Stephen Coates is a recording artist, composer and music producer.  He formed the band The Real Tuesday Weld in 1999 inspired by dreams of crooner Al Bowlly and the American actress Tuesday Weld. They are influenced by 1930s jazz, Serge Gainsbourg, Ennio Morricone and minimalist electronica and are known for a series of critically acclaimed albums, arts projects and award winning collaborations with film makers. Their live performances are accompanied by beautiful, atmospheric visual projections.
 
After a series of low key releases on British, US and Japanese independent labels the band became known for wedding the suggestive hiss of ancient shellacs and vintage radio transmissions to samples, loops and glitchy beats.  The first full-length release When Cupid Meets Psyche (2001) was acclaimed as
"...warm and welcoming as well as arty... a gypsy knees-up, a psychedelic bossa with the polite reeds of a ‘30s dance band crushed by booming hip-hop bass..." (Q Magazine).

The follow up : I Lucifer (2003) was a critically acclaimed 'soundtrack' to Glen Duncan's book of the same name (and a Times, Independent and Guardian album of the week) spawning the multi-award winning animation 'Bathtime in Clerkenwell' and a host of imitators.
 
The US only album "The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid' (2005) was another potent mixture of classic and modern sounds and reprised older songs to "tell the story of a love affair from before its beginning until after its end".  Described by NY Times as "oddball electronica-goes-Tin Pan Alley" and "a hit of aural Ecstasy with a champagne chaser"
 
The band first performed their alternative soundtrack for Hans Richter’s 1948 surrealist classic ‘Dreams That Money Can Buy’ (2006) at London’s National Film Theatre NFT in 2005.  The following year they were commissioned by the British Film Institute to record the score for release of the film on DVD  followed by a spectacular  performance in the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern and subsequent sell out shows at the Bath, Belfast and Moscow Film Festivals with Brazilian electronic chanteuse Cibelle.
 
2007 - 2008 saw the Worldwide release of 'The London Book of the Dead' – another work received with critical acclaim(including the Sunday Times and The Independent album of the week).

Several new films and animations were made to accompany the album and were premiered at the British Film Institute.  Cloud Cuckooland and Kix were both made featured Youtube videos.

2008 also saw the creation of “Propaganda from the State of Love” a live installation commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum which continued the band’s association with the British art establishment and was followed by live dates across Europe and the US.    

“Live at the End of the World” (2009) is a limited edition mini concept album set on the eve of the apocalypse.

Stephen scored two independent features: “Bomber” and “Meeting Spencer” in 2009 / 2010 and further composition work with various film-makers in the UK and US.

In 2010 he has produced albums for Marcella Puppini of the Puppini Sisters and as Lazarus Plane Crash with Joe Coles from The Guillotines - both due for release in 2011.

May 2011 sees the release of Rockstar Games new blockbuster period game ‘LA Noire’ for which Stephen was commissioned to write the jazz songs sung by the main character Elsa.

The next The Real Tuesday Album - a soundtrack to Glen Duncan’s new novel ‘The Last Werewolf’ (Canongate / Knopf)  - will be released in summer 2011 followed by an album of instrumental music and stories ‘Tales of the Lost City’ in winter 2011.

The Real Tuesday Weld songs and Stephen’s compositions have featured in many commercials, films and TV shows including Ariel, Kellogs, Chevrolet, Coca Cola, Lucozade, Gerber, Prudential, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Nip and Tuck, Shameless, Bored to Death, Weds, the Jay Leno show, One Tree Hill.