About Tinplate Tiger
Tinplate Tiger is a singer songwriter and guitarist inspired by vintage music from the fifties and sixties. Known for his quirky lyrics, Tinplate Tiger has recorded over 100 original songs released on the independent SongCoast label. He also organises SongCoast singer songwriter nights to promote original artists in West Wales. You can contact Tinplate Tiger via tiger@tinplatetiger.com.
In his youth, Tinplate Tiger performed as a country-blues singer songwriter at venues including the Mean Fiddler, Ronnie Scotts, and Borderline, and supported artists such as Jools Holland. After a break of two decades, in 2012 he formed the Easy Tigerz trio performing vintage blues and rock 'n' roll. Easy Tigerz recorded one album - Two-headed tattooed lover girls - with the legendary Western Star Recording Company, the world's coolest rockabilly label! Now, recording as a solo act, Tinplate Tiger has released six albums of original songs .
Latest Songs and Videos
In May 2020, Tinplate Tiger recorded videos of acoustic versions of 12 new songs written for his seventh solo album 'Searching for a Place to Land'. The videos are on YouTube and can also be viewed on the Searching for a Place to Land - Lyrics and Downloads page. Unplugged video versions of other new songs can be viewed at Let Myself Go - Lyrics and Downloads. These songs will be included on the eighth Tinplate Tiger solo album, which will be purely acoustic.
Musical Influences
Tinplate Tiger grew up in the late 70s listening to the John Peel show, where psychedelia and early blues music were still played back to back with emerging punk and new wave bands: Joy Division, Killing Joke, the Dead Kennedies, and the Fall. During the 80s he developed a passion for psychobilly bands, particularly The Cramps, while continuing to listen to the psychedelic sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the Electric Prunes, and UK outfits such as Angel Pavement, the Smoke, early Pink Floyd, the Move and many more.
In the mid 80s, a growing interest in Memphis blues (BB King, Howlin Wolf and Joe Hill Louis) led TT to explore the back catalogue of Sam Phillips recordings, including the Sun-era relases of Elvis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison and, of course, Johnny Cash. This sparked a lifelong interest in country music writers and singers; Merle Haggard, Harlon Howard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Buck Owens, Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, and so on, as well as a wider interest in 60s singer songwiters, particularly Bob Dylan.
In the late 80s, the alt.country movment came to prominence. And much of Tinplpate Tiger's early songwriting attempted to emulate the lyrical humour and pathos of artists such as Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Nanci Giffith and Junior Brown. More recent recordings post-2010 have drawn on earlier influences and range from psych folk and psychedelic garage sounds to retro blues and neo-rockabilly as well as some country numbers.
Tinplate Tiger Live
In recent years, Tinplate Tiger has played hundreds of gigs across Wales and the rest of the UK - performing solo, as a duo or with a full band. He now mainly performs solo acoustic numbers, and is currently recording 12 new stripped-back acoustic songs for his seventh solo album 'Searching for a Place to Land', and also writing songs for an eighth album 'Let Myself Go'.
Tinplate Tiger Recordings released by SongCoast
Tinplate Tiger's sixth album Middle Distant One was released in October 2019. It features 15 tracks ranging from psychedelic folk to alt.country. Tinplate Tiger's fourth and fifth solo albums were released in January 2018. Confessions of An Alien Chimp features 15 retro tracks mainly inspired by swing and rock 'n' roll. Face the Sun features 14 original songs - mainly semi-acoustic, lo-fi psychdelic pop and psych folk.
Dreaming of Wild Horse was released in December 2015 on the SongCoast label, featuring 11 original tracks of dreamy psychedelic pop inspired by love, death and the wild West Coast of Wales. Cactus Flower, also released in December 2015, features a collection of 11 original retro-blues and country rock songs. The first Tinplate Tiger album "Lost my mind in the Lizard Lounge" was released in Spring 2014 on the Groovy Cats label.
All Tinplate Tiger recordings are available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon, Rdio, Deezer, Tidal, YouTube Music, Microsoft Groove, and MediaNet.
Solo tracks by Tinplate Tiger have been played on BBC Radio Wales on the Adam Walton show and the Bethan Elfyn show, where Tinplate Tiger was BBC Introducing artist of the week. See Tinplate Tiger's media page for more details of coverage in the press and radio.
For more info please send a message to tiger@tinplatetiger.com.
Easy Tigerz album available on Westen Star
In 2012, Tinplate Tiger formed the trio the Easy Tigerz and recorded an album of 15 original songs released on the Western Star rockabilly label. The album gained a rave review in Vintage Rock magazine, and featured on Mike Davies BBC Radio One Show as well as being played on local radio across Wales and the West Country. In 2018, two tracks from Two-headed tattood lover girls were featured on the Westen Star compilation album The Ace Cafe 1938-2018.