Hattie Briggs

Waiting For Smith

Presented by: Laurel Canyon Music

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0	LONDON: Winemakers Club
P	Saturday 20th May, 2017
N	7:00pm

Event information

Laurel Canyon Music are proud to present one of the UK's finest young singer-songwriters in an intimate and special concert in the heart of the City of London.

Hattie Briggs is a Gloucestershire based singer-songwriter and BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Nominee 2014. The 23 year-old quit Oxford University in the 2nd year of her Russian degree to concentrate on her musical career in January 2014. Since then, her music has been played on TV, on BBC Radio 1, 2 and 6Music as well as many regional BBC radio stations. She released her debut album 'Red & Gold' on 6th April 2015 with a single 'A Beautiful Mind' on the same day. The album includes a cover of Eva Cassidy's version of 'Fields Of Gold', produced by Eva's brother, Dan Cassidy, who also plays a violin solo on the record. (Click here to go to the dedicated 'Red & Gold' page where you can read the latest reviews including Q magazine, Maverick & R2, and order the album.)

Hattie released her debut EP 'My Shepherd's Hut' in November 2013, and has subsequently had 5 singles in the iTunes singer-songwriter chart, including 'Pull Me Down' that reached number 19, and 'Old Eyes', that features jazz musician Alec Dankworth. Key live performances include the recent Cambridge Folk Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival and supports including Stornoway, Grant Nicholas (Feeder), Seth Lakeman, Luke Concannon (Nizlopi), Jake Morley and Sam Brookes. She was also a featured artist in an emerging talent documentary by BBC Introducing In The West and on Sky Arts in their Cambridge Folk Festival highlights programme aired in August 2015. She has been widely featured on many of the the popular UK e-zines and blogs including Back Street Mafia, Penny Black Music, For Folk's Sake, Folk Radio and Timber and Steel, the USA's Val's List and three in the Netherlands, Folk Lantern, MusicMeter and Dekrentennuitdepop. The local and national press are taking a keen interest wi
th an appearance in the Independent, a 4 page spread in Cotswold Life, a lifestyle feature in Psychologies magazine and now a review in Holland's top music magazine, Lust for Life.

Inspired by the likes of Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, Hattie recorded her debut album at Monnow Valley Studios, and it was produced by Peter Waterman (Joss Stone/Uriah Heep/Emma Ballantine). Seven of Hattie's songs from the album reached the semi-finals of the UK Songwriting Contest and she was the only artist who had two competing in the final ten. She completed her first 25 gig national tour supporting Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman all round the UK in April and May 2015 which was followed by her own 21 date national Living Room/Small Venue/Festival Tour during August and September. Hattie returned from her first European tour in November having played 19 gigs in Holland and gaining a new legion of fans along the way.

At the end of November Hattie passed her goal of playing 100 gigs during 2015. Her Christmas single "Turn on the Lights" was released on 7th December and received airplay from Mark Radcliffe, and many other BBC presenters including Sam Bonham, Dan Chisholm, Claire Carter, and Phil Hammond. It received a brilliant review from Malcolm Carter of Penny Black Music. Hattie appeared for the second time in the November/December edition of R2 magazine in their Insight feature. In January Hattie won the Laurel Canyon Music awards for Best Debut Album and Best new Artist of 2015.

Hattie recorded her second album "Young Runaway" early in 2016, again at Monnow Valley Studio and produced by Peter Waterman. It was released on 8th July and is available on iTunes and the other digital platforms digitally and in retail stores: HMV and 49 independent record stores including Rise, Rave from the Grave and the Stroud Subscription Rooms . Her showcase tour venues included the Stables, Wavendon, the Subscription Rooms, Stroud, the Maltings, Farnham, the Green Note and more than 30 others plus 8 festivals., including Stroud Fringe where she played to a capacity crowd of 1,000. She spent a week touring in Holland in June, and her next tour will be September. Multiple UK and Dutch album reviews for Young Runaway are available on her review page. In June, Hattie's album made an appearance in the Telegraph, on Apple Music playlists, and on iTunes was featured in the singer/songwriter New Album Spotlight. Music Week included it in their list of Key Releases a
nd it was reviewed in the Sunday Express in July. She was mentioned in the Saturday Telegraph Magazine in a foodie article about the Smoked and Uncut Festival. "Young Runaway" was Laurel Canyon Music's was August's album of the month. Three major magazine articles in August editions of Cotswold Life, Maverick and Shire Folk followed, and in September she was featured in the Telegraph Weekend section by Helen R Brown in an article about the joy of hosting her first house concert where Hattie performed accompanied by Matt Park.

In early December Hattie played at the Brooklyn Bowl at the O2 London where she opened the C2C Christmas Social supporting Ward Thomas, her biggest London gig to date. She released her new Christmas EP, "A Winter's Day" on 8th December 2016, and it was launched at her Subscription Rooms Show "Christmas Hats" that night. Her third appearance for Maggie's Charity Carol Concert at a totally packed out Christ Church in Cheltenham rounded off her third gigging year.

http://www.hattiebriggs.co.uk

Waiting For Smith is a one-man band consisting of Harry Lloyd. (It would have been a two-man band but Smith, the drummer, never turned up.) On leaving school, Harry went to Patagonia to train as a ski instructor. He then taught for three seasons for the Ecole du Ski Francais in Courchevel, picking up French, Russian and bits of 16 other languages - and playing the piano in bars for fun in the evenings. Halfway through his fourth season, he broke his back in a mountain safety exam. He spent a year recuperating and used the time to learn the guitar. He writes moving, melodic songs you won’t easily forget.