THE EXPLORER - A Newspaper for the adventurous

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE PICKLE DESERT

Snod, up a mountain last week. Could he really have turned to crime?

 Famous explorer Captain Snod has been arrested for stealing the Glittering Gherkin, a unique and priceless treasure which formed part of the crown jewels owned by the Queen of the Pickle Desert. Although there were six other suspects and Snod says he is innocent of the crime, the Pickle police are unconvinced and say that he has no alibi. 

The glittering Gherkin has been kept in the Tower of Capers for the past 600 years and is rumoured to have magical abilities. Snod is a famous explorer who has published many books about his adventures in the Lava Regions, the Sticky Swamp and Mount Sidewinder. 

Is there no one who can find the true culprit and free Snod? The other suspects are Oceanographer Marky Shark, historian Alice Spyglass, test pilot Tommy Tornado, local shopkeeper Fiona McGuffin and botanist Flora Fern who was conducting the largest ever study of the prickly pickle. 

The Glittering Gherkin is made of emerald

Should probably mention this

Well I guess I ought to make it official, 7 months after it happened, but Ten Tigers on on 'indefinite hiatus', which means that it's over until we forget all the reasons it's over.

Our last show was in Cambridge, at the Portland arms, turns out Manda was pregnant for this gig so the good news is she now has a little boy called Joel who is doing well.

The album will emerge one day, when we forget all the reasons it hasn't already.

In the meantime you can get the last song we recorded by buying a copy of Any Love is Good Love, we wrote the title track, which is just because M compiled it and engineered things that way. If you pre-order a copy you can download our song straight away, you don't even need to wait for the release date.

Get it here.


A massive heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped and supported us while it lasted. What a special decade that was. By name they were:

Phoenix FM, Sophia Noisy, The Get, Ste McCabe, Toska Wilde, Cherryade records, Dandelion radio, Culture as a Dare, The Beatroots, Suck my left one radio, Hayley Moonlight, Shakey, Mike at Chinnery's, Superduck RIP, our families, all our friends and loved ones, Art Gruppe, Trash Monroe, John Hannon, Punky Steve, Malaysia Steve, Tom Robinson, Panic zine, The Railway, Rob ex of Bar Lambs, Fashoda Crisis, Death of the Elephant, The Lovely Eggs, Rishi, Tom Burgess, The Tiger MCs, The Grand RIP, Ladyfest Berlin, Johnny and the Mullets RIP, Hoffman's bicycle, the drum guy at PMT and Honky Tonk RIP.

And if you're not on the list and you feel you should be then that's because you're special enough to be a friend or loved one X

Pier Festival!

Tomorrow we are playing on Southend pier as part of the festival organised by The Railway! We will be on the Olympus camera stage at 3pm, followed by the Beatroots. After this we're taking a bit of a break as Manda is expecting her second tiger cub, a man cub this time, haha. Also playing are the Jim Jones Revue, Theoretical Girl and 'many more.'

Entrance is free although it will cost you £3/£4 ish to get onto the pier. There will be food and drink available although please note the pier is a no smoking venue, due to the fact it burns down every three years. 

Next gig

This Saturday. Except it will now be £5 on the door and there will be free cake. Huzzah!

Feet and Footie

Manda's foot has pretty much healed, hooray! We took it, and the rest of her, to the Portland Arms in Cambridge for a gig somewhat poorly timed to clash with an England football match. 

We were on first and it went pretty well, aside from M having a coughing fit during 'Any Love' and the normal guitar unplugging issues. Quite slick for us, really. On second were Poesi, who were playing their second set of soft rock of the day. 

CK has started bringing flasks of tea to gigs so he was pretty chipper.

Eureka Stockade had the happiest bassist ever and a drummer who looked like Dave Grohl.

Paul and Manda in the beer garden, doing the same pose they do at every gig. Seriously, take a look back through the archive. Lean in, beer, grin. In fact, I need never take a photo of them ever again. Where ever they go, I'll just use this one. 

Next gig on the 14th July with the Bobby McGees and Maria and the Gay, at the Railway for Culture as a Dare, then we're playing the pier festival on Southend pier in August. WOOOO!

Back to Cambridge

Hi everyone, sorry we've been a bit quiet of late. This is for several reasons, firstly M is poised to release an album with Lost Harbours which has been a bit of work, also she has just passed her City and Guilds level 3 in ceramics. She did find time to knock together a new Pettaluck release though, there might even me a video for one of those tracks soon, you can hear the new EP on soundcloud



Paul has got a new job, with interesting hours, and Manda has recently had her foot broken and reset, so it's been a busy year so far. The good news is we have a gig next Friday, back in Cambridge at the Portland Arms which we have attended but never played before.

Pleas come up and say hello if you make it! Really looking forward to getting back out there and meeting some new people :-) we may even have some badges left if you're especially nice. 

The Temptations of Salford

On the 5th May we were invited to play Toska's Salford Temptation, a three day event organised by Toska Wilde who we had previously played for in Margate. We'd never played up North so we were quite excited. Unfortunately M totally lost her voice on the day before we were due to travel. Being us, we thought we'd go anyway, in the hope of a sudden recovery.

It was a pretty cool journey, we got to see some sheep and mountains, some spherical children and a sign to 'lolsworth'. Plus three of the band at least were able to sing along to the in-car mix tape. It was apparent though that M was not able to sing, or even to rap which was our plan B. So we went to the venue to make our apologies and it turned out that the gig might not be going ahead due to a flashing incident the night before! Apparently, even though it was a very punk venue, the sight of Luis Drayton's member had caused great distress and the further publication of photo evidence on Facebook nearly sealed the deal.

Luis Drayton - offensive penis?

Luckily, good sense prevailed and the show went on, although the furore had set sound check back by a couple of hours so we we high tailed it back to our Premier Inn to get changed and get some food in so we could come back and watch the other performers. As it turned out, several bands had had health and safety issues and had to pull out.  Toska suggested there might be a curse on whole weekend! Of course we don't believe in curses. Except, then a vital text message from the Get saying they were setting up on stage got delayed for 45 minutes between Gary's phone and M's, so we didn't get back to the venue in time to watch them which was really disappointing.  We did get to see the anarcho punk of the Black Light Mutants though, and they were pretty good.

note the pinky held aloft - even punks can be classy.

  

Unfortunately there was a smoke machine in the venue and it was quite difficult for Manda with her asthma and M with her throat infection to breathe. We hadn't had time to eat so we thought we'd quickly nip to the nearest chippy and get some fresh air, then head back to see more music. 

However, it wasn't a very chip shop sort of road

And after about 40 minutes we gave up, got in the van, and found the nearest chip shop we could, which turned out to be in Oldham. 

By this point we had missed quite a lot of music and M was really flagging, so we went back to the Premier Inn for a nightcap and turned in about midnight, like the soft southern indie kids we are. 

Back at the venue, Toska was sporting his tiger stripes and being an absolute star for taking on such a huge task as a three day festival, no mean feat even without a curse! 

Thanks again to Toska for being so brave and for inviting us to play, even though we epically failed. 

And now, at the risk of turning this into the Lost Harbours Blog, here are some scenic photos M took while on the chip quest.

God moves in mysterious ways, and so do the working class.

Spring update

Hey there everyone, hope you're all well. Got lots of little bits and bobs to report.

We are very honoured to report that one of our badges has snuck into the Thames Delta exhibition at the Beecroft in Leigh on Sea. The exhibition celebrates the strong musical heritage of Southend and the surrounding area and most of the people featured have been signed and successful and documented, so it is a bit of a sneaky coup. The exhibition carries on until the 16th June and entry is free. The Beecroft is closed Mondays. We've also had some airplay thanks to the inimitable Ms Toska Wilde,

http://www.mixcloud.com/SonicDiary/sonic-diary-103-part-1/

 As part of the promotional lead up to our next gig, Toska's Temptation in Salford. We've never been to Salford before so we're rather excited. ROAD TRIP!

Also we're just about to launch our own internet radio show! http://www.mixcloud.com/Ten_Tigers/

Jenson Button

Hooray, our song Jenson Button has arrived to herald in the start of the new F1 season!

You can download the track for free from here: Bandcamp

HEY! YEAH!

We have a new song! And not just written, but recorded and available for free download from this coming Sunday, 18th March, start of the new F1 season. It's our ode to our current favourite driver, Jenson Button. He's exciting to watch because he's great at overtaking and zooming to the front from the back of the pack, also he is good at driving in the rain when other drivers often struggle, so he tends to liven things up a bit without crashing or going off the track and generally putting himself out of the race like Montoya used to (although we loved him for it). Anyway it'll be available from Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Last FM. and probably directly from our website as well. M has also made a video for the song, it's rather silly.

Nearly forgot....

Oh yeah, M also did a little solo thing, although not that solo as Paul did some drumming on one of the tracks. It's a departure from TT or Lost Harbours stuff, just some things she wanted to get out of her head, all recorded on a dictaphone with minimum takes and no real gameplan.

http://soundcloud.com/pettaluck/sets

Russia

So, for as long as anyone can remember, M has been pretty much obsessed with all things Russian.  Right now there's all sorts of upheaval over there, although the election at the end of the week seems to be unlikely to change much at all. But, this is a music blog, so I shall focus on the two points most salient to our band.

1) On the downside, there's the new law in St Petersburgh which is sort of like section 28 (the law in the 80's which stopped people 'promoting' homosexuality) only a lot bigger and scarier. Strangely this story doesn't seem to be being covered by the BBC online but you can find it elsewhere. It's all pretty ludicrous - basically you either pretend that gay and bi people don't exist, or you have to mention that we're all sick and evil.  They seem to have gotten the word 'gay' confused with the word 'vampire' or something.  The upshot is that you probably shouldn't email a copy of '82 to your comrades anytime soon.

2) Unless you comrade is one of these ladies and you have a safe address for her.

http://pussy-riot.livejournal.com/

Pussy Riot are amazing.  And they've got a track on the free comp I blogged about below. We are honoured to share that tiny scrap of history.

In all seriousness I'd like to get some copies of the Any Love album into Russia when it's released but it's a pretty big fire to prod.  It's important to remember that no one is free until everyone is free, no-one is equal until everyone is equal. Things can sometimes get tough in the UK due to prejudice but at least it isn't officially state sanctioned. Anymore. A lot of people had to fight to change that and the fight for many rages on.

We have been compiled!

riotgrrrlberlin.tumblr.com/compilation02

We're on this ace FREE compilation of riot girl and generally girly focused musics.  Our track is the album mix of Superlucky which hasn't been available before.

Vanity post

I'm trying to write our new updated biography, with a view to getting some tasty gigs and sexy airplay in the new year, and I realised that we have some rather nice press quotes which I hadn't put up here. So now I will.

'Truley fantastic!' - Suck My Left One Radio

"The effect this performance has had on the Southend public appears akin to some sort of fever that's spreading rapidly and causing people to break into epic speeches....You need to see this band and catch the fever too!!"

- Noisyzine! ..

"They're sweet musical niavety with reckless abandonment" - Richard Thompson (not that one)

"Overall, not the best band in the world, but at least they're making the effort!" - Level 4 magazine blog here

We were Band Of The Day! Look here

"I've been told to ask you to stop now. That's not the kind of music we were looking for." Costa Coffee, Colchester.

"Not everyone was gay in 82" - Tom Robinson

'82 Works as social commentary as much as it does retro new-wave. Flying Lizards -meet- The Waitresses with nice better guitar riffs.' - Metro Underground internet radio

"I think they're great" - Indie Mp3

"They're such musos" - Eddie Curry, Pheonix FM.

The full A New Band a Day review is here, please google their site and support them though X: 

>I like surprises. Well, to a point – those, “darling, I’m pregnant,” shocks don’t get easier even the 14th time around – but as a rule, happy accidents and unexpected pleasures are the best bits of life.

Bands that spring a tasty surprise make me want to hunt them down and smother them to death with hugs, such is the prevalence of charmless, bland bands. So, usher in quietly Today’s New Band, Ten Tigers from Southend, whose songs veer from spazzy-punk to contemplative-campfire singing, and don’t give a monkey’s what you think.

For example: their song Superlucky is a simple, crunchy, yelpy, sharply-female buzzfest that sounds like it’d be a great song to open a gig with. It’d set out the stall, to use football manager’s parlance, and everyone would know exactly what to expect. Except their other songs aren’t even like it at all, or even like each other. Possessing the shortest attention span in pop, song ’82has a verse that’s a bold attempt to rescue the Wah-Wah pedal from Blaxploitatio-clichés, before strolling into a lovely, heavy, yomping chorus of “Everyone was gay in 1982″. It goes without saying that Runaway andSunny Shades are altogether different again (a summertime lilt and the aforementioned campfire sunset sing-song respectively).

They’re hit-and-miss, but that’s a given – it seems an ingrained part of Ten Tigers’ nature. So what if you only like half of their songs? It’s better than having middling feelings towards a band that treads a carefully safe route. A sensation of swinging between love and hate makes you feel alive, dagnammit, so ponder their songs here!

The '82 video is here!

The video to '82 is here! Many thanks to everyone who took part - in no particular order : Ste McCabe, Maria and the Gay, Dee and Dan from Death of the Elephant, Chris Davison, Andy Superduck, Richard, Malc, Dave's dragons, Sophia and Arnold Schwarzenegger. M made it with additional camera work from CK, Phoenix FM, Manda and Dom. Please feel free to repost!


Untitled from Emma Reed on Vimeo.

Album preview

Well, there's no point lying, we're not going to have the album done in time for the launch party this coming Friday.  But we're going to celebrate anyway, dagnamit. And we do have 4 tracks all mixed (by CK) and mastered (by John Hannon) and you can listen to them here, and hopefully on some radio stations pretty soon. There will be a mailing list at the launch party, if you give us your email address we'll send you a coupon for some money off the album when it does finally 'drop', as well as an update on the new date and maybe even a free gift for being so patient.

Superlucky

'82

The Tiger Who Came For Tea

Christmas on Prozac

Tiger tiger tiger tiger

Amusing article we get a mention in :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nowplaying/2011/05/too-many-tigers.shtml

Launch poster

Surprises

Phoenix FM/Creative studios have just put up a whole page of video and photos from our session we did for them back in the winter at midnight!  We were a bit sleepy as you can probably see but what an ace set of footage, thanks guys!

http://www.phoenixfm.com/2011/02/13/24-hour-creative-sessions-ten-tigers-2/

Also, we can now formally announce that our debut album Milk Teeth will be out on the 9th December, available as a CD or download.  We're having a launch party at the Sunrooms and supporting us on the night will be our friends Ste McCabe and Art Gruppe.  Here's what the front cover will look like

Any Love is Good Love

So here it is, our track for the Any Love is Good Love compilation M has been compiling with Ste McCabe.

Ten Tigers - Any Love is Good Love

There are 19 tracks covering many different styles, including riot grrl, lo-fi, dance, indiepop, spoken word, and some things we don't have names for. The idea of the CD is to get people talking about homophobia and transphobia, which are somewhat hidden issues in our society.  Sure, we are now seeing more gay characters on TV and it's not such a taboo as it used to be, and with civil partnerships there has been a move towards making 'gayness' more mainstream and visible.  But jibes based on sexuality are commonplace, in a way that racist jokes (thankfully) are not. Violent attacks against gay or trans people seem to be hitting the news every day - on one hand, at least they are being reported, but we really aren't going to settle for such low achievements.  Ten Tigers believe that everyone has a basic right to be an individual, and that they should not have to defend that right to anyone. We are all made up of thousands of different elements which make us unique, and to single out one facet of a person and treat them badly because you don't understand it is a complete waste of the opportunity you had to meet the rest of them.  It is everyone's responsibility to challenge prejudice, and not just to get angry but to sit down and talk with people about where their negative feelings and actions are coming from.  If these topics are never discussed, then how can we expect kids to grow up feeling at ease with them? Things which are kept secret seem alien and threatening to us all. There will always be people who feel that homosexuality goes against their religious beliefs, or that it is a world they would rather avoid, but there doesn't always have to be people who carry around so much anger that they feel the need to take it out on others.  We need to get everyone talking and diffuse the aggression.  Homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism....these things are not bogeymen, waiting to leap out and attack.  They are just realities that some people live with.  Historically they have been dirty secrets, scandals, crimes, mental diseases. We can't expect the whole world to suddenly flip from these memories and think in a new way.  But we can start the tap dripping.

Who's with us?

http://www.facebook.com/AnyLoveisGoodLove