The Grey Lady Music Lounge, Sunday 27th November 2011

Ben moved down South from Manchester two years ago, and has been writing and performing his own music for seven years. He is best known for writing high octane musical theatre having won the PMA writer's award in 2002 and being crown European Gay Playwright of the year 2005. His most recent production of "The Case of the Blue Oyster Gang" was on in New York at Christmas and was recommended as a must see by the NY British Culture Examiner. Ben has been described as "Prodigiously talented" by the Scotsman, and has won five star reviews in the Times, Guardian and Telegraph. He branched out into writing stand alone music when he became the producer of Manchester's successful alternative "Cabaret of Ida Bucket" in 2005, and later becoming a transfering his acts to Bristol's "Invisible Circus". He can still be heard performing as a Jungle MC under the name Wilberforce Brown but is now hoping to spread his more acoustic music around the South. He lists his influences as They Might be Giants, Richard Carpenter and Stephen Swartz.

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Clown BreakDown are Ally Hamilton (guitar and vocals), Ben Crowhurst (bass), and Jack Kinnear (drums).

The band got together in the autumn of 2010. Ally and Ben have known each other from as early as playgroup and have managed to stay friends long enough(!) to join forces and play together in their former band Epiphany and others. Jack and Ally are best friends from secondary school and consequently all the boys have spent their formative years together.

After Epiphany grew apart, Ally and Ben wanted to start again with a punchy new sound that hit you and was difficult to ignore. Jack -- an up-and-coming enthusiastic drummer -- was recruited for this new project. A dramatic and edgy sound was an important starting point for the feel of the new band. The recently recorded E.P is a deeper, darker reflection on the state of modern society.

As with most successful sounds, the boys have a variety of influences from Ally’s blues and old-school rock to Ben’s love of punk bands such as The Jam and The Buzzcocks, to Jack's love of all rock. With early demos laid down in mid-December, the band have spent solid time together in recent months rehearsing and writing, and are back in the studio recording again very soon. They have a growing fan base and are lining up plenty of local gigs for the near future.

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Singer-songwriter, Paul Dunton leads his own unique cross-over orchestra providing an atmospheric fusion of alternative and pop with a classical twist. Paul & his Orchestra take influences from varying modern day artists such as Pink Floyd, Elbow, ELO, Turin Brakes, Massive Attack, Damien Rice and contemporary composers such as Samuel Barber, Ludovico Einaudi, John Barry and Hans Zimmerman. The Orchestra performs Paul's own compositions and a varied selection of uniquely arranged standards from a wide range of artists. The line-up of 8 violins, 4 cellos, guitar, flute, bass and percussion accompanies Paul on vocals and piano, joined by his lead vocalists, Charlotte Andrew and Poppy Raine. Paul and his Orchestra regularly perform at concerts, festivals and private events throughout the UK and internationally, including headlining the Theatrium Wilhelmstraße Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany and an 8 state tour of the USA which culminated in a spectacular roof-top performance on top of the New York Strand Hotel. Increased attention and success led to the orchestra being featured on BBC Radio 2 by Joan Armatrading with interviews and airplay of one of Paul's songs, 'Don't Forget'. This led to Paul supporting Joan Armatrading on five occasions during her recent UK tours.

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Sets are a group of Kent musicians who formed a band in 2008 while they studied in Yorkshire at the University of Leeds and Leeds College of Music. Sets' music features multi-vocal harmonies, violin, flute and harpsichord supported by a tight and inventive rhythm section. The approach of combining innovative and accomplished instrumental performance with the melodic lead vocals of singer Dominic Scott gained Sets a dedicated local following whilst they studied at university. The band have performed several live sessions for BBC DJ Alan Raw, who is a vocal admirer of their music, as well as sessions for Leeds Indie Radio, a performance at an NME after-show party for The Vaccines, support for Grey Lady act Tom Williams & The Boat at the famous Brudenell Social Club along with numerous performances at bars and venues across the city. Nationally Sets have performed on the main stage at the 229 club in London, the Deaf Institute in Manchester and The Tunbridge Wells Forum (the venue where the members first cut their musical teeth with various local acts in the mid 2000's.)

Sets have now graduated and returned to live in the South-East with the intention of continuing to perform in London and the local area.

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