History, Seaside, Ice Cream and Candles - German Tour Blog

Has anyone in England ever said to you that it's "Baltic outside" ? Well, I went over to East Germany and saw the sunshine and had a lovely day at the beach. Mak Show, Great Show !

This last week has been a busy one, sorry for the lack of updates. I've played Kühlungsborn - pictured below - Münster, Hamburg, Harsefeld and Leer.

Great setting by the old court house in Münster and the old Tollhouse bordering Germany and the Netherlands in Leer.

We went to see Hamburg get spanked 3-1 by Hoffenheim, the youngest coach in world football seized the day. I got myself a mug and a scarf, obligatory to me watching football on the road.

The show in Harsefeld earned a free ice cream and drinks after hours in the Italian Gelato place down the road.

And Monday, on my day off, we took in the Concentration Camp at Bergen-Belsen, astounding to take in such dark recent history and really put some perspective on the life we all take for granted. Nice work British Army, you did good.

Osnabruck tonight for the first of my two shows at the fabulously named Big Buttinsky. England play Germany this weekend ... and Sheffield Wednesday did quite well against Charlton didn't we. I celebrated accordingly with ice cream.

Festival Season ... Godiva setlist ...

Afternoon folks, Good Monday,

Absolutely pooped with the busy-ness ! Filled up on sleepings last night after a hectic week ... anyways, here's the songs that I done over the last weeked ...

First @ Scorpios in High Wycombe ...
It Ain't Easy
Always in the Way
707
Let Everything Go
Coming Around
When I Close My Eyes
Get Me Some
Everybody Clap Your Hands
Can't Hold Back
Adidas Trainers (Stan Smith Remix)

And from Godiva Festival, and Party in the Park the previous week ...
Pick Up The Pieces
Gimme Some More
Can't Hold Back
Everybody Clap Your Hands
Dance To The Music
Think Twice

Funky Good Times !

Here's me hard at work ... what I do when I'm not onstage ... go on, tickle my belly ... you know you want to ...

The Actress & Bishop, Birmingham setlist ... Introducing BuBill ...

Afternoon, and what a beauty,

Moving house, same postcode, all the fun of the fair ! New cat in town and some stories from the West Midlands to tell ... let's get that out the way first shall we ...

Here's the songs I played last night in Brum with MuthaFunk ...
We Want The Funk
I've Had Tears
(If You Think You're) Groovy
It Ain't Easy
25 Miles
... and Phil the King Funk King did some fantastic vocals on Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground ! Love it ! Love him ! Love you all !!!

And so now for the biggest news of all ... wanna see a pic of the new member of the Henshaw clan, of the feline variety ... his name is BuBill, after Bill Hicks' bit about smokers and non-smokers, and he already has a cut behind his ear from scrapping with the Leicestershire Alley Cat Alliance (I think that's what they're calling themselves!) ...



... please excuse my pajimjams and messy hairdo ... I'm just chilling with the cat gulping down some leche ...

And here's a remix of Never Know from the Coming Around album ... try it yourself ... here's all you'll need ... http://www.sendspace.com/file/7ouv6s



... thanks Many Elephants soundsystem of Nottinghamshire !

Peace & Love children and men,
Matt Henshaw x

The Brown Lion in Birmingham tonight ...

Evening friends,

Just about to head out the door to Birmingham, going over to the Brown Lion for an acoustic show accompanied by Muthafunk saxophonist Lukasz. Looking forward to it. Should be a real good show. Gonna be doing some Satsuma Elephants stuff, some B-Boy Soul and a few soul numbers you'll probably know and love, and if you don't know and love soul music then I've no idea what you're doing here !

Hayfever is a bit of an annoyance, any got it? Send me some tips on how to stop sneezing between writing every sentence of my blog. That would be most helpful !

Here's an acoustic number recorded a few weeks back in the living room of a big fan ... I wasn't allowed through the door without my acoustic guitar and a willingness to sing Can't Hold Back ! Good times nonetheless. You're all beautiful, and if you ever want me to come and play in your living room I probably will, for food and petrol money. I'm easy like Lionel Richie.

The Actress & Bishop setlists ...

Evening chaps and chapesses,

Here's the songs I played at the Actress & Bishop in Birmingham last Wednesday 6th June. We were booked in with MuthaFunk and ReggiiMental to play upstairs at our soon to be regular club night The Funk Realm, and then surprisingly downstairs after hours was an open mic night run by none other than Andy Bennett of Ocean Colour Scene, so we did the gig upstairs and then I hung around until 3am jamming with Brimingham's finest.

Upstairs @ the Actress & Bishop, Birmingham ...
What's Going On
The Funky Chicken
Think Twice
Gimme Some More
Coming Around
Nitty Gritty
It's Gettin' Late
Can't Hold Back

And downstairs at the open mic acoustically, accompanied by Lukasz of MuthaFunk on saxophone ...
It Ain't Easy
Always In The Way
Donkey Rides, A Penny A Glass
707
Not In Nottingham
Your Eyes Are Made Of Gold

How jolly pleasant and spiffing it all was. Plenty of Birmingham/Nottingham "banter" and good times had by all.

Here's me playing 'Let Everything Go' acoustically, a new addition to the Satsuma Elephants set ... a sing-a-long ... learn the words !!!

My Bank Holiday Weekend ...

As the rain clouds set in midweek it's definitely time to reflect on my sunny Bank Holiday weekend and return my blog, neglected for a whole week can you believe!??! I hope forgiveness can be found within you all ...

Been all over the place. In the Midlands of course, cruising like a character from the imagination of Shane Meadows. Staffordshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire ... done 'em all.

Bumped into Bill Bailey !


Working with a few comedians of late ... stay tuned !

Making a move into book publishing, watch this space. Been helping out a friend who is an antiques dealer. Got a whole bunch of great vinyl records and some books. Plus, working on a podcast wih special guests and music history debate.

On Sunday I visited Nottingham for the annual Dot-to-Dot Festival ... caught up with some old friends and great new bands ... Kappa Gamma, Kagoule, Virginia Moon, Leah Sanderson, Dog Is Dead, Late of the Pier, Whispering Dolls, Fletcher, Hector, Joy Mumford and loads more ... and I got roped into doing an impromptu acoustic set at the Jam Cafe in Hockley ... I'll post more about that soon !

Oh, and notched up my 7th BBQ of the year with some great friends, Ilkeston's finest ... always nice to visit my home town. My mum is there, and her cooking is great !!!

Keep on the tunes ducks and duckies ...



And keep on listening ...


And Keep Fighting !

Back down in The Deepest Cellar ... working on part 2 ...

so here we are again, 2013, time's moving so fast. Working on a few things at the moment. So much music. Suppose the one thing you wouldn't be surprised about is the I'm back down in The Deepest Cellar working with ReggiiMental. Working on some new B-Boy Soul, hopefully have a hit to send your way in the near future. Keep it locked on @MattHenshaw11 on the Twitter ...

Coming Around,
Matt Henshaw x

Reggiimental Featuring Matt Henshaw - Coming Around

Hard at work in the studio ...

If you're following me on Twitter you'd know by now how hard I've been working this month putting together some wonderful sounding recordings. Lugging guitars and all sorts around the fine (and sometimes not so fine!) London Underground ... questions? Why do some people just smell?? And why do they insist on such close proximity??? Also, if the sign says "trains every 3-6 minutes" then why does the screen say "next train 8 minutes" ?!??

Anyways, here's a picture of me tinkering on the piano ... piano? That's right, Messr. Henshaw ie. me is playing almost all of the instruments (so apologies in advance if the standard is a bit shaky, if you get to hear 'em that is, session musicians might just arrive like the cavalry any minute now and play all over my nonsense) ... vocals, guitar, piano, bass, string arrangements, percussion and song-writing duties all fall at my feet ...

Until next time x

My Mum turned 50 this weekend ...

Sorry for the lack of updates through 2012 ... my alter-ego is working so hard that I am distracted, purposefully I have to say, from writing up my Adventures in the world wide Wonderland.

As the title of the blog says, my mum did indeed turn 50 this weekend. Everyone is getting older, even as a fan of history, evolution and time itself, I find this strange, confusing and surreal. Just thought I'd fill you in on that thought. Anyone else agree?

Anyways, don't worry about it. We'll all find the path meant to be tread. And I shouldn't be worried, Peter Pan right? Not in a Michael Jackson kind of way ... here's my homage to deep focus, film noir and looking young ...

With Love,
Matt Henshaw x

PS. I must let you know I was given DJ duties for the night and having a load of 50-60 year olds dancing to The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' and Basement Jaxx's 'Red Alert' and 4 in the morning is quite satisfying ...

Back in The Deepest Cellar with ReggiiMental ...

Morning folks,

Yesterday was a great stretch of time catching up with my old partner in crime and demo-ing some new tunes (you'll hear them in good time) ... but as we grew nostalgic and wistful for what was only a year or so ago we thought we'd do a special little acoustic version of a Deepest Cellar favourite ... and here I've uploaded it at a gift for you, the performance isn't the best and ReggiiMental aka. Mr. Jimmy B-Boy sounds like he's skulking round outside the vocal booth but it's a five minute slice of our time just for you ... enjoy!



The new demos sound great - guitar solo alert! - and I'm very much looking forward to getting a full band on them ... and what's that, did someone say an accordion ???

A Little Musical Update ... plus bonus Christmas Dinner blog ...

Even though my recent football blogs have proved to be my most popular ever ... even more so than the picture of me and my mate Will Young and the week I passed my driving test (it pleases me no end that you're so interested and supportive!) ... I thought I'd return today to the reason I presume you're all here in the first place, and certainly why I set up this blog in the first place: to inform and update you with my musical adventures ... I've been quite busy of late in my secret identity, getting things done and certain things written ... so, new paragraph ...

I've written four new songs this week. The first of which is quite possibly one of the worst things I've ever written and sang out loud, although only to myself, called 'A Domino Effect', it actually had the rhyme of "moon" and "June" ... terrible, you'll never hear it ... but the other three are quite a different story entirely ... three of my favourite songs I've ever written, even though perhaps you always feel that way when you first write them, I really feel like they're some of the best things I've ever written and sang aloud, and this time to people who agree. Of late I have been listening to a lot of Sam Cook (obviously!), Juliette Gréco and Serge Gainsbourg, and watching a lot of soppy films but I won't go into what they are (I might reveal all of my real influences one day!) ... you will hear them, eventually. I am heading to my mate ReggiiMental's basement studio (The Deepest Cellar) tomorrow to lay down some acoustic demos, and to catch up and that, it's been a while.

A quick update on 'Living with a Dirty Leeds Fan' ... we had a Christmas dinner tonight which was lovely, everyone contributing, plenty of sprouts, potatoes, cabbage and of course a big cooked bird plus some pigs in blankets and a gammon shank ... because one load of meat is just not enough, and even though I've flirted with it, I'm not sure vegetarianism could be a serious consideration within my current lifestyle ... I already don't drink, and people think that's eccentric enough ... ... furthermore to the tale, his date went well, she did indeed enjoy here milkshake, laugh at his terrible jokes and play with her hair ! That boy talks some serious Phil Babb-le, and can't help but use awful football puns ...

We even had Christmas crackers complete with Christmas hats ...

Bye for now,
Matt H x

PS. GOTF (Guffaw on the Floor) should be the new LMAO ...

PPS. don't make me wait for my food ...

Happy Birthday Brother ... I can (legally) drive !

Psychedelic Salutations to you all,

October is well under way now ... usually the sun cream is tucked away in the cupboard now with a blanket and it's feet in some hot water, but not in 2011, oh no! I have sweat today more than I did throughout the entirety of July and August ... thanks for asking ... anyway, it's my brother's birthday !

He's in Thailand ... I am not ... but I am celebrating in my own way. It is three years since I had a drink (of alcohol, of course, not juice ... and I only mention it so it would be something to clap and cheer me for, even if you don't like me or my music, it's good for my self-esteem, although I don't know why people do that ... I knew a kid at school who ate crayons and sucked the ink out of ball point pens, I'll be he hasn't done that for twenty years but I wonder if he gets a pat on the back?) ... and, also, anyway, the point is, I passed my practical driving test today ... with flying colours ... again, thanks for asking ...

Matt Henshaw - 1
Noel Gallagher - 0

... and special mention and apologies to my best bud, former Censored drummer Chris Goring, for all those years he spent on the road a the designated driver with me in the passenger or in the back, usually ginned off my face being a general nuisance. I love you pal, and good to finally join you in the first time passers club ...

(on the previous blog's previously incurred parking fine, Leicester Council got in touch today and told me that the charge has been frozen ... I will be notified of any further developments ... which I will pass on to you of course as my loyal adoring(?) cyber world wide web fans ... I love you all too, and hope you appreciate me taking time out from my busy(?!) schedule to inform of my daily life ... (music to come ... I am aware that I have gone quiet on that front in the blog-o-sphere ... it's because I want to get everything right before I unleash anything on the unsuspecting world, and, of course I have minor inconveniences on the agenda such as parking penalty charge notices, driving tests and wishing siblings on the other side of the world a "happy birthday" ... bear with me) ...

Bit of a rant this one isn't it ... "nice blogging!" I hear you cry ... if you like your Matt Henshaw rants to be contained to 140 characters or less then follow me on Twitter ... but beware of much football related ranting ... "and it's oh Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield Wendesday FC, are by far the greatest team the world have ever seen" ...

Diary: The Day Yesterday, The Happening ...

Just to keep you gorgeous cyber wallflowers up to date with the proceedings of la Matt Henshaw carrière solo de musique as the enfants français are saying ... I met with Tristan last night, we talked music, songs, tunes and melodies ... it only descended into talking about the mighty Owls, Pompey and the Magpies on a couple of occasions ...

(for anyone not Canadien style multilingual or football-literate, it is the French kids that are talking about my music and Tristan and I discussed the grim prospects of Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth and Notts County)

So, what did we discuss?  Well, I won't go into detail, but, I aim to put down seven songs through Spetember ... you may not have heard any of them before, unless you've had the pleasure and the privilege of seeing me live with an acoustic guitar in recent times, which has been sparing to say the least ... anyhoo, this will be my main source of information for you sexy cyber data heads, so, unless anyone out there wants to buy me a new smart phone or some kind of audio visual recording device you won't hear any new bits from the studio but I will try and articulate the sounds through my rich textual vocabulary and communicate my thoughts and feelings through this 'ere web log, or blog for short, if you're down with that ...