Hookstick Releases "Refugee"

"Refugee - the Album", described in the industry as a "pop perfect summer album" with its topical single "Refugee", is the opening gambit of Hookstick pop funk band on the British music scene.  Two years in the making, and recorded against all the odds by some amazing individuals with producer Philip Lane of the Beehouse Recording Studio, this unique album can be downloaded and streamed in all the usual places. Better still, come and see them for real at their gig on May 27th at the Darwin Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury in support of AOHL.

The band were drawn together by their common interest in contributing to tracks written and developed  by Jane and Philip Lane and have recorded and worked professionally on the album in the face of an unbelievable variety of personal challenges. Every member of Hookstick has a story to tell.

The Midlands-based band takes no hostages, and with a stream of Zeitgeist tracks inspired by the disco generation, presents an exciting British fusion of retro and current styles, being described by an American fan as "awesome disco funk UK style!" Fronted by the fabulous Kes C and with stunning musicianship, the band's catchy but original tracks emanate not only a great feelgood party vibe and current social messages, but also celebrate the return of the grown-up musician to pop.

Hookstick Musicians
With uniquely powerful and passionate vocals from singer Kes C, funky grooves and splashes of brilliance from world class guitarist Tom Stedman, punchy virtuoso basslines from Rachael Townend, warm, tasty backup vocals and amazing drumming by Jonny Welburn and keyboards/piano by Lane and Lane, the band is preparing for 2017 mini-tour, to coincide with the album release.

Style and  Inspiration
None of the Hookstick musicians started in the world of funky music or anything like it, the blend is surprising. You won't know the genre, but it feels familiar, with songs which take on the protest power of soul and with a set geared to create reaction and a fun and potent vibe for all sorts of events. "Think Mike Post meets Shakatak with a touch of Miami Sound Machine" (Mike Kennedy, Oystermouth Radio) and you'll have an idea. Taking its cues from icons such as Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire, Aretha Franklin, Rod Temperton of Heatwave and Nile Rodgers, as well as Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson, Hookstick music is essentially pop combined with the upbeat soul, funk and disco, and taps into their ability to promote good feeling in the real world.

Hookstick News

Hookstick News

WILD WEST TOUR by HOOKSTICK to promote their new album "Refugee"

To promote its new album, "Refugee", Hookstick will be carrying out a 7 gig tour between 5th May and 2nd August at the following venues.

Hermon Chapel 5th May
(ticketed @ £5)

Cain Valley Hotel 13th May
(contributions, or buy our tracks!)

Darwin Shopping Centre Gig, Video Shoot and Promotional Activity 27th May
(contributions, or buy our tracks!)

Palmer's of Shrewsbury 3rd June
(ticketed £4/£5)

Workhouse Party 8th July

Gigfest 22nd July

The Buttermarket, Shrewsbury (tba)
(ticketed £5)

More details for each event to appear on the calendar

"....Roll on 2017, the Year of Hookstick!......"

With four disco funk tracks firmly ready and two currently approved for radio play we are moving into the second phase quite fast. After a video/radio interview in November with Nigel Davis our image is coming together rapidly alongside a really powerful style. We're anticipating our launch in Spring, somewhere between February and April. Tour dates to be announced when our set is firmly together.

In the words of Nigel Davis " Roll on 2017, the year of Hookstick!"

Trialling our tracks

The first four tracks to trial are now with our plugger and a couple of other contacts. Hookstick writes about real things that have happened, affected us or what we perceive in the world, so unsurprisingly our first release has already stirred up some controversy. This is the world, if we don't get shocked, how can we actually feel anything or make contact with each other? So all good. Let's talk about what's real in the world.

First four tracks:

Refugee
Lover
Real
Serious

We're about to be hunted down by a roving reporter to make our first interview to let people know all about us, so the boots are coming out!

Apologies....

Sorry not to have posted for so long, been working to a deadline. Apologies for those not following our facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/HookstickMusic


We have four wild disco funk tracks ready. The EP is all but together. The band is all but together. The tour is coming together. Any minute now.....

Tom Stedman joins Hookstick

We've been chuffed to welcome the brilliant Tom Stedman to our line-up this month.

Tom has started laying down great guitar lines and has so far covered "Lover" , "Refugee" and "Real", making our pre-launch EP much more visible on the timeline.

Tom Stedman, virtuoso guitarist in a variety of styles including the fingerstyle - Tom can wow crowds with his solo work and so it's a great honour to have him come and work with Hookstick and lend us the benefit of his harmonic and rhythmic sensititivity - just what some of our funk tracks need to bring out the subtleties.

Great to have you with us, Tom!

Hookstick Update

Hookstick new funk album, "Real". We're about half-way there, about halfway through the production phase.

We are lucky to have on board not only the amazing vocalist, Kes C, but drummer and percussionist extraordinaire Jonny Welburn, whose contributions not only include some great drum patterns and fills, bringing all the tracks to life, but also some authentic and key percussion in this album. He further adds a fair few very exciting vocals to compliment the main lines, contributing massively to the post-funk retro sound.

With driving basslines by Philip Lane and keyboards by Jane Lane, the package is coming together into a sound which we hope to replicate not only in the recorded album, but in the tour planned for later this year.

Tracks include : "Love Dream", "Refugee", "Real", "When Tomorrow Comes", "Who You Are", "Discovery", "Lover", "Serious", "Avada Kedavra", "Sparkles", "123" "Watch This Space" and "Shiver" with a possibility of "I'm Gonna Love You" if we're feeling superstitious.

The Funkstick Plan

The Funkstick Plan 03/11/2015 I am currently developing a Funk, Soul and MOBO band. The band is based around music created by Lane and Lane.

Band line-up and requirements
We're currently fronted by the superb vocals of Kes C. We have a keyboardist and a bassist. Ideally we need a drummer and a guitarist, and it would be good if one of these was a vocalist. Other potential members could be percussion and brass. At the moment, no-one is automatically included or excluded, it depends on people's willingness to go with the programme and ability to contribute.

Track creation
Tracks are currently written and part-produced by Jane Lane, aiming to stick within a broadly funk/soul remit, a MOBO pop style.

Pre-Tour Tracks
We're on the verge of releasing two tracks for review next week: "When Tomorrow Comes" and "Real".

Promotional Plan
These tracks are going out in advance of the tour with a promotional package to a number of radio stations. We have a wide circuit of stations to send them to, and when we send them out we'll negotiate interviews for next year.

Tour Schedule
An ever updating tour schedule is on the next page.

Format
The plan is to interview at a local radio station and go on to a big local shopping mall, promoted by the station. Then possibly a proper evening gig. We do this in each area we cover.

Support
If we have no support we'll be going under the banner of "Action on Hearing Loss", which will enable us to book the shopping malls. So this will entail further calls to them to work with them and establish what we can and can't do in their name. We also hope then to enlist a signer.

Order of Events
Briefly, we plan to write, rehearse and record until around January/February. We will develop a multi-part backing for each track. At the same time we'll fill up our diary and send out the two flagship tracks and a few funky jingles to announce our coming.

Press coverage is critical at this stage and throughout.

Prep
In our rehearsals we will need to enlist other musicians. If we succeed we can remove some backing parts. This may happen at any stage of the tour, we'll keep on searching for those reliable enough and with a strong enough contribution to make.

We'll complete a CD for sale to add to band profits.

We will also develop an interview with a great interviewer to save too many actual visits, with a space saying where the gigs will take place or pointing to our website list.

Performances
Performances will improve our skills and I guess at the shopping malls we can play as often as we like.

Profits
We will have to agree the balance of split for the charity and us, and develop a reliable strategy so that performers get something and we get something commensurate with the cost of recording etc. Agreement must be in place about all funds.

Further Activity
We'll also make a video if our numbers grow enough. As the tour continues we can book more serious second wave of events. Contact should be made with the serious pluggers we made contact with last year, who may want a piece of what we're doing.