The Ting Tings

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The Ting Tings
The Ting Tings performing at ULU in 2008
Background information
Origin	Salford, England
Genre(s)	Dance-punk Pop
Years active	2006–Present
Label(s)	Columbia Records
Associated acts	Dear Eskiimo
Influences	Gorillaz, Talking Heads, Blondie, Dresden Dolls, Tom Tom Club, The Police, Cabaret, Bjork, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush , The Velvet Underground, Nico, The Beatles, Beck, The Eels[1]
Website	http://www.thetingtings.com
Members
Katie White Jules De Martino

The Ting Tings are an English indie-pop band, consisting of two members: Jules De Martino (drums, guitar, vocals) and Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drum), originally from Leigh. They formed in 2006 while based at Islington Mill, Salford. They have released 3 singles on their current label Columbia Records and the single 'That's Not My Name' which charted straight at Number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on May 18 2008^{[citation needed]}. The album We Started Nothing was released in Europe May 19th, 2008 and also charted at Number 1 in the UK^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Early years 2 Formation and exposure 3 Discography 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early years

Katie White first appeared, as a teenager, in girl group TKO - short for Technical Knock Out. The band consisted of Katie and two friends, Joanne Leeton and Emma Lally^[2]. TKO supported acts like Steps and Five but never signed a record deal or released a record.^[3]

Jules De Martino started out in a teenage band called Babakoto, and released a single called "Just To Get By" in 1987. After Babakoto split up De Martino was a singer in an indie rock group "Mojo Pin". Mojo Pin released two singles, "You" in 1995 and "My Imagination" in 1996.

He met White whilst she was in TKO just before they split. A few months later the pair bumped into each other and went on to form trio Dear Eskiimo who were signed to Mercury Records - but creative differences and the management style of the record label caused them to split.^[4]

This earlier experience left White and De Martino with a distrust of the music industry, so when they formed The Ting Tings the band started out playing private parties at The Mill, Salford (a building that is home to artists and emerging creative ventures dealing in everything from fine art to theatre and film);^[5] which ended up as some of the most sought after tickets on the Manchester party scene - with various A&R reps and record producers, such as American Rick Rubin who worked for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash, asking for tickets.^[4]

[edit] Formation and exposure

Their first double-A side single That's Not My Name/Great DJ was released on local label Switchflicker, and together with their second single Fruit Machine were on heavy rotation in British radio (amongst others BBC 6 Music, played regularly by many DJs including a session for Marc Riley who was first to have them in session on 6 Music and first to play their record on the station too). Fruit Machine was a limited-edition, 500-only seven-inch single on Legendre Starkie Records, which was only available at the group's gigs at Islington Mill in Salford, Eleckrowerkz in Islington, West Germany in Berlin and at Glasslands in Brooklyn, New York City.^[6]

They had a notable performance at Glastonbury Festival 2007, and after an October 2007 tour of universities in the UK with Reverend and the Makers, signed for Columbia Records,^[7] and appeared on Later with Jools Holland on 14 December 2007. In May 2008 the band credited BBC Introducing for giving them their 'life changing' break after BBC Radio Manchester's Introducing show spotted the band and put them forward for inclusion in the Glastonbury running order.

In January 2008 they were voted third in the annual BBC 6 Music poll of industry experts Sound of 2008, for acts to emerge in the coming year.^[3] In February 2008 they were the opening slot act on the 2008 Shockwaves NME Awards Tour, performing with The Cribs, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong and Does It Offend You, Yeah?.^[8] In conjunction with the NME and HMV the band contributed a demo version of Great DJ to a limited, 5000 copies only 10" vinyl release of all the artists on the NME Awards Tour.

The first single released on Columbia was Great DJ, which received considerable airplay on new music stations BBC Radio 1 and Xfm in the UK; and hyped by magazines such as the NME. The band performed a live set on the In New Music We Trust stage at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Maidstone, Kent, which was made available by the BBC's online video player application iPlayer. The single "Shut Up and Let Me Go" appeared in an iPod commercial in late April 2008, peaking at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 ^[6] The bands' debut album, We Started Nothing, was released on 19 May 2008. It was, however, leaked onto the internet on 13 May 2008. Shortly after the release of the album, the band released a statement on the social network service MySpace which explained to fans that their single "That's Not My Name" had reached number 1 in the UK Singles Charts, the statement went on to encourage fans to purchase legal copies of the single in order to keep at the top position for the official Sunday Chart release on May 18th. The band went on to secure Number 1 in the UK singles chart on May 18.

Their singles Shut Up and Let Me Go and We Started Nothing were featured in the Gossip Girl series. Whereas the song Be The One was featured in One Tree Hill.

[edit] Discography

Main article: The Ting Tings discography

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• The Ting Tings - MySpace
• The Ting Tings - French fanpage
• The Ting Tings online - Fanpage
• The Ting Tings @ Columbia Records
• The Ting Tings @ Three Imaginary Girls

v • d • e The Ting Tings Members Jules De Martino  · Katie White Albums We Started Nothing British singles "That's Not My Name"/"Great DJ" · " Fruit Machine" · "Great DJ" (re-release)  · "That's Not My Name" (re-release) · "Shut Up and Let Me Go" American singles "Fruit Machine" · "Great DJ" · "Shut Up and Let Me Go" Related articles Discography