The Lounge Kittens

The Lounge Kittens was an English comedy lounge band formed in Southampton in 2012. They perform covers of classic popular songs, in particular rock and heavy metal songs, in a lounge style focusing on vocal harmonies accompagned by a piano.[1][2] The trio consists of vocalists Jenny Deacon, Timia Gwendoline, and Zan Lawther, sometimes called Red Kitten, Blue Kitten, and Pink Kitten respectively because of the colour of their hair, with Deacon also performing piano.

The Lounge Kittens
The Lounge Kittens at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2019. From left to right: Timia Gwendoline, Jenny Deacon, and Zan Lawther.
Background information
OriginSouthampton, England, UK
GenresLounge music, parody, comedy rock
Years active2012 (2012)–2020
Websitewww.theloungekittens.com
Members
  • Jenny Deacon
  • Timia Gwendoline
  • Zan Lawther

Their songs are released via their YouTube channel and accompanied by tongue-in-cheek videos which take token ideas from the original artists' videos. They released their debut EP Just The Tip... in 2015 and their first full-length album Sequins & C-Bombs the following year. In 2019 they released a second EP, Have Another....

On 23 September 2019, the trio announced that they would split-up, explaining that band was never "financially viable" and that the members' financial struggles were "to the point where it's all just a bit too hard", wanting to end The Lounge Kittens on a high note before it "stops being any fun."[3] They performed a three-show farewell tour in early 2020, culminating with their final show taking place on 29 February 2020 in Southampton.

Biography

Deacon and Gwendoline met in 2012 at a production of Company at the University of Southampton, owing their meeting to the fact that they were both wearing the same black, white, and silver glitter socks.[4] Deacon runs a Rock Choir in Southampton where she and Gwendoline met Lawther.[5] During a night out at Southampton's iconic rock club The Dungeon, the idea for The Lounge Kittens was born out of singing along to Vengaboys song "We Like to Party (The Vengabus)".[1]

The Lounge Kittens sing in three-part harmony and credit Richard Cheese and The Andrews Sisters as their influences; 'Imagine if Richard Cheese seduced all three of the Andrews Sisters...and each had a little Lounge Baby. The Lounge Kittens would be the scandalous by product of that sordid affair'.[6] Their first demo recordings, made in early February 2014, were an eclectic trio of musical styles: "Firework" by Katy Perry, "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit, and "Ob La Di Ob La Da" by The Beatles.[7] Their repertoire boasts over 40 songs, including songs by The Prodigy, House of Pain, Elton John, Rammstein, and Iron Maiden.[8] and they cite their musical tastes cover Rock, Jazz, Punk, Psychobilly, Ragga, Hip Hop, Folk, Ska, Pop, Soul, Metal, Dance, House, Grunge, and others.[6]

Music and videos

On 26 February 2014 the Lounge Kittens posted a video to YouTube of their cover version of Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'". On 28 February they sent a tweet to Fred Durst, the Limp Bizkit frontman, with a link to their video. Four hours later Durst replied 'loving it' and promptly posted the video on his band's Facebook page.[9][10] Following the endorsement from Durst, The Lounge Kittens video went viral and subsequently had appearances on Kerrang!'s and Metal Hammer's Facebook pages. Within a week the video had nearly 75,000 views.[11]

Following on from the success of "Rollin'", The Lounge Kittens worked on increasing their repertoire. Deacon had the idea to arrange an Aerosmith song in a tango style. Deacon says 'I was imagining the kind of naughty, sexy, but totally clueless image we could make through a tango... The tango is about power, so I naturally turned to rock love songs'.[12] In June 2014 the video to the song "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" was released.

Later in 2014 The Lounge Kittens released their own version of Slipknot's "Duality". The video's release coincided with the release of Slipknot's fifth album and UK tour. Gwendoline says 'The Lounge Kittens as a band are all about duality', referring to their combination of lounge music and rock/metal songs.[13] The slapstick comedy chases in the video complement the polka rhythms in Deacon's piano.[14] 'Slipknot's Duality has got such a frantic energy about it' says Deacon, 'especially when you accompany the video alongside it – with super dark angst and dirty rhythm, and I really wanted to convey the same atmosphere but still take it away from its origins.[13] The first two Lounge Kittens videos had received some criticism from fans of the original songs, but the backlash from Slipknot fans on their interpretation of "Duality" was unforeseen. In an interview for TeamRock Radio Gwendoline mentions that while the criticism for the first two videos had been fairly tame and laughable, the criticism for "Duality" had been vulgar. She adds 'However, for every one bad comment there are three good comments'.[15]

In December 2014 The Lounge Kittens released their version of Andrew W.K.'s "Party Hard" as a downloadable single. Rather than sing a Christmas song Gwendoline says the focus of the band was on partying at Christmas and dubs "Party Hard" as 'the ultimate party anthem'. The band's aim was to get to Christmas number 2, Lawther saying 'number 2 is more satisfying than number 1'.[16]

Following a huge demand from fans, The Lounge Kittens released the EP Just The Tip... on 26 February 2015. This coincided with the release of their cover of Steel Panther's "Gloryhole" the following day and the start of their Fluffing For Steel Panther tour. The release features all of the songs they had previously released videos for, with the exception of "SeanAPaul Medley" whose video came after the EP's release. Deacon said their song choice was 'to show the true variety of our musical passions, genre tastes, naughtiness and vocal range'.[17]

Upon their return from tour with Steel Panther, the Lounge Kittens released the sixth and final song from their album; "SeanAPaul Medley". This is an arrangement of seven songs by Sean Paul; "Temperature", "Get Busy", "Like Glue", "Got 2 Luv U", "Hold My Hand", "She Doesn’t Mind", and "Ever Blazin'".[18]

On 16 September 2016 the released the crowd funded album titled Sequins & C-Bombs which comprises 15 new tracks including Bounce which was the feature of a promotional video release and Facebook Live event which occurred at St Pancras Station in London on 15 September 2015.

Live

The success of "Rollin'" led The Lounge Kittens to making several appearances in 2014 at Sonisphere and Glastonbury festivals.[19][20] At Sonisphere The Lounge Kittens drew in a large crowd to their shows on the Satellite Stage and Rocky Royalty area. After seeing their performance, Fred Durst invited The Lounge Kittens to open Limp Bizkit's show on the main stage, singing a part of their own rendition of "Rollin'".[2][21] At Glastonbury festival The Lounge Kittens performed six shows at five venues in just two days.[22]

In September 2014 and February 2015 The Lounge Kittens headlined their own UK tours; Girls On Tour and Fluffing for Steel Panther respectively.[22][23][24]

In March and April 2015 The Lounge Kittens supported Steel Panther on the UK and European legs of their All You Can Eat tour.[24][25]

In June 2015 The Lounge Kittens played The Encore Stage at Download Festival.[26]

In December 2016 The Lounge Kittens supported Status Quo with REO Speedwagon on "The Last Night Of The Electrics" tour [27]

On 23 September 2019, the trio announced that they would split-up, stating: "It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce 3 final performances to mark the end of TLK. Despite your unwavering support and generosity, we have struggled to keep TLK financially viable over the years and although it’s never been 'about the money' when we add the financial strain to the demands of our own lives and our individual wants and needs, we have simply come to the point where it’s all just a bit too hard. What we don’t want to happen is to reach the point where it’s all too hard and it stops being any fun because the fun, dear Kittens, was always the only reason to do any of this. We want to assure you that through a lot of honest conversation, our decision was made with love and care for each other, and for you all. We decided that if we were going to call time on the band, then there’s only one way we want to go out – the three of us standing together and having a big fucking last laugh. We would like our final shows to be a huge celebration of everything that we’ve achieved over the past 6 years (and by 'we', we mean us three, the whole of our extended Team Kitten and all of you lot). We hope you will take up your place in the squad one last time. A social media post cannot adequately describe what being in TLK has done for each of us and we understand that some of you hold your memories and experiences of TLK just as closely as we do. [...] As always, big Kitten love. It’s been a helluva ride!"[28]

In February 2020, The Lounge Kittens performed their final three shows ("An Evening With The (Departure) Lounge Kittens & Friends") in Manchester, London and Southampton. The final show was at The 1865, Southampton on 29 February 2020.

Discography

Just The Tip... (2015)
TrackTitleOriginal ArtistVideo Release Date
1Party HardAndrew W.K.3 December 2014
2DualitySlipknot17 October 2014
4Get Busy Blazin', Hold My Temperature Like GlueSean Paul8 April 2015
4Rollin'Limp Bizkit26 February 2014
5I Don't Want to Miss a ThingAerosmith2 June 2014
6GloryholeSteel Panther27 February 2015

Sequins & C-Bombs (2016)
Track Title Original Artist Video Release Date
1 Poison Alice Cooper 16 August 2016
2 Bounce System of a Down 15 September 2016
3 Yeah Usher 19 April 2017
4 Jump Around House of Pain N/A
5 Love Is Only a Feeling The Darkness 16 December 2016
6 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap AC/DC 16 June 2016
7 Africa Toto 26 July 2016
8 Smack My Firestarter to Outer Space The Prodigy N/A
9 Bodies Drowning Pool N/A
10 Want You Bad The Offspring N/A
11 Changes David Bowie N/A
12 Sad but True Metallica N/A
13 Rammers (Medley) Rammstein N/A
14 The Cave Mumford & Sons N/A
15 The Beautiful People Marilyn Manson 16 October 2016

Have Another... (2019)
Track Title Original Artist Video Release Date
1 Gold Dust DJ Fresh 13 March 2019
2 Violent Pornography System Of A Down N/A
3 The Middle Jimmy Eat World N/A
4 Cheerleader Omi N/A
5 One Step Closer Linkin Park N/A
6 Love Walked In Thunder N/A

Do It LIVE (2020)
Track Title Original Artist Venue
1 Welcome N/A St Pancras Old Church
2 Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle) Limp Bizkit St Pancras Old Church
3 Duality Slipknot Band on the Wall
4 Violent Pornography (With Full Band) System of a Down Union Chapel
5 We're Definitely Going to Hell N/A St Pancras Old Church
6 All Night Long (All Night) (With Full Band) Lionel Richie Union Chapel
7 The Middle Jimmy Eat World Band on the Wall
8 Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo Bloodhound Gang St Pancras Old Church
9 Jump Around House of Pain St Pancras Old Church
10 Gold Dust (With Full Band) DJ Fresh Union Chapel
11 Gloryhole Steel Panther Union Chapel
12 Hail Satan! N/A St Pancras Old Church
13 One Step Closer (With Full Band) Linkin Park Band on the Wall
14 Angry White Guy Polka "Weird Al" Yankovic Union Chapel
15 We've Been the Lounge Kittens N/A St Pancras Old Church
16 Medley: A Vocal Tribute to Avicii (With Full Band) Avicii St Pancras Old Church
17 Buh-Bye N/A The 1865

Singles

"Party Hard" - 14 December 2014

Other

"Sad but True" - 3 June 2015. The Lounge Kittens feature on a free cover CD in Kerrang! with their version of the Metallica song.[29]

References
  1. "The Lounge Kittens - About". Theloungekittens.com. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  2. "Live Sonisphere Festival @ Knebworth Saturday 05/07/2014". Deadpress.co.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  4. "Sonisphere - 13 Things We Bet You Didn't Know About The Lounge Kittens". Sonisphere.co.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  5. "The Punk Archive June 2014 - Interview: The Lounge Kittens". Thepunkarchive.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  6. "Southampton Music April 2014". Issuu.com. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  7. "How To Make A Song Go Viral". James-hawkins-music.co.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  8. "The Lounge Kittens - Setlist". Theloungekittens.com. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  9. "Fred Durst responds to The Lounge Kittens". Twitter.com. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  10. "Limp Bizkit post The Lounge Kitten's video to their Facebook page". Facebook.com. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  11. "The Lounge Kittens Rollin' video gets 75,000 views". Facebook.com. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  12. "The Lounge Kittens Tackle Aerosmith in Hilarious New Video". Teamrock.com. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  13. "Slipknot's Duality reworked by The Lounge Kittens". Teamrock.com. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  14. "The Lounge Kittens Cover Slipknot's 'Duality'". Loudwire.com. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  15. "The Lounge Kittens on TeamRock Radio". Teamrock.com. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  16. "The Lounge Kittens Get Christmassy With Andrew W.K." Metalhammer.teamrock.com. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  17. "The Lounge Kittens Cover Steel Panther's Gloryhole". Kerrang.com. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  18. "The Lounge Kittens Release Sean Paul Medley Video". Stereoboard.com. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  19. "Glastonbury 2014 Line-up". Glastonburyfestivals.co.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  20. "Sonisphere 2014 Line-up". Sonisphere.co.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  21. "The Lounge Kittens Post Sonisphere Video Diary". Teamrock.com. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  22. "The Lounge Kittens Unveil Headline Tour Dates". Thenoisecartel.com. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  23. "The Lounge Kittens are Fluffing for Steel Panther". Metalhammer.teamrock.com. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  24. "The Lounge Kittens are Added To Steel Panter's UK Tour". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  25. "Steel Panther with support act The Lounge Kittens - All You Can Eat Tour 2015 - European Leg". Metal-rules.com. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  26. "Download 2015 Line-up". Archived from the original on 29 October 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  27. "UK Tour with Status Quo & The Lounge Kittens announced". Reospeedwagon.com. 21 March 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  29. "8 Reasons You Must Buy The New Look Kerrang! Magazine". Retrieved 29 May 2015.

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