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Thighpaulsandra

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Thighpaulsandra

Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis) is a Welsh experimental musician known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. As Tim Lewis, he began his career working with Julian Cope, who suggested he change his name to something more radical. A collaboration with Cope in 1993 followed, as the experimental duo Queen Elizabeth. This project completed just the two albums, 'Queen Elizabeth' (ESP Records 1994) and 'Elizabeth Vagina' (Head Heritage 1997), each containing extremely long spacey tracks of between 20-47 minutes in duration. In 1997, former Cope guitarist Mike Mooney invited Lewis to fill for the departing Kate Radley on a Spiritualized tour, where he has remained until the present time. In May 2000, Cope invited the experimental band Coil to play at his two-day Cornucopea Festival, at the South Bank Centre, where Thighpaulsandra joined them on the Royal festival Hall stage. The collaboration was such a success that Coil invited the musician to keep working for them. He has subsequently released several solo albums.

Career

Beginning his career in the early 1980s with the hair metal band Temper Temper, Lewis next became the studio manager at Loco Studios, Gwent, where he recorded with bands such as Tansads and other obscurities. Stuck in S. Wales, Lewis was at first unable to capitalize on his real influences, such as krautrock and improvised electronic music. Eventually, his work with Julian Cope provided the right atmosphere, and Lewis was invited to contribute synthesizers to Cope's Def American albums Autogeddon and 20 Mothers. As Thighpaulsandra, Lewis has also produced and appeared on other records, such as 'Zero Beats Per Minute' by Anal (on Cope's KAK label 1995), RocketGoldStar, and 'Love Peace & Fuck' by Brain Donor (Impresario 2001)

In 1997, Lewis joined the band Spiritualized for a U.S. tour and survived the cuts to the band made shortly thereafter, his mentor Mike Mooney quitting to form Lupine Howl with bassist Sean Cook and drummer Damien Cooke. Lewis can be heard on the studio records Let It Come Down and Amazing Grace. He also joined Coil the next year and performed on such albums as Astral Disaster, Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 1 and Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 2.

During the same period, Thighpaulsandra also worked on The Waterboys' album A Rock in the Weary Land. The artwork for his Double Vulgar album caused some controversy with several printers not willing to reproduce the homoerotic imagery. Double Vulgar II was delayed, possibly for the same reason, along with the passing of friend and colleague John Balance.

His first three solo releases came out via the Coil label, Eskaton. John Balance provided vocals for Thighpaulsandra's first release Some Head EP, and Peter Christopherson designed the artwork for the I, Thighpaulsandra double album and for the following "Double Vulgar" albums. London based Austrian photographer Ruth Bayer took the front cover image for "I, Thighpaulsandra". Bayer was the official photographer for many of the first London Coil shows.

He currently remains in Spiritualized and still works with Julian Cope, while finishing off future releases for the now defunct Coil. He has also recorded with Cyclobe and The Waterboys.

Discography

Albums:

Compilation appearances

with Coil

with Spiritualized

with Julian Cope

with Queen Elizabeth

with Cyclobe

Interviews
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