丁丁乐队

The Ting Tings are an English indie pop duo formed in Salford, Greater Manchester, 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 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, and “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. Their fifth studio album, Home, was released on 6 June 2025.

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 and White both moved into the creative space 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. The experience left White and De Martino with a distrust of the music industry. The duo fell in love with living at the Mill, surrounded by artists and musicians. 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.