Laura and her Tigers
black trousers and funky drive
black glasses and soul urgency
black ties and jazz elegance
white shirts and rock energy
At the end of 1985, Karel Šůcha, inspired by the novel by William Saroyan entitled “Tracy’s Tiger”, established a rock band called “Laura a její tygři“(Laura and her Tigers) in the Neprakta Club in Most. The girl’s name, Laura, evokes tenderness and beauty; the tigers symbolize invincibility and wildness; and black glasses, white shirts, black ties and black trousers create the unmistakable image of the group. The band started to give concerts in the Czechoslovak Republic and very soon it found its place among the best-known bands of “Czech New Wave”. “The band’s concerts are full of animalistic rock energy, in which you can feel hints of resounding black rhythms, Latin music, and the white beat of the 1960’s. All this comes from positive thinking and a positive view of life immediately transferred to the audience in the described mixture of styles,” wrote Vladimír Vlasák in his book “Excentrici v přízemí“ (Eccentrics on the First Floor).
From 1986 to 1989, the band’s prestige was rising on home ground. In the autumn of 1989, the band became professional. The band’s first concert abroad took place at the “Poza kontrola Festival” in Warsaw in 1987. It was followed by a concert tour in Bulgaria and by its participation in the “Stars at the Sea Festival” on the Golden Sands, concerts at the “Prague Days in Moscow Festival”, and at the World Youth Festival in North Korea. The fall of the Iron Curtain enabled “Laura a její tygři” to give concerts in Western Europe, mainly in France and Germany. At present, the band has already given more than 1 000 concerts in rock clubs and at festivals both at home and abroad.
In 1999, Karel Šůcha completely reorganized the band and young, technically advanced, and musically educated musicians brought in Laura’s energetic mix of rock, rhythm & blues, funky, salsa, and soul jazz elements with a modern sound. In November, the “line-up of the third millennium” premiers in Lucerna Music Bar in Prague. “You can hear that the radical reorganization and rejuvenation of the line-up was good for the band. After many years, its vitality and energy is again the same as at the time of its phenomenal rise,” wrote Ilja Kučera Jr. in Muzikus Magazine (12/99).
Discography:
- Žár trvá - Panton 1988
- Nebudeme - Supraphon 1990
- Síla v nás - Bonton 1992
- The Best Of - Bonton 1994
- Rituál 199x - Bonton 1995
- Vyklátíme modly - Bonton 1996
- Rytmus - Popron 2001
- Vyškrábu ti oči - EMI 2004
- Jsme tady ! - Supraphon 2005
- Nejsou malý věci - Laura promotion 2009
Musicians:
Lenka Nová – vocals
Karel Šůcha - bandmaster, bass guitar, vocals
Bohumil Vitásek - guitar, vocals
Lukáš Pelikán - guitar, vocals
Radek Němec – trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals
Marek Buble - alt saxophone, flute, vocals
Jan Šatra - trombone, vocals
Mirek Návrat - drums, percussion
Contact:
e-mail: laura@lauranet.cztel. 00 420 604 340 956
