…So what better way to warm up than getting all hot and sweaty over some smoking blues. Hello and welcome to the monthly blog of London based singer songwriter Ben Hemming. I’ve been a busy bunny as always, playing a plethora of open mic nights promoting the series of gigs I’ve got coming up in the next couple of months. I’m based in Camden at the moment, and I’ve got to say it’s one of the coolest places in London, were else can you play a gig every night of the week if you were so inclined?
That aside another awesome thing about living in London is the abundance of musicians the city seems to attract. Seems like you can’t step into any Camden boozer with out bumping into an aspiring guitarist or singer, myself included. Unfortunately this does have it’s downsides, and does explain a lot of the problems with London’s music scene at the moment, but you don’t want to get me started on that minefield! I’ll save it for another blog post me thinks… What I really wanted to talk about was my new backing band that I’ve put together over the last couple of weeks.
That’s right I have brought together a motley crew of musicians to accompany me when I grace the stage this month at the Roadtrip & Workshop on the 25th November in Old Street and at the Lucky pigon the 16th December in Fitzrovia. I’ve somehow managed to recruit (with a little help from Gumtree) a Turkish cajon player, and a double bass player from New Zealand. Which I guess does reflect London’s amazing multi culturalism, and makes it the cool place that it truly is.
And last but not least I’ve still been beavering away on ‘The Camden Project’, a series of video’s filmed at my Camden pad of me performing songs from my E.P.’s ‘Cigarette Blues’ and ‘Neon Emptiness’. You can check out more videos on my YouTube channel, enjoy!