Alexa Hawksworth

June 2012

I WAS born in St Ann’s, moved to Clifton when I was eight and lived there until I was 18. I’ve lived in 16 different places since. All in Nottingham, apart from a few weeks in Brighton. Last week I moved into a flat in the Lace Market with my boyfriend.

I’ve two older sisters and two younger brothers. My parents were divorced when I was 16 and that really affected me. It messed the whole family up. I’m only really getting over it now.

My dad was a big rock fan, so I grew up hearing Metallica, Whitesnake and Queen, while mum liked Bon Jovi, Madonna and George Michael. I was obsessed with his song Faith for a very long time.

I first got into acoustic music watching The OC and One Tree Hill. They’re soppy American teenage programmes but they used to feature really good music, like Jeff Buckley and Michelle Branch. She was on One Tree Hill and performed a song called Everywhere. I thought ‘I want to learn to play that song.’ It was the first song I learned to play on the guitar.

I played the piano a bit from the age of 11 while at Farnborough School in Clifton. The guitar never appealed because I had a really boring guitar teacher. I had a keyboard that I used to play constantly at home and annoy everyone.

I sang in the school choir, at the annual concert and at places like the Theatre Royal.

My parents bought me my first guitar just as I was about to do my GCSEs when I was 16, I barely put it down. I still got really good GCSEs.

I knew I wanted to do music as a career but I knew that wasn’t guaranteed so I’d need another job to earn money. At that point I thought about hairdressing but I ended up going to college to do A levels in art, graphics, psychology and media.

But this was the time my parents were getting a divorce so I did just one year then left.

Since then I’ve been working in pubs and bars, like The Bell Inn, Bar Eleven and the Vat & Fiddle. I moved around quite a few but I’ve been at The Canalhouse for the past 18 months and I really love my Canalhouse Family.

Last year I was gigging a lot and turning down shifts at work but I’ve not done that this year because most gigs are unpaid and it doesn’t pay the rent. It’s not ideal working in a bar but I know a lot of musicians who don’t work and they’re fine with that but I couldn't do it.

I started out playing open mics at Bar Deux in Sherwood Rise about two years ago.

It was hard because I wasn’t that good and I was really nervous. But I grew in confidence doing that for about six months. Since then I’ve played the Rescue Rooms, The Bodega, The Malt Cross, The Glee Club, Jam Cafe... probably all of the city venues.

The best gig was at The Glee Club supporting Andrew Roachford. I’d never heard of him before but he was amazing and it was a really good night.

I’ve been recording with Jason Hart, who is Jake Bugg’s manager. He saw me at Bar Deux and gave me some gigs playing Jake Bugg’s Bar Sessions at The Glee Club. I’m now hosting them every month. Jason is so busy with Jake at the moment but I hope to get recording sessions finished with him at his studio in a church in Sherwood and get an EP out by the autumn.

I’ve also supported Karima Francis, Monument Valley and Baxter Dury. My music is acoustic, blues, folk... everything is mixed in.

The song that everyone seems to like is Pretty like Bettie Page, which is the name of a 1950s pin-up model but is really about me trying to find my way.

I don’t tend to write many happy songs, I think, because I’ve had quite an unhappy spell over the past four years and that has definitely impacted on my music.

I grew up listening to Take That - I had Robbie posters all over my wall - the Spice Girls, Five and S Club 7.

Now I listen to Bon Iver, City and Colour, Birdy and First Aid Kit but I’m a big metal fan as well so I listen to bands like Deftones, Parkway Drive and Alexisonfire.

I tend to listen to those I’ve seen live, including local musicians like Gallery 47 and Will Jeffrey. A lot of people have said how the music scene in Nottingham was never this good. Natalie Duncan, Jake Bugg, Liam Bailey... they’re all doing it.

I don’t think I’ll make it big. But whatever happens I’m determined to make a career out of music.

Alex Hawksworth plays the Malt Cross on Tuesday from 8pm with support from Jack Harris. Admission is free. Her next Bar Session at The Glee Club is on June 29. She also plays The Big Session Festival at Catton Hall in Derbyshire on June 15. Listen to her music at facebook.com/AlexaHawksworthMusic.

Sam Beeton

May 2012

HE is Nottingham born and bred and yet some in his home city think Sam Beeton is a US export. "It's true," laughs the 23-year-old, who grew up in Carlton. "Lots of people think I'm American. They stop me in the street and say: 'My God! What are you doing here?'"

Why would they think that?

"Probably because of the What You Look For video. You can tell it was filmed in the US."

The video, shot in Los Angeles, was for his debut single for SonyBMG, released four years ago. It was played on national radio and the video screened on all the key TV shows.

But up until recently, it was all there was to see of Sam Beeton.

The single, described by The Guardian as "like You're Beautiful, only not nauseating," stalled outside the UK Top 40. The record label would never release another one of his songs.

He'd finished his debut album for them and promotional copies of No Definite Answer were sent out to reviewers. But it never made it into the shops. Sam was 18 at the time.

"I have ideas in my head of what a terrible time that was," he admits. "But I watched the video recently, for the first time in a year-and-a-half and I thought it was a perfectly good pop song."

He'd signed to the label a year earlier after being spotted by a local record producer playing at an open mike night at the Old Volunteer pub in Carlton. He recorded a few songs with Sam, which made their way to the ears of an A&R scout for SonyBMG, home to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Mariah Carey and Beyonce.

Despite just one single release, he remained on the label for the next three years and toured with the likes of Sandi Thom, James Morrison, Scouting For Girls and Paolo Nutini. He also played a show with Katy Perry.

"It was in the gossip bit of the Daily Star about Katy Perry taking a shine to me," he chuckles.

While still with the label he racked up over 100 recordings. When none of them saw the light of day Sam broke free and set up his own label, Sweet Luigi. Through that he created the Record Club, a subscription service, where over 2,000 fans around the world receive a new EP every month.

He launched Record Club: Season Two earlier this month.

"It still takes me two weeks out of every month to package, sign and post the CDs. The only difference this time is that we're paying a company to print the sleeves."

Doing it his way has worked. Two of his songs, Under The Fence and The Storyteller, were played on Radio 2. And he performed the latter on BBC 2's The Review Show.

"They're not supposed to clap," he says. "It's supposed to end with silence, so that was a bit surreal. But they clapped. Eventually."

It wasn't his first time on TV. Back when What You Look For was released, he appeared on ITV's This Morning, then presented by Eamonn Holmes and wife Ruth Langsford.

"It's good to see how, over time, those videos of my early TV appearances are slowly fading away in terms of views on YouTube. And the views for the new videos are growing."

The new videos are self-made for his Record Club but they include a few filmed for Burberry, the fashion label he's modelled for.

The first photo session, seen in the likes of GQ, was shot by Mario Testino, A-list photographer famed for his pics of Princess Di.

"The guy in charge at Burberry had see the What You Look For video and wanted me to get involved in this campaign. And I thought 'why not?'"

He adds: "The guy who runs Burberry is a member of the Record Club and mentioned me in Rolling Stone in the US, saying that my song My Doll inspired him to create the latest collection. Which is just madness.

"I get invited to a lot of Burberry events and I go when I can. It's a red carpet job with the press taking your photo... the whole thing. At one I was sat between Paul Weller and Kanye West. It's a strange experience."

On the back of the Burberry shoots, Sam has had offers from other labels like Ralph Lauren. One jeans company in New York asked him to do a photo shoot with a topless Jade Jagger.

"I thought, 'well, that's nice' but it doesn't really fit in with the music. I've been offered a few things recently but they've been straight modelling and nothing to do with music. I'm lucky enough to be able to turn them down."

Sam recently toured the UK opening for Charlie Simpson, best known for being the frontman of boy band Busted, then rock band Fightstar. He's someone keen to forget his past.

"Oh man, he really does," says Sam.

"Someone came up to him with a Busted album and asked him to sign it and he said 'no'. And it wasn't for a joke, he was a genuine Busted fan."

He adds: "When we played Exeter, Joss Stone turned up and she invited us to her bar, Mama Stone's. And we had a little dance with her. No, not a cuddling dance."

In recent weeks he's been writing with Judie Tzuke, the Seventies singer behind the hit single Stay With Me Till Dawn and the Top 10 album Sportscar.

"She was signed to Elton John's own label and she's got some really interesting stories. She lives in this huge house in Surrey, where she has a studio. Paul Carrack was there to record a Beatles covers album. And Peter Cox from Go West turned up. It was a bit weird."

How did that happen?

"She got in touch with my producer because her daughter had seen one of my videos and told her that we should work together."

With all these connections and the exposure on TV and radio, isn't there another major label deal on the table?

"There has been interest. I've been for meetings. There's one label in particular that keeps getting in touch."

So what's the problem?

"I don't want a repeat of what happened five years ago. I don't want to fall into that trap of signing and then they don't do what was promised."

There's another reason many may not realise that Sam Beeton is a Nottingham musician and that's because he's not part of the local scene.

But he's making friends with his headline show at the Glee Club tomorrow, where he'll be joined by two well-known Notts artists.

"I've seen Kagoule a few times," he says of the young guitar band. "And I saw Nina Smith play at Rock City when we did Concert For Life for the Julie Cotton Foundation. Although that was a few years ago. She'll be doing her set with beatboxer Mota Mouf, who I've seen quite a few times at the Plainsman in Mapperley."

He adds: "I'm looking forward to it. I've not played a headline show in Nottingham for years. And I am from Nottingham, you know..."

Sam Beeton & Friends: Nina Smith and Kagoule, The Glee Club, Nottingham, Saturday May 12 2012, 7pm, £6 on the door.

Kyle Eastwood

April 2012

The son of Clint Eastwood brings his jazz band to The Glee Club...

Will this be your first trip to Nottingham?

I was in Nottingham a few years ago, and yes, of course I do know of Robin Hood. I was a big fan of the story growing up and still am. I love England, the crowds are always very welcoming to me there.

Music has been your career choice rather than acting and your father seems to approve but what about your mother?

My mother is a huge fan of Jazz, as big as my father is actually. She is a bit of a musician herself. Music has always been an important part of our family and always will be.

You grew up with jazz music but as a youngster didn’t you hate it? Surely pop music was more to your taste?

No, I always enjoyed going out to the Monterey Jazz Festival with the family. I appreciate all the hard work and practice that the musicians have put into their craft. Yes, I do like some pop music and many other styles of music as well, such as Motown and rock, but jazz was always something I appreciated.

At what age did you think music was the career for you?

When I was about 18. That's when I started becoming serious about practicing and playing the bass.

Why the bass and not the sax or cornet?

I started taking piano lessons when I was around seven, then I learned some guitar when I was 12 for a film I did with my father. I started teaching myself the bass when I was about 15. It seemed to come naturally to me.

Tell me about your latest album, Songs From The Chateau.

It was recorded at Chateau Couronneau in Bordeaux, France in the summer of 2010. The music came out very well because we were in a relaxed setting in a beautiful part of the world, eating great food and drinking wine with friends. The whole idea was to go somewhere a little less sterile than a recording studio.

Which other musicians have you played with who have been heroes?

I had a chance to play with Marcus Miller and his band a year ago. I've also played with Ben Riley, the drummer from Thelonious Monk, Kenny Barron, Jeff Beck, and I jammed with Herbie Hancock.

You've contributed to a number of your father's films (including Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby). How does that work?

I watch the film as my father is editing it, then it's a matter of sitting down at the piano and creating music that fits the scene. Then, when the film is on the final editing stage, my father and I fine tune the music for the scenes that need scoring.

Is it true you could have been the Karate Kid?

Yes, my father was interested in possibly directing the film and wanted me to star in it, but it didn't end up happening.

If fans of your father’s work are coming to see you play tonight, even though they don't normally watch live jazz, are they welcome?

Yes, of course they are welcome to see me play. I know they will always be interested in my father, but if they come see me I hope they will leave with a new appreciation for jazz.

Kyle Eastwood plays The Glee Club in Castle Wharf April 25. www.glee.co.uk.

Tom Stade

FOR most of today I’ll be recuperating from last night’s birthday party. I was 41. One year over the hill. I was in Cardiff. I never really get to spend birthdays at home because I’m always working. People come down and see me wherever I am or I sit alone in a hotel room drinking.

I’ve been in the UK for eight years. I live in Edinburgh now with my wife and two kids. They are 15 and ten.

The last time I saw them was about a week and a half ago.

I’ve been on the road longer than the Rolling Stones. I don’t care what Keith Richards says. At least he’s had a couple of months off here and there. For the past 23 years I think I’ve only had two weekends off.

You’ve got to live with a pretty strong lady to be able to do that. We’ve been together for 16 years and she knows the score. Most women would have left me by now but she’s crazy.

When I do see them I spend a load of money on them. When they see dad, everybody gets new stuff. I’m helping this recession by seeing my kids. When Tom ain’t shopping the economy just sucks.

Tonight I’ll be doing another show in New Town, wherever that is.

It’s after each show when I’ll do my writing. When I’ve just come off stage I’m at my most creative. You’ve just had a good show, you’re feeling funny and everything that comes into view you can make fun of. I don’t take it too seriously. I’ll sit and have a few drinks and laugh at the world. Right now I’m writing for the next tour. I’ve been on this tour since the spring. I don’t see the morning until the early afternoon. The early bird may get the worm but the afternoon guy punches him and steals his worm.

The first thing I do when I get up on a Saturday morning in the hotel room, is I’d check my Ladbrokes betting tickets to see if I’m a millionaire. I don’t do it a lot, I just pick a couple of horses now and then.

After I’ve been to collect my winnings – or not – I’ll have a bit of breakfast then maybe check out a flick. The one that I saw recently that was really good was Conan The Barbarian (left). I’m a big comic book fan. The first couple of X-Men were OK but the last one (top right) was wicked. Conan was the one for me. You’ve got kids cutting off people’s heads. You can’t get any better than that.

I’ve become very British with the TV I watch. I want to know how much my stuff is worth. Not Antiques Roadshow, no, the Roadshow sucks. Everyone knows that. That’s for old ladies. I’m talking Cash In The Attic, Flog It, Dickinson’s Real Deal (below), Bargain Hunt – those are the ones. That’s where you find out what your stuff is worth. Have I found out that I have anything worth much? I’m Canadian, we have nothing old. Here’s a piece of wood that was brought over from England a hundred years ago. How much is that worth? Nothing.

I take DVDs with me when I’m on the road. At the moment I’m watching The West by Ken Burns. It’s about how the American West was taken over. The British, you guys didn’t really own much of America. I didn’t realise that. Or that Texas was a country for a little while.


On Saturday afternoon, I’ll be heading to the next show on the train. I don’t know where I’m going yet, that’s too far into the future to think about.

I never go and watch another comedy show. When I get a day off I’ll do anything but comedy because you’ve got to get it out of your head sometimes.

My perfect weekend would be one spent with the kids in a hot and sunny place where my pound is worth 800 billion of their dollars. I’d go to Somalia right now if I could.

Tom Stade appears at The Glee Club on Tuesday September 27 as part of the Nottingham Comedy Festival. Starts at 8pm. Tickets are £13.50 and £14 from the venue, call 0871 472 0400 or visit www.glee.co.uk

Imran Yusuf

April 2011

I HAVE a friend up in Nottingham, who I actually met while travelling in Japan seven years ago, so even when I’ve not been doing stand-up at Jongleurs or Just The Tonic or Glee I’ve been up there visiting him in New Basford. In fact, I hosted the speeches at his wedding in Nottingham.

I’ve never had the chance to look around the city but hopefully this time I will because I like to talk a bit about what’s happening locally. I like to personalise each gig, otherwise I may as well just read off a script.

I’ll be doing the same in West Bromwich, where I’ll be tomorrow. Normally, after a show, I’ll invite everybody to the bar and we have a chat. Some people want photos or autographs. Sometimes that will go on for an hour or so because I enjoy being able to meet the people who have come out to see my show. On Saturday night we’ll be driving back home. It’s myself and my support act, @Jason Patterson,@ who used to be a courier so he doesn’t mind doing all the driving.

If we’re in a hotel we often stay up and write material or talk about comedy. We geek out a little bit. It’s the same on the drive home.

I do have Sunday off and Monday, well that’s the idea anyway but I’ve got to that point in my career where it’s all kicked off. So I don’t really have days off. If I’m not performing I’ll be in meetings sorting stuff out. It’ll be either sitting with the people designing my poster for Edinburgh or with people at the BBC because I’m working on something for them or meeting my accountant.

When I get the time I’m like any other bloke, I like talking to girls, playing video games and playing football.

I’m very selective about the TV I watch. Someone told me never watch anything that doesn’t inspire you. So I’d never watch @EastEnders @or @Jersey Shore.@

I love everything Japanese and I watch a lot of @anime@ on the internet with English subtitles. And I love @24@ – Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland, left) is the ultimate man. Ultimately resourceful, ultimately persevering... and that really appeals to me.

I love watching my comedy as well. It’s actually how I discovered stand-up comedy, watching it on the @Comedy Channel.@ I thought: “Wow, people actually do this for a living.”

I was watching @Curb Your Enthusiasm@ last night and I’m always impressed by the celebrity cameos he (Larry David, right) gets into the show.

I love playing video games but I wish I had more time. I’ve got an xBox Live and I just got an iPhone 4 so I’m really good at @Angry Birds.@

I love biographies, particularly people who have persevered through something. The last one I read was @Lance Armstrong’s@ – the world cycling champion. That guy, I don’t think he’s heard of the words “give up”. I’m currently reading @As Used On The Famous Nelson Mandela@ by @Mark Thomas@. I’m kind of sculpting my political philosophy around a lot of what he’s bringing up. If he didn’t do it I wouldn’t know about it. I read his book on Coca Cola, @Belching Out The Devil,@ and while I was reading it I didn’t drink any Coca Cola. I have since but it’s not like he’s evangelising to not drink Coca Cola – he just wants people to be aware that some of the biggest companies in the world are turning a blind eye to human rights abuses abroad.

I don’t get out to see gigs, except the comedians I’m on with. Which is obviously easier at the @Edinburgh Festival.@

I do get to the cinema sometimes because I have a friend who works at one locally so I often get in for nothing. The last good film I saw was @Limitless@ with Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. It was about being able to draw on your sub-conscious to become a better man. Which I thought was really cool. I’m really in to my personal development stuff.

A perfect weekend would be anywhere in the company of friends and loved ones, which I know sounds schmaltzy. My perfect wife would ideally be Swedish. Why? In January I went to Thailand where I met some Swedish girls who were lovely. Not only were they beautiful but there was no pretension. They came over to London and I took them out. I’ve got my heart set on one of them now.

Imran Yusuf appears at The Glee Club on Wednesday, April 20 at 8.30pm. Tickets are £12, call 0871 472 0400 or go to www.glee.co.uk

Andi Osho

March 2011

I’M meeting up with friends tonight, which is a rare treat. We’re having dinner together. I tend to prefer the low-key and quiet socialising rather than the big night out. It’s because I’m out all the time. Everything is about going out when you’re working in comedy. So I appreciate being indoors.

Do they expect me to be funny? No, they’re much funnier than I am. I sit back and let them entertain me.

Part of the weekend will be dedicated to getting material together for Stand Up For The Week.

I start thinking about that every Thursday, the morning after we’ve recorded the last one. There’s not really a day when I’m not thinking about it.

It’s a quite a challenge finding stuff that’s interesting that you can get some good jokes out of. But it’s good because it sharpens you up as a stand-up.

There isn’t so much crossover in to the material you’d use for a stand-up tour because you are writing specifically for the show. If you do Live At The Apollo or Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow you will be using up material that you’d been working on for the circuit.

But if you’re going to get good as a comic you have to do that. I think that’s why Michael McIntyre’s been so successful. He isn’t precious about the stuff he’s done. He accepts the shelf-life the material and moves on. Let’s write another ten minute routine for the Royal Variety.

Stand Up For The Week is a ten week series and it’s intense so I’m not getting much time for chilling out.

The only TV I ever watch regularly these days is Friends because it’s always on. I really wanted to watch Episodes but I never got round to it.

I’ve only once sat down with a DVD box set and watched episode after episode and that was The Wire. I was watching five or six in one sitting, so I got through season four in about two days.

I’m not reading anything at the moment. There’s no time. But I did have to read three books in a month for a Radio 4 show. I got to pick one, which was Stewart Lee’s book (?????) and I was really enjoying it but then they sent me another book. And then another. I thought I’m never going to get through all these. The only one I read in its entirety was The Help by Catherine Stockitt???, about maids in Mississippi during the sixties. It was very well researched and very interesting. The other one was Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim, which I didn’t even start.

To keep fit I try to go to the gym but when I was doing Let’s Dance For Comic Relief that took care of that because I was dancing for two weeks. I need a lot of rehearsing for that. It’s amazing how we as normal people are away from professional dancers. They learn a routine within ten minutes. They made the show. The rest of us were just tarting about in front of them.

Now I’m trying to get the will power to go back to the gym.

I do want to make more time to see live music. I like good R&B, mostly the older stuff like Stevie Wonder.

I don’t go and see live comedy because I’m doing that all the time. If I was to pay to see anyone it would be Chris Rock. But comedians don’t really laugh a lot when they’re watching someone else doing comedy. I remember sitting with some comics watching Russell Brand or someone like that and we all sat texting or on their iPhones. None of us were really listening. You just become immune to it.

So doing this as a job has ruined my appreciation of performed comedy. I laugh more when I’m with friends.

A perfect weekend would be doing nothing for the whole two days at home in East London.

Andi Osho brings her Afroblighty Tour to The Glee Club on April 14. For tickets call 0871 472 0400 or visit www.glee.co.uk.

OMFG banner ban for Glee

October 2010

PART of an advertising banner for a city comedy club had to be removed following complaints from members of the public.

The Glee Club banner stretching across the Broadmarsh Centre bridge had read ‘OMFG The Glee Club has finally arrived in Nottingham’.

Bosses at Westfield, which manages the shopping centre, contacted the comedy club’s owner Mark Tughan after it received complaints about the abbreviation, ‘OMFG.’

“It’s ridiculous,” he said.

“How can anyone be offended by an abbreviation? What about TFI Friday when that was on the television, were people offended by that?

“What’s most annoying is that they asked us to change it after just two people complained.”

Linda Singleton, 60, from Granby, was one of them.

“I felt it portrayed Nottingham in a poor light, to have something as crass as that,” she said.

“I’ve never complained about something like this before but I felt they’d over stepped the mark. Yes it’s an abbreviation but it stands for something. You don’t read it as ‘OMFG’, in your head you’re reading it as the full phrase.”

Her age wasn’t a factor, she said.

“I know it’s in common use on the internet but my son, who is 25, thought it was going too far as well. Maybe a lot of people don’t know what it stands for but I do because I use the computer a lot.”

She added: “It wasn’t just the implied swearword but in one fail swoop they managed to offend all religions.”

The banner has been changed to a more sedate ‘LOL’.

“Which is much more appropriate,” said Linda.

Broadmarsh Centre manager Matthew Slade said:

“We have different people who deal with advertising on our premises so we don’t always get to see all the artwork in advance.

“As soon as we realised the connotation of the four letters they’d used we took action to get it removed as quickly as we could.”

He added: “We do not condone the use of the ‘F’ word or even the implication of it. We wouldn’t want to offend people, by carrying advertising on our property, in that way.”