Originally inspired by a dream of British 1930s crooner Al Bowlly and American actress Tuesday Weld, Stephen Coates began to create music to try to recreate the sounds he heard in his childhood home - 'the crackling of radios playing swing and easy listening in some distant room.' As The Real Tuesday Weld, Coates doesn’t hesitate to put those sounds to subversive use much like some of his most illustrious forebears and influences—such as Serge Gainsbourg and Ennio Morricone.
From his first EP 'The Valentine' on Dreamy records and through many singles, eps and compilation tracks with Motorway Records, Kindercore and Bambini records to the album 'Cupid Meets Psyche' he has developed the sound known as 'Antique Beat'.
The album 'I, Lucifer', was conceived as a 'soundtrack' and companion piece to Glen Duncan’s novel of the same name, a mischievous view of the Devil’s take on humanity - A song cycle of love, loss and redemption set to a jazz, elctronic and pop collage - written as the devil’s advocate, so to speak.
'The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid' released in 2005, was no less audacious in its potent mixture of classic and modern sounds and styles and reprised older songs to tell the story of a love affair from before its beginning until after its end. The album’s sounds cover a much wider stylistic range, extending beyond cabaret and swing to embrace breezy bossa nova, classic pop and gentle psychedelia—adding João Gilberto, Martin Denny, Brian Wilson and the Beatles to the sonic mix.
Now, 'The London Book of the Dead' another song cycle desribing the soul's adventure through birth, life, death and rebirth is about to emerge. It features the Jacques Van Rhijn, Clive Painter, Don Brosnan and Jed Woodhouse from the live band and special guest appearances by Cibelle, The Puppini Sisters, David Piper, Aurelia Thierree and Moses Strongpeace.It is accompanied for the lucky few by an extraordinary recording of a live concert by The Clerkenwell Kid: "At the End of the World"...
