Its the best feeling to spread our wings and get out of London for a few dates, so having made some solid friends around the UK in Brighton, Manchester, Leeds and more, watch this space for more UK wide dates and plans ...

After a two year break its absolutely fantastic to be back in the heart of Borough Market with our Saturday Summer Sounds. Join us every Saturday 5-8pm outside the Market Porter, in Storey Street, for some brilliant free live music forom some of our favourite artists!  Coming up we have Daisy Chute, Edmund Jeffery and more lovely quality music.  Kicking off this Jubilee weekend with Chloe Leigh, Cloudy Galvez and Tom Heath. See you there from 5pm!

We are always searching to make a difference, and thats not a straightforward aim. The post-pandemic world has just magnified so many existing social, financial and disability issues and marginalised many thousands more.  We couldn’t be prouder to announce our most important and disruptive collaboration so far as we join forces with “Robin Hood Developer” Lemon Leopard to raise funds and awareness for the first of their permanent and affordable co-housing communities at 186 Hackney Road, London EC1. This building houses our wonderful music partners Folklore Hoxton who are heavily involved in the scheme and no one who visits Folklore can fail to be bowled over by its vibrancy, energy and strong community ethos. Lemon Leopard’s pilot scheme at Folklore, utilising the floors above, will allow the most marginalised the opportunity to own equity stakes, and access to community support and creative jobs within a vibrant hub.   Lemon Leopard’s concept of reclaiming unused high street premises which have become unviable post covid, and creating a co-living and co-working creative environment for those struggling with social exclusion, disability or homelessness is both brilliant and necessary.  Watch out for more news on our plans with Lemon Leopard soon.  More info here: https://www.lemonleopard.org.uk/

We are very proud to have managed to raise some vital pounds for Ukraine, and its great to see so many other artists, venues and promoters putting in so much effort to do the same.  We are looking to at least double our modest £1000 raised at our next fund raiser on Sunday 8th May at Blues Kitchen Brixton. 11 fantastic artists performing, headlined by Sleep Walking Animals (you wont want to miss these guys who are set for big things this year.).  Also performing: Kin, John Dhali, Stevie Reed, Ali McQueen, Stevie Reed, Satis, plus brilliant teenage artists Ruby Leigh, Sienna Milella and more to be announced.  Our thanks as ever to the wonderful team at The Blues Kitchen for their continued support for our shows and initiatives.  This will be a GREAT day. Tix here: https://ticketpass.org/event/EFUZEF/we-love-ukraine-all-day-fundraiser-feat-sleep-walking-animals-at-blues-kitchen

Our wonderful relationship with Pizza Express Live just goes from strength to strength.  With sold out shows at Holborn, The Pheasantry and now at Birmingham too, we debut at the original Pizza Express Jazz Club Dean Street, on Sunday 5th June (matinee) with US jazz artist and singer songwriter Kristine Mills, plus very special guest Broken Biscuit Company.  Jazz fans - save the date,  tickets on sale this week!  Pizza Express Live Monthly Show at Holborn continues to sell out - we have just a handful left for our April 19th date headlined HUX with full band and special guests (hurry for that one) and 24th May’s Holborn show will be headlined by rising soul jazz singer songwriter Ellie Harris with a very cool all female lineup.  Tickets on sale next week.  You will have to be quick for our 28th June show though, as we storm to a sell out for Matt Johnson (Jamiroquai) who is bringing the full band for a one off special. More exciting lineups to be announced for the rest of 2022.  For ticket info visit Pizza Express Live website here: https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/

Its been such a great pleasure to see this City piano bar and late night cocktail haunt Piano Smithfield develop into one of the most interesting and cool music venues in the heart of the capital. The owners together with James Sayer, artist in residence, have done an incredible job in building a relevant and cool live music programme from the ground up, which has already featured some renowned acts including Leanne Carroll and Jason Rebello.  From this month, the old piano is proudly replaced by a sleek Yamaha sponsored grand piano together with all the useful backline you would need on the newly extended and improved stage to really up the ante.  We have had some great nights here sampling their pretty awesome cocktails and tucking into artisan pizzas whilst enjoying some fantastic artists, and we are excited to announce more cool team ups and bigger initiatives in the coming months. In the meantime, save the date - 11th May - for our next highly regarded singer-songwriter Piano Smithfield show - its a class lineup headlined by the truly wonderful Gatekeepers plus special guests.  Tix here: https://ticketpass.org/event/EXDAHK/gatekeepers-alex-hall-kt-wild

It can safely be said that our live events series at The Ministry of Sound’s members club The Ministry have been outstanding and new dates added are always highly anticipated.  Now the grim winter months are behind us we will be returning with more epic live music events, where you can take full advantage of this great warehouse style bar / live space with its gorgeous heated patio terrace.   Please save the date for our next one which has a great summery jazzy flavour - 18th May - with Helena Deans, Verushka and special guest DJ too.  As always, this is guestlist only, so RSVP here: https://ticketpass.org/event/ETDTNB/the-ministry-live-helena-deans-verushka-guest-dj-2

We can only be thankful every day that we are lucky enough to be free to live normal lives without fear of losing our homes, possessions and being separated from our loved ones by distance or death in a war zone.  How lucky are we that we get to do everyday things like go to gigs and perform our own music freely.  Like everyone - we are all finding the Ukrainian war senseless and barbaric, and trying to do doing what little we can to support.  We might feel helpless watching the news, but we dont believe we should be passive. As our tiny contribution we will be restructuring a few of our announced shows (the ones where we can) and setting up fundraisers just as long as there are venues free and artists willing to support. We will donate 100% of proceeds to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, and also support one or two smaller local charity initiatives whose work on the ground is simply inspiring. 

In addition to our donations  our wonderful ticketing Partner Ticketpass will donate 50% of the booking fee for all our ticketed events for the rest of 2022 to the Ukraine Crisis Fund. 

These aren’t normal times, so please join us, buy a ticket, or donate what you can, so that we can all be active together in support of the people of Ukraine.

Its exciting to be at the beginning of a story, and we have been proud to work alongside Ticketpass as it develops its ethical ticketing platform that donates fifty percent of booking fees to charity. At the start of this year we chose The Trussell Trust, who run Foodbanks UK wide, as food poverty in the UK is entirely unacceptable. We pledge to do what we can do actively support families and communities around the UK to access decent food in such ongoing, difficult times. With the average donation of around 50 pence on every ticket we sell, its a real incentive for us to promote and spread a little help where we can.  Organising an event and would like to use Ticketpass.?

Find out more here:

 https://app.ticketpass.org/?ref=JHyDoVkMSkNbJ9Vgv7z37Sc4b1QBze

One of the very interesting effects of social distancing on gigs has to be the move towards more and more seated gigs.  We had no option but to be seated when we went out and I think that has somewhat stuck for many of us. Whilst standing gigs will always be where we want to rock out and dance, and there’s certainly no change there,  audiences during lockdown have fallen for the attraction of seated gigs where you can try out the menu specials. And combine your dining experience with your live music experience.   Its hardly a new concept, the Bedford in Balham has built a loyal following based on the comfort of the venue and the purity of its sound,  together with a great gastropub menu, but the trend is definitely growing.  So congratulations to Pizza Express Live and Blues Kitchen Brixton  for expanding the genre choice for audiences with some very interesting lineups and proving over and over that they are both the most phenomenal live music hosts, combining superb sound, lighting and aritst experience with the perfect vibe for audiences alike. Check our events page for upcoming shows at Pizza Express Live and The Blues Kitchen.