Tortoise Shout!'s new designer t shirts are selling faster than the Kate Moss range.Hurry to their next gig at Bar Academy to get your hands on a limited edition design. Already collector's items and selling on e-bay for up to $300.The band are about to go into the studio to record a new song and are planning a promo-shoot with top camera-man, Patrick Duval.Watch this space ...THAT WAS THEN BUT THIS IS NOW
In 1987 the lives of four young people who’d dropped aimlessly out of school, collided when they realised they had nothing better to do than A level English lit at Southend Tech.
They got a trombone out of the attic, borrowed a bass, bought a 12 string and a second-hand drum kit and started playing music together relentlessly in a bed-sit whilst neighbours set up a petition to get them out.
The band Tortoise Shout! (named after a D H Lawrence poem they were studying), was born. For the next two years they built up a devoted following of their melancholic, moody and melodic indie sound.
When Renee, their drummer, disappeared only to be seen again in dodgy videos, the band made their separate ways to different universities around the country and Tortoise Shout! was no more.
In 2006, an unsatiated desire to show off and downright refusal to grow up, set against the terrifying knowledge that it might already be too late to become fully-fledged pop stars, led Dawn and Wendy to get their guitars out and reform the band. Attempts to track down the other band members were agonisingly fruitless. They soldiered on, enlisting Rob Clarke as their new drummer who, incidentally, was pre-pubescent when Tortoise Shout! first performed.
More recently they tracked down Chris Lewis, the original trombone player, who was delighted to escape the tedium of his life up north to be lured into playing again, driven by Dawn and Wendy’s passionate hunger to perform, create, record, be heard by audiences old and new and to build up on their collection of stage outfits.
To their delight and astonishment, old fans still remember the tunes and lyrics to their old songs. Better still, they are enraptured by the new ones. Dawn, who feels like she has been re-born, is continually writing new material which has all the quirkiness and appeal of her old songs but with a broader, more universal outlook on life. Her lyrics are as heartfelt, miserable and acidic as ever but with a smaller degree of the self-obsession only a teenager can get away with.
The original band members still listen to and love the music that inspired them in the eighties and now find themselves fitting perfectly in the retrospective mood of the 21st century.
TORTOISE SHOUT! COME OUT OF THEIR SHELL
Since reforming in September 2006, Tortoise Shout! Have played at Bar Academy, The Buffalo Bar and headlined at the Metro to packed, enthused and intrigued audiences, amazing their middle-youth friends and peers with their audacious spirit and with their music which is laden with pathos, humour and beauty and most importantly, was, and still is, utterly unique.
You have never heard another band like them. You must see them while they can still get away with it.
Singer/songwriter Dawn Lintern shows a new maturity in her recent
material without losing the naive charm of the early work. The songs
speak for themselves. Dawn lays her heart bare in the beautiful 'Another Ophelia', an intimate song about love, betrayal and emotional insecurity. The upbeat '40 years' is delivered with a wry smile and lines such as 'Spare me
the bedbath, don't move me to a bungaloid; spare me the stairlift, I'd
rather fall into a void' are indicative of the humour which is interwoven throughout the set.
Citing their biggest influences as 'The Smiths, Strongbow and Butlins'
Tortoise Shouts! music ranges from the dry humour of 'Blonde Haired Toad' to the bittersweet 'Lonely Toothbrush' and to the dark and downright bloody depressing 'Drayton Park Road'.
Chris Lewis' trombone weaves through the songs and imbues the sound
with sombre melodies and quirky asides. Wendy Solomon provides
intricate and harmonic bass as well as vocal harmonies, and the rhythm
section is completed with Rob Clarke's stunning percussion.
Impossible to pidgeonhole, Tortoise Shout! are unique; timeless, melodic, catchy - and utterly English.
Contact them on [email protected]
