The Tigerlillies took Brighton by storm - and Erin Prior will recover, we hope, in time.

Absolutely full to the brim with lovers of all that is beautifully twisted in the world of music and cabaret, Komedia could not have been more buzzing tonight.

Crude almost to the point of Peter Cook status, the lead singer, Martyn Jaques, who has been described as 'the criminal castrati', has all the freak show charisma of a circus ringleader.

Erin Prior

It's been a while since the Tigerlillies have graced a Brighton stage, and this sell out gig was well worth the wait. I went along and wedged myself in a smoky corner to watch a series of bizarre events unfold.

Any band who can scream out a chorus that goes something like this - 'Gin! Gin! Gin! Gin! Gin!' or equally open a song with the opening line, 'My hand inside your toilet', is fine by me! This suited and booted trio had the audience in stitches with their sinister sea shanties and sordid tales of addicts, socially deviant behaviour and embarrassing STD's.

Crude almost to the point of Peter Cook status, the lead singer, Martyn Jaques, who has been described as 'the criminal castrati', has all the freak show charisma of a circus ringleader.

His astoundingly good falsetto voice has a versatility that carries their repertoire from the eerily beautiful to the insanely ridiculous.

Using a range of instrumentation that includes saws, mallets and bouncing balls as well as the mainstay accordion, piano, double bass and drums, the Tigerlillies have a sound that is unmistakeably European and lends itself to their folkloric storytelling.

I challenge even the straightest of the straight and the morally sound of mind to resist their filthy black humour. I almost needed surgery I laughed so much - it was the rubber chickens, pig puppets and clockwork sheep that really finished me off.

I could go on with more hilarious anecdotes and quote more corrosive lyrics, but the best thing to do would be to go and see them for yourselves as soon as is inhumanly possible.

Erin Prior

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