Its all very exciting!!

Well peeps, last time we updated, we spoke about the band shaking off the post festive blues with a couple of “loosening up gigs” in late January. This was followed by gigs over the course of Feb 11th at The Rockingham Arms in Wentworth Rotherham which was a ticket only sell out, 12th at the Vic in Saltaire and then at the Clowne Rock and Blues Club in Chesterfield on the 13th.  The Polished Knob in Todmorden finished that run of shows on Friday 19th, by which point we were feeling pretty good about life in the Hooson camp!!

We now have a couple of weeks off from gigging, but sadly no rest as we continue with our debut album’s pre-production. Last weekend saw the band all troop down to Jono’s gaff for the last of the pre-production sessions. We’re really excited about getting the album underway. We have gone through a process of writing and demo-ing these songs, before integrating them into the live set to get them tight and to guage reaction to them, and we have to say that the reaction has been brill, and all comments extremely positive.

The quality control process within the band has ensured that the tunes that make the album will be great ones. There will also be a few bonus tracks as well from the live set!! Recording starts on March 5th and will continue through March 15th. As previously noted, the album will be launched at the Hebden Bridge Blues Fest in June which is organised by our good friend Jason Elliott and Jenna’ significant other (hee hee) Paddy Maguire. Please follow the link above and get your tickets booked. They are just £55 per person for the WHOLE WEEKEND! Hooson will be playing the “Women of Blues” evening at the main stage along with Lucy Zirins and Headliner Cherry Lee Mewis which will then be followed by Paddy’s midnight jam where I’m sure all the girls will be getting up together for a bellow or two.

Paddy Maguire and Jason Elliott

Just before we hit the studio incidentally, we will be doing a couple of gigs over the weekend of 3rd and 4th March in Carlisle and Maryport respectively. We will be doing some stuff up there with Paddy Maguire too which will be great fun…

Speaking of Paddy, heres a little snippet of info, Hooson are delighted to announce that he will be making a guest appearance on the album, featured on a track that you may have heard in the live set recently called “Every Now And Then” which incidentally, he and Jenna wrote some time ago… Dont forget, you heard it here first!!

Paddy and Jenna

Finally there are rumours that Hooson are to be taking part in the Bosco Rock festival in Italy this summer, this is still subject to confirmation, but if it happens, there are also likely to be some other gigs there too, but more about that next time!!

Ciao for now….

What’s new for 2012

Well folks, its been a while since our last blog, due to several factors. The last time we updated on here, we had said our goodbyes and thank you’s to our bass player Lee, and welcomed Jono into the family. Well, he’s fully settled in now and thoroughly enjoying the Hooson experience!!

No sooner had he joined, and following one quick rehersal, we hit the road running a week later with a heavy schedule of gigs taking us around the UK. This saw a double date at the Dundee festival warm up weekend followed by gigs in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire in quick succession, as well as loads of other stuff. It was a real blast to have Cherry Lee Mewis join us on stage for for a ramped up version of Piece Of My Heart in Bedford. She’s a real favourite of ours, and we wish her well with her new album release.

Speaking of the Dundee weekend, we should heap a truck load of praise on our friend and shredder, “The Kerschmeister”, Richard travelled, and played the entire weekend having being floored with a virus that would have seen many a mere mortal stay home!! A real trooper…

Heres some news hot off the press, Hooson are delighted to confirm that studio time has been booked for early March and Hooson will set to work recording their first studio album, which is due for release to coincide with the Hebden Bridge Blues Festival in June.

The creative juices started to flow in October and the band have been busy writing and demo-ing new material for the album over the last few months at Jono’s place. We’re really excited with the new material, some of which has already started to appear in the live set, so listen out for songs like “Sugar Rush, Wrong Direction, Blue Road, Every Now and Then, and Juliette” among others. These songs will give you a sneak preview of what the album is about, and hopefully you will love em as much as we do!!

January 22nd saw the band shake the dust off at the Masons in Rotherham following the Christmas break, this was followed a week later by a gig at Marthers Bikers Club in Guisley, which was an awsome gig. We now have a short break before we hit the road again, playing the Barn at the Rockingham Arms in Wentworth, Rotherham on Feb 10th. This is an all ticket affair, and will be a sell out, so with just a few tickets remaining, go grab one from the venue, and come join us…  its gonna be a real rock n roll party! The following night, the 11th, we’re in Saltaire at the Vic, followed by Clowne Rock and Blues Club on the 12th.

Keep an eye on the web site for all gig listings, we hope to see you very soon and thank you in advance for your continued support!!

Loadsa love from all four of us

Long time no Blog!!!

Hi all, long time no blog!

Since the last blog sooo much has happened in the HOOSON camp! It’s difficult to know where to start.

I think we should start by saying that on my last blog we were saying thank you and farewell to Mike from the band Motus for helping us out on the bass duties and welcoming Lee Dawson to the camp… well in this issue we are saying farewell and good luck to Lee and saying “welcome to the family” to Mr Jonathan Moorhouse. It is no secret that HOOSON have had their fair share of bass players since we have been together but we think we have cracked it this time.

Lee left to do his own thing as an all-round musician as opposed to just performing bass duties and we wish him all the best and will no doubt see him around and would like to thank him for his support this past 5 months or so.

We had the pleasure of performing our first gig with Jono this past Saturday and I have to say it was awesome! He even came suited and booted and handed out bottles of water to us (brownie points!) and though it was not a packed house, everyone played REALLY well and it just felt right! He is an awesome player and a top dude and has plopped into the fold like he has always been there which is all we could ask for, we have been speaking about original material and it is already underway and now with Jono in on the action, I am sure there will be exciting things to come!

So we have played some awesome gigs over the past few months and we have some corkers coming up too. Since my last blog, which was just after the Hebden Bridge Festival, we have been all over the place rocking people’s faces off!

We had the privilege of playing 2 stonking gigs at Maryport blues festival.

As both the HOOSON camp and the PADDY MAGUIRE BAND travelled up together, the organisers kindly arranged it so that we would only need the one PA between us and the least amount of set ups and pack down they could.

So the first night saw HOOSON open it up at Nelsons and was swelteringly hot, “sardine can” busy and absolutely awesome… and long!  HOOSON played at around 7pm until 10pm and Paddy took over at 10.30pm to do a full gig and then go into a massive jam session with the other artists from the circuit… until 2.15am!!!!!

It was another roaring success for Paddy’s jam sessions (he is getting a dab hand at it!) and the HOOSON gig couldn’t have gone any better, it was rammed. Some friends of ours (Nick and Sandra Carter) from back home popped up to say hello and said that they had to queue 20 minutes to get in…awesome!

The jam saw the other artists on the circuit come and have a bash about with paddy and it was a real pleasure to meet some new people who I will, no doubt, see again on the other circuits such as The Gerry Jablonski boys, Ben Pooles band and far too many more to remember. It was also great to have a little catch up with the girls from Hebden Bridge Blues Festival, Cherry Lee Mewis and Clare Free as well as having the chance to have a jam together.

We had a great time at Maryport and we are hoping to get back up there next year, the circuit is filled with extraordinary bands and the headliners are the top dogs in the blues scene. It’s also cram packed with people who are all out for a laugh and really enjoy the music. Fab fest!

Our biggest moment so far this year had to be when we played the British Blues Awards presentation at Newark Festival due to a late pull out from another band.

We had a great time and met some great people. It was a massive opportunity for us and we would like to thank Barry Middleton, Sue Hickling and Tony Winfield for their support which meant we were able to play the festival and get our name on the British blues scene. We also got to meet the legend that is Paul Jones, who popped backstage after our set to say how much he enjoyed it (eeeek!) and have a few piccies with us…I mean…wow!

From the festivals we have done this year we have also been picked up for other festivals around the country who have asked us to be involved in next year’s circuits… of course we said we would think about it (haha…there with bells on!).

We look forward to seeing many of you on the blues festival circuits next year and hope you come and say “howdy” to us. In the meantime we are still up and down the country playing blues clubs and other music venues so keep your eyes peeled and pop along to see us.

Much love for now

Jenna

 

Great things happening in the HOOSON camp!!

Hi all, hope you are well.

So I thought I would let everyone know what is going on in the HOOSON house currently.

As many of you will know we have been bassist-less since December when Keith Gater entered Parenthood and hung up his HOOSON strings. I have since seen many a Facebook comment and piccies of his little man and he is doing great and is a real corker, also, the sleepless nights are turning out to be a real treat for Monsieur Gater (haha). So we have had the assistance of a certain gentleman named Mike Stringer from the band MOTUS who has been helping us out on 4 string duties whenever he has been able to. For anyone who has seen MOTUS or has seen Mike playing with HOOSON I’m sure you will agree that he is a fantastic player and an all-round top dude and he has really been fantastic in respect of learning all the tunes and coming to rehearsals and putting up with the dreadful sight that has been Rich’s beard over the past few months!

Mike has now finished his duties with HOOSON and this was concluded with a fantastic gig at the very first Hebden Bridge Blues Festival where HOOSON played at the “Women of blues” night at the Picture house with Chantel McGregor, Clare Free and Cherry Lee Mewis… and what a fantastic night it was both for HOOSON, Mike and all involved! We shed a tear as we said goodbye to Mike but celebrated as we said “howdy” to Mr Lee Dawson who is now part and parcel of the HOOSON family.

Lee is a fantastic player who I have known for years and has a real passion for his playing. I’m really excited about what Lee can bring to the band in terms of his playing, knowledge, personality and experience. WELCOME TO THE FAMILY BIG BRO!

So now that we are a full set again it is time for HOOSON to step on the gas and get some stuff done. Starting, of course, with this new blog site where you can find out what is happening with the band. It’s not going to be a gig by gig account of who did and didn’t turn up, what drunk person fell on our gear or which kebab we found to be best in the area, but it will be an occasional blog about interesting or exciting things that happen on our little HOOSON adventure.

We are going to get our heads together and start writing as soon as we can, we saw some amazing acts at the Hebden Bridge Blues Festival and I was privileged enough to be able to jam with a few and have chats about “the biz” and it is obvious that writing is the way to go to get noticed so we can get out and play as much as possible. We also want to see what we can come up with when writing as we all have such a diverse collection of influences that it could end up quite…interesting! (That’s all I’m gonna say about that!)

We are going to be getting our butts into gear to get some recordings done when we have written some tracks and also get some merchandise done so the HOOSON logo becomes a familiar sight.

In the mean time we will still be gigging locally and we have some festivals booked to play as well so we want to see you all out supporting the music scene, if you happen to come to one of our gigs, PLEASE come and say hello to us and maybe leave us some comments on the blog or on Facebook and sign up to our Mailing list at the gig so you can keep on top of the latest HOOSON news.

Until then, Much love Jenna

 

Hello world!

So here we go… the first HOOSON blog! its hard to know how to really start! For those of you who know us or have seen us before, you know that we love what we do and just want to do it all the time so i have started this blog page so we can all keep in touch with everyone who comes to see us, get some behind the scenes gossip, new on new releases etc.

so keep an eye out, leave us some comments and let us know what you think.

Much love

Jenna