Ting Tings

The Ting Tings are an English indie pop duo from Salford, Greater Manchester formed in 2007. The band consists of Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drums, bass guitar, cowbells) and Jules De Martino (drums, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, vocals).

The duo's debut studio album, ''We Started Nothing'', was released in 2008 by Columbia Records to positive reviews and commercial success, peaking at number one on the UK Albums Chart"World Album Charts"
aCharts.us. Retrieved 10 June 2008. and number 78 on the US ''Billboard'' 200. It spawned four singles, including "That's Not My Name", which topped the UK Singles Chart in May 2008 and reached number 39 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100; “Shut Up and Let Me Go”, which earned them a MTV Video Music Award. They received two Brit Award nominations, including for British Album of the Year and a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2010.

Their second studio album, ''Sounds from Nowheresville'', was released in February 2012, with the lead single " Hang It Up" released on 16 January 2012. Their third studio album, '' Super Critical'', was released in October 2014. Their fourth studio album, ''The Black Light'', was released in October 2018.

Career

Background and formation

Katie White started her music career as a school-time hobby in a punk trio called TKO—short for Technical Knock Out—with two friends from Lowton School, Marion Grethe Seaman and Emma Lally. The band had minimal success, once sharing the same stage as the bands Steps and Atomic Kitten. While De Martino was in Manchester, the pair bumped into each other and discovered they had a mutual love of Portishead. De Martino relocated to Islington Mill Studios (the Mill) in the Salford, Greater Manchester area. The pair, along with friend Simon Templeman, went on to form the Portishead-influenced trio Dear Eskiimo, who signed to Mercury Records. However, due to a change of directors and managers, the management style of the record label caused them to split.Ting Tings – the hottest party in town
Manchester Evening News – 8 June 2007 The experience left White and De Martino with a distrust of the music industry.

White was a barmaid at the Mill while De Martino produced tracks for various artists therein. The pair developed their sound from influences of performers at the Mill, and were inspired to form their own group, "The Ting Tings". "Ting Ting" was the name of a Chinese colleague of White at a shop, who told her that it sounded like the pronunciation of "bandstand" in Mandarin ( 亭). The band researched the name and found it also meant the "sound of innovation on an open mind".

Having created three songs, the band's first gig was a free-beer invite all at the Mill in their rented dwelling called "the Engine House". Subsequent gigs were funded on donations, and after their third gig they were name-checked on XFM. The Islington Mill gigs 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 Rick Rubin, asking for tickets.

Exposure

Their first double-A single "That's Not My Name/Great DJ" was jointly released by the band and a local label, Switchflicker Records. With their second single "Fruit Machine", they were on heavy rotation on British radio, including BBC 6 Music and others. DJ Marc Riley was the first to have them in session on 6 Music and the first to play their record on the station. "Fruit Machine" was a released as limited-edition, 500-only, seven-inch single on Legendre Starkie Records (the band's own label), which was only available at the group's gigs at Islington Mill in Salford, Electrowerkz in Islington, Berlin, Germany and at Glasslands in Brooklyn, New York City. They had a notable performance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2007, and after an October 2007 tour of universities in the UK with Reverend and the Makers, they signed to Columbia Records. On 14 December 2007, they appeared on '' Later with Jools Holland''. In May 2008, the band credited ''BBC Introducing'' for giving them their 'life changing' break after the 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. 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?. In conjunction with ''NME'' and HMV, the band contributed a demo version of "Great DJ" to a limited-audience, 5,000-copies-only, 10" vinyl release of all the artists on the NME Awards Tour. In late March 2008, The Ting Tings joined with Alphabeat and The Fratellis to play as part of the MTV Spanking New Music Tour, at a gig held at the Islington Academy in London.

2008–2009: ''We Started Nothing''

The first single released on Columbia was "Great DJ", which received considerable airplay on BBC Radio 1 and XFM in the UK and praise from magazines such as ''NME''. "Great DJ" reached top 40 on the UK Singles Chart. The band's debut album, ''We Started Nothing'', was released in May 2008 and entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, following the single "That's Not My Name", which topped the singles chart. Subsequent singles were "Shut Up and Let Me Go", which peaked at number six, " Be the One" (number 28) and " We Walk" (number 58). ''We Started Nothing'' won an Ivor Novello Award for best album in May 2009. The Ting Tings recorded a cover version of Altered Images' " Happy Birthday" for the children's show ''Yo Gabba Gabba''.

In May 2008, 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
...