The Real Tuesday Weld

The Real Tuesday Weld is the band identity of singer/songwriter Stephen Coates. The London-based Coates trained as a visual artist before leaving the Royal Academy of Art in 1997 to explore a career in music. Though Coates names South Africa-born, British-based big-band singer Al Bowlly (a jazz cult figure who might have become one of the best-known big-band singers in the world had he not been killed in a German air raid on London in the early days of World War II) as his primary musical influence, the Real Tuesday Weld's largely electronic music more vividly recalls more standard Europop touchstones like Burt Bacharach, Ennio Morricone, and Serge Gainsbourg. After a trio of EP releases -- 1999's The Meteorology of Love (originally released under the name Tuesday Weld but cleverly changed after legal threats), 2000's Valentine, and 2001's L'Amour et la Morte -- the Real Tuesday Weld finally released a full-length debut, When Psyche Meets Cupid, in the summer of 2001. Since that time Coates released albums including At the House of the Clerkenwell Kid in 2002, I, Lucifer in 2004, The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid in 2005, and The London Book of the Dead in 2007. The following year's The End of the World focused on the '30s jazz side of Coates' music, but he returned to a more eclectic approach for 2011's The Last Werewolf, a soundtrack to Glen Duncan's book of the same name.

from Wikipedia:

The Real Tuesday Weld are a British band, fronted by lead singer and founder Stephen Coates. They are known for producing jazzy cabaret-style music with subtle electronica influences, a style dubbed "antique beat" by Coates. They have six albums, several singles and eps and many tracks on compilations. Their combination of big band jazz era sounds with beats has been influential on the current range of 'electro-swing' artists and djs.

The band is named after American film actress Tuesday Weld. Coates once had a dream involving Weld and '30s vocalist Al Bowlly. Coates and others often cite the dream as inspiration for the band and its particular style.

Presently, 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. There was a band by the name of Tuesday Weld that released a CD "Starscene 98" on Glitterhouse Records but they are not related.

"The Clerkenwell Kid" is often cited as the band's producer / re-mixer but is an alter ego for Coates himself; Under the "Characters" section of "The Real Tuesday Weld" website Coates is named as "The Clerkenwell Kid". 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.

On the Arctic Circle show on Resonance Fm, a London Art radio station, on 10 December 2010. Coates stated that the next The Real Tuesday Weld album will be another 'soundtrack to a book' - the forthcoming novel 'The Last Werewolf' by Glen Duncan to be published by Canongate in the UK and Knopf in the US in summer 2011. He also stated that he had written and produced an album with Joe Coles of UK band The Guillotines for release under the name Lazarus & The Plane Crash in 2011.

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

Other Work

The band have worked with many animators and filmmakers particularly the Russian animator Alex Budovsky on several international award winning animations. Their "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" cut (from the "I, Lucifer" album) appears as the soundtrack for Budovsky's innovative short animated film of the same title, to be found as the opening film on the compilation DVD "Avoid Eye Contact Vol. 1". The song "Last Words" (from the album "The London Book of the Dead") 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). Coates has written music for several documentaries, short films and independent features under his own name including Paul Cotter's Bomber and the US indie "Meeting Spencer" (2009)

In 2007 the band were commissioned to write music for the Rothko room at the Tate Modern in London and have re-scored the surrealist cult film Dreams That Money Can Buy for the British Film Institute. Other commissioned arts projects include 'Propaganda from the State of Love' first performed at London's Victoria and Albert museum in connection with the 'Cold War Modern' exhibition.

A series of eight radio programs: "US and THEM: Sounds of Propaganda and the Cold War" was produced / presented by The Clerkenwell Kid for the London Arts radio station Resonance 104.4fm in late 2008.

The band has also complemented The Puppini Sisters in their burlesque style re-makes of modern popular classics such as Crazy in Love by Beyonce Knowles and have collaborated widely with Brazilian electronic chanteuse Cibelle, English nu-folk diva Mara Carlyle, Guillotines vocalist Joe Coles, The Tiger Lillies and others.

The band have had many tracks used in films, television shows and commercials and Coates regularly composes bespoke music. Their songs "I Love the Rain" was used in a commercial for Chevy in 2011. In the commercial, Chevy is promoting their car the Chevy Traverse. In the commercial, a mom and kids run to a car to try to get out of the rain, with this song as background music.

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