The Tiger Lillies will return to Prague’s Archa theater for the last time in symphonic arrangements by music composer Michal Nejtek and together with the top contemporary music orchestra Berg under the direction of Peter Vrábel. Together, they will present a concert program called Bohemian Nights there on December 2. It arose from the initiative of Archa director Ondřej Hrab and meant a collaboration of The Tiger Lillies fontman Martyn Jacques and Czech composer Michal Nejtek lasting more than a year. The result was not only the concert program, which premiered in September 2018 and has since returned to Archa after the covid break, but also the critically acclaimed album Devil’s Fairground, which was created as a live recording in Archa.
In Bohemian Nights, the songwriter and leader of the British group The Tiger Lillies Martyn Jacques thematically returns to the wild nineties, when Prague was the first foreign destination of the now famous band. Nostalgia, irony, harsh humor and plebeian language are among the basic features of their songs to this day.
“Tiger Lillies have a reputation as one of the most important avant-garde bands in the world. They collaborated, for example, with the Kronos Quartet or with the photographer Nan Goldin, they are winners of the Olivier Award for the opera Shockheaded Peter. Even years later, they continue to shock and entertain with their inimitable musical style, evoking the terrible magic of Berlin cabarets on the eve of war, combined with the wild edge of punk,” Archa theater director Ondřej Hrab invites to the concert.
The group was formed in 1989 in London, and their first trip abroad was to Prague, and then they often returned to the Czech Republic. At the beginning of the nineties, they performed in underground clubs and in local pubs throughout the country. In its 34 years of existence, it recorded 39 studio and live albums. Her attractive mix of Brechtian cabaret, punk and songwriting won her fans not only with spontaneous concerts, but also with the literary and musical quality of her songs. As interest in their concerts grew, so did the halls in which the band performed, until they finally found their home in Prague’s Archa. The Tiger Lilles will say goodbye to the theater, which will end its activities this year, on December 2. Tickets are on sale in advance in the GoOut network.
