Louis Tillett

Louis Rohan Tillett (13 March 1959 – 6 August 2023) was an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, keyboardist and saxophonist.

Tillett was the front man in Australian bands The Wet Taxis, Paris Green and The Aspersion Caste.

He also worked as a backing musician with Catfish, Laughing Clowns, New Christs and Tex Perkins.

Louis Rohan Tillett was born on 13 March 1959, and grew up in Sydney.

Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted it provided "an authentic 1960s garage/R&B sound".

The group signed with the Hot Records label and recorded a single, "C'mon", which was a cover version of The Atlantics 1967 track, "Come On".

In 1977 his first band, The Wet Taxis, began as a group "based around experiments with 'industrial noise'".

In 1980 they issued a cassette, Taxidermy, on the Terse Tapes label – owned by fellow Sydney band, Severed Heads.

For the album Tillett provided synthesiser (micromoog) and The Wet Taxis line up was Garry Bradbury on drum machine, Simon Knuckey on guitar, and his brother Tim Knuckey on bass guitar.

In October that year Terse Tapes released an extended play, Terse Sample, by Various Artists with tracks by Wet Taxis and label mates: Mindless Delta Children, Agent Orange and Rhoborhythmaticons.

By 1981, with Tillett on piano and lead vocals, the group were moving into a "tougher 1960s-influenced direction".

In 1982 Bradbury left to join Severed Heads and was replaced by Nick Fisher on drums.

Peter Watt also joined on rhythm guitar but was replaced in the next year by Penny Ikinger.

Back in late 1983, Tillett worked with Damien Lovelock of The Celibate Rifles and Brett Myers of Died Pretty in a side project, No Dance.

In February 1984 The Wet Taxis first toured Melbourne, they were hailed as sporting an American garage-style psychedelic sound, they covered bands such as MC5, Moving Sidewalks and Unrelated Segments.

In Melbourne they supported Kids in the Kitchen at one gig and Chris Bailey at another.

They followed with a live broadcast from the Prince of Wales Hotel, St.Kilda, on 3PBS FM radio.

It was produced by David Connor and Kent Steedman, and was released in May 1984.

The trio issued a three-track EP, Carnival of Souls, in March 1984; which featured lead vocals by each member: Tillett's "Swimming in the Mirror", Lovelock's "You Say", and Myers' "Just Skin".

McFarlane described No Dance's style, "[they] eschewed the electric rock framework of the musicians' respective bands for a more acoustic and melodic approach".

By late 1984 Tillett was working with another side project, Paris Green, with a core of himself, Raoul Hawkins on bass guitar, and Jeffrey Wegener on drums (ex-Laughing Clowns) joined by "a loose aggregation of musicians".

Other musicians included Louis Burdett on drums (ex-Benders) and Charlie Owen on lead guitar (ex-Tango Bravo).

According to McFarlane Paris Green "covered material ranging from Mose Allison to John Coltrane, Ray Charles to Nina Simone, and on any given night there was as many as nine or ten musicians on stage".

Late that year they issued an album, From the Archives, and by February 1985 went into hiatus.

In mid-year Tillett provided piano for Laughing Clowns' album, Ghosts of an Ideal Wife (August 1985).

Tillett (on piano) and Fisher worked on Ed Kuepper's debut solo album, Electrical Storm (June 1985).

In July 1986 Pollyanna Sutton of The Canberra Times described the album as "a mix of studio and live recordings over three years".

In January 1986 Tillett, Fisher and Ikinger revived The Wet Taxis with Rod Howard on bass guitar, Jason Kain on lead guitar (ex-Relatives), and Bronstantine Karlarka on keyboards.

By May they were joined by a brass section of Dianne Spence on saxophone, Kathy Wemyss on trumpet (both ex-Laughing Clowns), and Gladys Reed on trombone.

Reed had backed No Dance on Carnival of Souls.

In July Tillett described his three newest members to Sutton, "[t]here are so many hot female musicians in Sydney and none seem to be getting a go. It is not just a gimmick".

The Wet Taxis supported a tour by Nico and undertook other tours.

As a solo artist, he issued seven albums, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (1987), A Cast of Aspersions (1990), Letters to a Dream (1992), Cry Against the Faith (1998), Learning to Die (2001), The Hanged Man (2005) and Soliloquy (2006).

They issued a single, "Sailor's Dream" in May 1987, which was produced by Rob Younger (of Radio Birdman, New Christs) at Paradise Studios for Citadel Records.

The band broke up by mid-year.

Tillett recorded his debut solo album, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell, with bandmates Ikinger and Spence; Burdett and Owen (both now ex-New Christs); and with Lenny Bastiaans on bass guitar.

Tillett co-produced with Bruce Callaway, it was issued on Citadel Records during November 1987.

He often worked with Charlie Owen, releasing two albums, The Ugly Truth (1994) and Midnight Rain (October 1995).

The latter album won the Rolling Stone Critics Award for Best Album of 1996.

In 2002 the band, alongside Laughing Clowns, The Lighthouse Keepers and Gondwanaland Project, were described by The Sydney Morning Herald's Matt Buchanan as one "of the most popular bands in the Australia's indie scene" in an article reminiscing about Hot Records.