the mood to see something peculiar....

Discovering The Tiger Lillies

I was introduced to the Tiger Lillies in a most unusual way. A long time viewer of my show suggested that I watch Tiger Lillies. Pretty Flowers? I wondered. A few weeks later the viewer emails briefly - "Tiger Lillies, tonite on local arts channel". I tuned in, only to enjoy a very strange performance.

The lead singer, Martyn Jacques was dressed in clown makeup singing in opera to cabaret styled music. His lyrics were unravelling a sadistic often times melancholy story.

The Tiger Lillies as a visual comical performance

There are many comic elements to Tiger Lillies that I enjoyed. The drummer, Adrian Huge was very fun to watch. As big as he was, his gentle tapping of the drums was very funny. It was similar to petting a new born baby or little kitten. And seeing this big guy, pet something similar to a little kitten was quite amusing for me. He also had a rubber chicken that occasionally sat on his drums. At times Adrian Huge, would pretend to be a real tough rock star drummer, by mimicking their actions. His hands would frail wildly in the air as he pounded the air with his sticks. This invisible performance is a special moment for him for at this point his other band mates, Adrian Stout and Martyn Jacques stop playing their instruments and stare at him.

Adrian Huge drummer of Tiger Lillies
Adrian Huge signing an autograph with beer in hand.
 Adrian Huge is a fan of peanut M&M's and during the performance drops M&M's on his drum, creating a groovy little beat. This was fun to watch.

I wonder what else Adrian Huge likes to eat? Some have even heard his cool drumming just from using kitchen utensils when no drum sets are available. Adrian Huge has an interesting comical expression on his face most of the time, and he is clearly proudly enjoying his funny antics.
The other musician Adrian Stout has his own moments too. Unlike his name Adrian Stout he is actually a slim looking fellow. Though his appearance is not as "freaky" as his other counterparts, he manages to maintain some very interesting facial expressions by contorting his face in the most unusual way.

At times he sets his instruments aside and plays the saw. I never knew music can be made from the saw. But now that I saw him playing the saw, I see how melodic the sound can be.

Adrian Stout also plays the Contra Bass, Musial Saw and at times does vocals. He has several other musical projects as well one of which was recorded with Dana Gillespie and he is also currently working on Sexton Ming..		 Adrian Stout bassist Tiger Lillies w Ms Divine
Adrian Stout with pen in hand
Martyn Jacques, Adrian Stout of Tiger Lillies
Martyn Jacques and Adrian Huge.


 Martyn Jacques is the lead singer, and also plays the accordion. He is actually classically trained to sing Opera.

Martyn Jacques wrote the music for Shockheaded Peter and won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical for his memorable role.

The Tiger Lillies as a musical band

In addition to watching Tiger Lillies, listening to the music is quite nice. The additional various instruments played such as the accordion, piano and saw combined with the unique opera style of singing makes the Tiger Lillies a very nice listening experience. It is not often one hears opera styled singing set to this unusual style of music that is the Tiger Lillies.


Tiger Lillies w Ms Divine
Standing with The Tiger Lillies



Tiger Lillies Links
Tiger Lillies Official Web Site
Tiger Lillies on myspace
Adrian Stout on myspace




Please note, the following comments have nothing do with the members of the band Tiger Lillies or their main manager Menno Plucker or to do with their genuine fans. I felt the need to write about my highly unpleasant experience that was a result of various incidents that took place that night, in dealing with nasty managerial kind people and a highly pretentious Halloween audience.

The following description summarizes the unpleasant atmosphere of Shit Anne's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. In the middle of taking a picture of the band, after the interview, the lights were abruptly turned off. Pointing out this deliberate action resulted in hostility from the folks at Shit St. Annes and the associate manager who made no effort to question this unwarranted rude act. This lack of response indicates that they have no respect for independent media that genuinely is interested in covering The Tiger Lillies. Later on, St. Anne's management rudely told me not to leave my seat to take pictures, even though my photo request had been approved by the imbecilic associate manager who assured me that I can go up front to take pictures. The obvious lack of communication has resulted in crappy useless pictures of the Tiger Lillies in concert.

The NY audience consisted mainly of the typical superficial Brooklynite morons who wanted to see The Tiger Lillies because they felt it is THE Halloween band to see!!! This makes it a haven for very large groups of pretentious people to feel proud that they are "appreciative of the arts" for they are going to see a band that is defined as being "edgy" by the various local NY newspapers, that ironically only reviews them because it is Halloween..
This room of superficial imbeciles who cannot comprehend art and predictably resulted in various insults and quarrels during the show.

There was a kind of unpleasant conformity within the audience. They all laughed on cue! The Tiger Lillies is not a band that has punch lines. Infact there are other comical things in their performance that are entertaining. But laughing OUT of cue is something that was met with hostility from this fickle audience.

Shit Anne's is a cheap looking building that pretends to caters to the artist. It's a warehouse, without a sufficienctly elevated stage, no logical seating arrangements, and a hard floor that echoes footsteps even if you tip toe. An act as simple as going to the bathroom was met with hostility, yet the cowardly audience wouldn't dare tell the morons in charge of Shit Anne's warehouse to put some frigging carpet, instead of having over priced beer. Pretending that Shit Annes is some olden time British aristocrat opera, is a sick illusion. Plus does anybody know that The Tiger Lillies used to play in small dingy noisy bars, and yet still got a hard-core audience. The audience needs to feel relaxed and free to move, not imprisoned in a tiny chair for 2 hours!
In conclusion, Shit Annes warehouse is a shallow establishment that houses the masses, and since the masses are asses, it is merely a frigid icebox to accommodates the asses.



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