The Matthew Bennett Band’s blog

Things are a changing...

There is lots going on behind the scenes and some major changes are imminent.

Watch this space!

MBB x

We'll be at the Monto Water Rats, London
this Friday 20th June!

328 Club presents
The Matthew Bennett Band + The Flow + Mann Friday + My Preserver
328 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8BZ

Stage time 10.45pm but get there early to check out the other bands too.

Tickets available from www.ticketweb.co.uk

Industry please contact Eamonn England - redhouseuk@aol.com

www.myspace.com/thematthewbennettband

We came first in Round 2 of the Surface Unsigned Festival Battle of the Bands heat last night at the Custard Factory, B'ham, with a whopping 312 points... Top marks from the other bands, top marks from the audience votes.. so thanks everyone.

We're also number 2 in the Surface Unsigned Festival Midland-Region Top 20 charts! Not sure what it means exactly but it's nice to hear!

It was a funny night really, we didn't expect much with regards to a result, it's just another gig at the end of the day! So we did what we do! 

Lesley-Marie (not Lesley-Mary as she was introduced as last night..) got there far too early! Matt and Tom's taxi was like over an hour late! Matthew on the other hand got there round about the right time, to fill in a form about the band, with a short biog and who we're influenced by etc... Professor Longthorn and Spinal Tap were written down, (just for a bit of fun, though I'm sure everyone has a little bit of them in their music! Hehe)... Tom appreciated that lil suprise during the introduction of the band by the compere, who was oblivious to what she was reading out.. Thanks for doing that though Ms.

We played a short and upbeat set of 6 songs, including our new ones that weren't written when we played in Round 1... and we got lots of votes. Good feedback too from some lil punk rockers about how fascinating it was for the other "rock" bands to see piano's and violins being played live.... they seemed suprised that they actually liked our music!

Good good!

Pizza Express afterwards was a smashing idea too, well done Matthew!

So it's now onto stage 3, held at the Barlfy, B'ham, in Jul/Aug.

We'll be in touch ;)

MBB x

www. surfaceunsigned. co. uk

MayDay Bank Holiday saw us perform in the sunshine in Stourbridge. We were on the Acoustic Brew tent in Mary Stevens annual Party in the Park event. We were a bit disheartened having seen the location of the main stage, which seemed to be a much better place to draw in the crowds, but we went on stage with one goal – to get hundreds of people to stop what they were doing, and come watch us.

The only reason we weren’t playing on the main stage was because our keyboard player Matt was unable to play with us this time. So we thought we’d strip it down and play as a foursome in an “acoustic” tent, not knowing what the event was actually going to be like.

However, the sun was shining, people’s spirits were high and the whole event was packed with thousands of people, mainly families and couples… and lots of dogs!.. Cute dogs!!

There were dodgems, ice cream vans, doughnuts, jacket potatoes (mmmm that filled Lesley’s belly nicely) and lots of other attractions going on, including X-factors Eton Road, sporting their own merchandise..
Matthew and Peter enjoyed the dodgems, as Tom and Lesley-Marie watched and recorded them on their phone. Leona Lewis “Bleeding love” was on during their dodgem ride, and Matthew was singing along, playing to the camera as they whooshed by us.. It should honestly be her new video.. hehe!
We’ll add it to our Facebook group, and you can see for yourself!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/The-Matthew-Bennett-Band/6048049340 

We asked the soundman to crank up the bass, mic up the kick drum and snare and all in all turn up the volume. Our set was about 30-40min long, we played 10 good songs and some how managed to draw in a crowd of a good hundred people!

It was amazing!.. Oh and to the mother with her 2 sons breakdancing to our tunes in the mud, we hope you got them stains out…

So the people of Stourbridge really liked what they heard – lots of praise at the end and positive feedback..
We’re back there thisThursday night at Katie Fitzgeralds! Should be good!

MBB x

Hi! We're playing a stripped down set this Wednesday alongside Sam Beer near Kings Cross, London...

LIVE AT CANAL 125, 125 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9RG.

WEDNESDAY 23 APRIL. From 7.45pm.

The Matthew Bennett Band play a stripped down set at Hooked on Wednesdays alongside Sam Beer and Jess Bryant.

£4 on the door (includes membership). Don't miss it!

20:00 - 20:15 – Steven Finn
20:20 – 20:35 – Matthew Bennett Band
20:40 – 20:55 – Jess Bryant
21:00 – 21:15 – Sam Beer
** 15 min break **
21:30 – 21:45 – Steven Finn
21:50 – 22:05 – Matthew Bennett Band
22:10 – 22:25 – Jess Bryant
22:30 – 22:45 – Sam Beer

The Matthew Bennett Band will be playing The Troubadour:

Wednesday 2nd April 2008, on stage 10pm.

Doors 8pm, £6.

Come down and hear our new set...

The Troubadour
263-7 Old Brompton Road
London
SW5 9JA

The band will be playing alongside Lindsey + Jack Stafford + Loo Hull + The Lost Boys. Make a night of it, this is a great venue with fantastic food!

So, Thursday 6th March saw MBB step up as the first performance of the night of Bill 5 of the Surface Unsigned Festival 2008 Qualification rounds.... also known as Battle of the Bands!

Click here to view the results:
http://www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk/centralHomepage.html

The band are top out of ALL entrants (since the start of the competition!) so far with a massive 407 points...

Thanks for voting..

A review of their performance and photos from the event can be found at this link:
http://www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk/centralReviews/C060308.html

However if you're lazy - here's a copy of the review:
Words by Stephen Hudyba

First up were The Matthew Bennett Band. No strangers to success, the band won The Mp3 Music Awards in London and were chosen to support acclaimed song-smith Scott Matthews. A finely-pitch folk-pop sound full of wit and whimsy, they construct beautiful and memorable songs with a whole array of instruments played by some very talented individuals – and bring it together perfectly as a band. Matthew’s tender yet powerful vocals are reminiscent of David Gray and Fyfe Dangerfield (I couldn’t recommend them more to fans of the Guillemots), and he makes the ideal front man for this exceptional band.
 
www.myspace.com/thematthewbennettband

Hello! Its been a while since the last post as there has been much going on behind the scenes! Developments continue and with all the A&R interest we have ourselves some new lawyers: Statham Gill Davies, who look after Oasis, Radiohead and The Wombats amongst many others are now looking after us (so to speak!). It now seems to be head on into our gig at The Troubadour on 2 April which looks like being a bit of an A&R Fest!

In the meantime we're playing a couple of gigs this week:

Thursday 6th March
The Rainbow, Birmingham
We'll be playing an early 7.30pm set as part of The Surface Unsigned Festival.

Saturday 8th March
The Green Room, Manchester
We'll be on at 10pm.

See www.myspace.com/thematthewbennettband for full details....

See you there, or in London on 2 April x

Apparently we're hot!?! There's an argument going on over at JK's Tip Sheet Message Board as to whether we are actually hot or not and lawyers and A&R people are coming at us from every direction! We love what we do and hope to one day do it for a living but the sudden surge of interest is quite overwhelming. Exciting and overwhelming to say the least. Watch this space, more news to come very soon...