Showing posts with label Leicestershire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leicestershire. Show all posts

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Leicester Festivals Announced #BeliefIsAll Matt Henshaw Summer 2016



Leicester Festivals I should tell you about ...
Tomorrow night (Thursday 5th May) I'll be at the Curve Theatre for Inside Out Festival ... see you there !
Then I'm playing Foxton Locks Festival on Saturday 18th June !!
And Simon Says on the main stage in De Montfort Hall on Sunday 24th July !!!
PRE-ORDER 'BELIEF IS ALL' NOW ...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BVLG4HY
Listen again to 'Belief Is All' on BBC Introducing ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03q5y52#playt=0h4m39s
Come down to the single launch ...
https://www.facebook.com/events/1075077529197315/

Photo by Steve Fisher smfpics :)

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Today I'm Looking for Help !



Today I'm treating you to something that I like, and asking you all for Help! Today's the day you really can help ...

First off, you must click this link and support my next EP ... I need at least 100 people to get the explosion of free promotion that I hope you feel I deserve upon the day of release for my second completely self-funded EP - 'Always In The Way' - OUT Monday 16th June !!!
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/11703-always-in-the-way-ep-release



I'm also doing two launch parties, one in London and one in Leicester the week of release !! Come and join me and get yourself a physical copy ...
Vibe Bar, Brick Lane, London, E1
https://www.facebook.com/events/644693045623688
The Cookie, High Street, Leicester, LE1
https://www.facebook.com/events/452624074880993

And, if someone can tell me what what the flower is in this picture I would be eternally grateful, and probably share some of my homegrown produce with you ...
http://matthenshaw11.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/henshaws-horticultural-blog-smallest.html

Aaaaaaaaaand, if you're in Leicester and you like cricket, who wants to come and play this summer on Victoria Park ... and who would like to go down Grace Road sometime and watch Leicestershire County Cricket Club, better still, who can hook me up with some free tickets ???
http://matthenshaw11.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/things-i-like-cricket.html

Peace, Love & Tea, MHx

Monday, 19 May 2014

Matt Henshaw Recommends ... Tapestry

These Market Harborough boys are currently quickly making a reputation for themselves as the best band, the best live act and thee band to see in Leicestershire, and with good reason.

I was lucky enough to catch them earlier in the year, at what I believe was only their second ever gig, and it instantly reminded of seeing Dog Is Dead for the first time in Nottingham at what was their first gig, and they're the only band I've seen in Leicester that I believe have the potential of emulating the successes of Leicester's leading troubadors - Kasabian.

And I've seen a lot of local bands over the last 8 or 9 months, and it's no detriment to any of them as there's a good lot of great little bands out there. It's just that Tapestry provide something different, something unique, and something more more tangible on a grander scale, the sound these three boys make is truly epic when the stars align and the notes fall into place.

I'm not particularly schooled or well-versed in electronic music, so forgive me if my references are a little far removed, but I was stood listening to the band play live, and subsequently listening to their demos, now circulating for free like the first batch of Arctic Monkeys recordings, and it evoked the pure freedom and pleasure of Paul McCartney's solo albums 'McCartney' and 'McCartney II', and when he really lets go on 'Chaos & Creation in the Backyard' and The Fireman records.

High praise indeed, anyone would agree who knows me, and it doesn't stop there, the elements of keys, synths and saxophone, there's some David Bowie in there, the Brian Eno / Berlin-era and 'Black Tie / White Noise' ... but it's almost by mistake that it sounds this good. Talking to the boys you'll quickly find out they're into mixing modern electronic music with something that everyone will surely know floats my boat ...

Soul Music, in particularly, Motown and the sound of young black America. You can tell that whilst they've grown up and are still learning in the digital age of music a school and college, in a world where everything you hear on the radio and TV and been synthesised, harmonised, autotuned and processed into oblivion. And although they like to jam, and as fans of house music, experimental electronica, containing as they do, Taylor Burton aka. New Walk, one of the best DJs around, and at 16, only going to get better, they know how to craft a heartfelt and soulful pop song too.

You don't listen to any Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye or Smokey Robinson not learn how to to put that kind of thing together, I know from experience, and I always wonder how people stumble across these greats, especially when they're 10 years my junior ! So if you like soul music and you're a bit adventurous, I suggest you get into Tapestry now, and equally if you like electronic music but you like to feel the people behind the beats and hear the rhythms are the hearts that produced it, then Tapestry is the band for you !

And for locality's sake, you can hear a little bit of that Chris Karloff-era early Kasabian, when they were playing in toilet venues around the country with Chikinki and getting more love from Mixmag and DJ magazine than the NME, it starts somewhere, and for these boys too, it seems like it's gonna be the Soundhouse, The Shed and The Musician in Leicester, no doubt I'll invite them to The Cookie when the time feels right.

After all that, I'm just annoyed that I leant their CD to my brother who's only gone and lost it !! It's a good job I stuck it on my iPod before I did that ... and we're living in the age of Soundcloud now and any great artists will be sharing most of their output online for free anyways !! Check out Tapestry, and you won't be disappointed ... Peace, Love & Tea, MHx

More Matt Henshaw Recommends ...
The De Montfort University Gospel Choir
By The Rivers
Martin Luke Brown
Joy Mumford
Three Girl Rhumba
MotorMouf
Samuel Idwal
Abandon Her
Stef Baker
Emily Carr
Becky Edwards
Mahalia
Mia & The Moon
Rosa-Leigh
AJA
Kate Rendell
Esther Van Leuven
East Midlands Girls
Ones to Watch for 2014
The Bobcats
Savanna Bones
Mattayoux
Matt Zara
The Simpletones
Charlotte Carpenter
Leah Sinead
Matt Henshaw Recommends ...