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| Bio of the Artist |
Born from a love of The Kinks, the Stones, The Who and The Jam, this British 4-piece wear their influences on their sleeves; Mod, Motown, Northern Soul, Rhythm & Blues, Punk attitude. The Heys have everything that a great guitar-pop band should have, three minutes of fuzzy major chords, full, rich bass, shouty, ominpresent backing vocals and an impossibly addictive chorus.
Tom, the singer songwriter in The Heys feeds off the tradition and passion of British 60’s beat music and combines it with incisive comment on modern life. Their debut album Young, Bored & Broke screams the frustrations and the simple joys of living day-to-day, hand to mouth. Bad jobs-good friends. A working-class band through and through.
The self-produced album was recorded underground in their basement studio in the UK. “This way it’s all about the music” says Tom. “We wanted an honest direct sound and we wanted to be in control so we did it ourselves”.
The first Radio 1 play by Alan McGee came after he received the demo from a guy in Reading. Winning XFM unsigned led to a headline appearance at the Budrising festival at The Waterats in London. June 07 saw the white label promo release of Pressure, through promotions company Upshot on 7" green vinyl to massive DJ acclaim. Comparisons have been made with Elvis Costello, Ray Davis, The Who and The Enemy.
Following the myspace explosion, The Heys have had over 84,000 hits and have a dedicated fanbase. This has led to contact from Vinyl Junkie in Tokyo and the first vinyl limited edition singles sold in Japan. Numberonemusic.com/theheys was launched in March 06 and since then has received over 206,000 plays.
Whilst creating a buzz on independent North American radio shows such as KEXP 90.3fm in Seattle and X-103.3fm in Indianapolis, their killer tune “Pressure” has also featured on Record of the Day in the UK and the soundtrack for the Gumball Rally 3000.
Meanwhile in the UK pulserated.com (Sky) has picked up on Pressure and Friday Night with plays on The Session, The Mix and Hottrax. The Heys also received a feature On Steve Lamacq's BBC6 Music radio show.
”I know absolutely nothing about this band, other than the fact they are very, very good.” Creation Records Guru Alan McGee on BBC Radio 1.
Instrumentation
Tom-singer/guitar Jordon-guitar/bvs Carl-bass/bvs Mat-drums/bvs
Press Reviews
PRESSURE
CDTimes.co.uk
"Pressure" is everything that a great guitar-pop single should be, three minutes of fuzzy major chords, full, rich bass, shouty, ominpresent backing vocals and an impossibly addictive chorus...Essentially, The Heys are still a struggling unsigned band. There's no scheduled date for even a hugely limited commercial release of this utterly brilliant piece of pop music...Maybe there's hope though, recently Hard-Fi have broken through in a major way, with big tunes and a sound at odds with most current British guitar-based music. And they've done it with none of the wit, talent and flair that The Heys possess...So go to the website, an endearingly perfunctory MySpace affair, of this little-known band, and listen to "Pressure", because it's the only place you're likely to hear it for the time being, but if there's any justice in the record industry you won't be able to hear it for free forever. - Michael Docherty, CDTimes.co.uk
THE HEYS LIVE AT THE MARRS BAR
huntfordecentmusic.co.uk
The intro track 'Scene' is by far one of the freshest tracks we've come across here at HFDM and I was delighted to finally hear it live. "Don’t want your scene, wont have your scene no more" perfectly describes what the band are about. The don’t give a f**k attitude to follow what’s expected, they play for the music and considering the line up changes that have occured recently you'd be hard pressed to fault them. Personally I could go on about how good they were now, I’d in fact draw a diagram if I had some paper and crayons but for now I'll do this. The Heys. Are quite simply shit hot.
PRESSURE
Record Of The Day.
This band really caught our ears for the usual reason (or not that usual sadly) - they've got at least one really good song. Pressure is it and it's the lead track on a lurid green 7" single. Great verse, great energy, great delivery.
A DEFINITE FLOOR STOMPER
Krazy House Liverpool
The Heys really could become most people's new fave band because Pressure is superb. A definite floor stomper.
COCKTAIL OF GROOVE AND SWAGGER
Stew Kingscott- BBC Coventry and Warwickshire
A perfectly blended cocktail of groove, swagger and old school rock n roll. They're a joy to watch... This is a band you really want to be getting down to on that dance floor.
THE HEYS @
Burn Down the Disco
I had never heard of The Heys before BDTD, and at first glance they didn’t look like anything special. Tom (lead vocals) looked a little like the secret lovechild of Fran Healey and Richard Ashcroft, but,as soon as they started playing, I knew they were absolutely brilliant. They delivered excellent vocals from both the lead singer as well as the very original harmonies. they have killer tracks with excellent hooks - there wasn’t a weak track on the entire set: ‘Pressure’ alone is a sure fire hit single. I will definitely see The Heys again. Top marks to Burn Down the Disco for bringing these lads to Barnsley.
Words: Bamforth |
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