Cue Tigers: A homegrown band fundraising for mental health projects across the world

It’s a dark evening in Manchester city centre, and in a cosy local café, Will Curvis, guitarist and backup vocals of the pop rock inspired foursome, introduces himself.

“I’ll try to speak up,” Will says, edging closer to the voice recorder, “I have quite a quiet voice.”

Arms folded in his cardigan, he nervously chuckles as he describes his career as a clinical psychologist.

“I work at part-time at a hospital and at Lancaster University,” Will explains, “It’s all separate from the band though.”

An old converted mill on a side street in Preston sounds like a stereotypical place for an amateur rock band, but the band members of Cue Tigers aren’t quite what you’d expect.

As Will leads us up the winding steps to their practice room, the separation becomes obvious; transformed from a quietly spoken man in a cafe to an energetic band member, eager to show us what Cue Tigers is all about.

Cue Tigers feature Steven on lead vocals and guitar, Will on backup vocals and rhythm guitar, Chris on bass and Matt on drums.

“It’s disgusting and awful, but I kind of like that, it’s comforting and part of its charm,” Will says.

“I’m lucky that I get to go there and make noise.”

“It’s just four friends mucking about.” Will explains, with a big grin on his face. “We’re never going to make career out of it and we’re never going to fill an arena.”

But that was never the intention with Cue Tigers; by not aiming toward any particular end goal, they have created a space that allows them to go anywhere.

“We love being on stage and performing, it’s so exciting.”

“But when you stop enjoying a hobby, it’s time to stop,” laughs Will, “When you see Green Day churning out the same song for 20 years, that’s not fun.”

The lack of pressure keeps the fun in it for Cue Tigers; “We can do whatever we want with it.” Except for one rule; no swearing, it would upset their mums.

Growing up listening to boybands and Britpop, the guys draw inspiration from a range of artists creating their own unique sound; from Bowie to The Smiths and from Green Day to Weezer.

“We write songs we want to hear, songs that might have made it onto the radio… just maybe in 2001, not 2018,” laughs Will.

Their signature track, Fastest Man embodies Cue Tigers perfectly. Evocative of a folk song, it tells the story of an athlete struggling to adjust to a life-changing injury, coping by drowning his sorrows while reminiscing of his glory days.

 

“The song tells a sad story, but it ends in chaos and never fails to put us in a good mood,” Will laughs, “We finish nearly every gig with it.”

“A lot of the work we do is collaborative,” says Will.

“Steven, as a songwriter, takes inspiration from bands such as Beautiful South and Fastest Man really encapsulates that.”

“Matt contributes so much energy on the drums, whilst Chris has a great ability to pick up a core idea and build on it.”

Feeling the Effects opens with a catchy riff, followed by drums and a driving bassline. Featuring both Will and Steven on vocals and a funky bass solo, it describes a tale of drunken love on the dancefloor.

“It’s one of our favourites – we wrote it years ago and we still love it,” Steven says, as the guys nod in agreement.

Cue Tigers will be performing at a gig to fundraise for a charitable organisation close to their hearts, Sharing Stories.

Will is part of Sharing Stories, who develop shared learning opportunities to promote mental health in both the UK and Uganda. Their members are people who work in or have used mental health services, including links with Lancaster University and Makere University, and Commented, as well as peer support organisations such as Heartsounds in Uganda.

With an ideology of equality and collaboration, they aim to give all voices equal value to support exchange of ideas, experiences and services. Sharing Stories’ next project is in partnership with another organisation, Odd Arts.

Odd Arts transform lives with creative arts that challenge and inspire, and they are working with Sharing Stories to develop a Forum Theatre event in Kampala, Uganda.

“Forum Theatre is an interactive approach,” Will explains, “it’s designed to work with marginalised groups in society who might not get their voices heard.”

Last year, Sharing Stories and Odd Arts collaborated with mental health professionals and service users to write and perform a Forum Theatre piece in Manchester, focusing on stigma around mental health.

Forum Theatre encourages audience members to interject and offer suggestions on how to improve the situation being acted out, to tackle stigma and discrimination at community levels.

“People told us that it helped them to reflect on their attitudes in relation to these issues within our society, and to think about what they could do in their everyday lives to support change – it was an enjoyable and humbling experience”.

To help raise money for the next Sharing Stories event in July, Cue Tigers are hosting a gig at Night & Day Café in Manchester’s Northern Quarter on Wednesday 23rd May, starting at 7.30pm.

Cue Tigers will be joined by FANDJANGO, Sky Valley Mistress, Sun, Moon and Talia and Premier Street.

“It’s a strong calibre of acts, and they’re all playing for free to help us raise money for such a worthy project.”

Looking ahead, it’s clear to see that Cue Tigers will continue to carve out their name as an enigmatic 4-piece band, creating a nostalgic soundtrack in the name of fun.

Tickets for the gig are available here.

Find out more about Cue Tigers here.

Find out more about Sharing Stories here.