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Nick Holmes Band

About Me

This is our latest video. Shot in Manchester, tell me what you think of it.CheersNick


This is the Nick Holmes Band playing "Thursday," actually on a Thursday at the Kro 2 Bar Manchester UK,
"Happy Van Morrison meets Edie Reader!" Martin Fisher - Subversive UK.

'You Make me Smile' has a lovely, lilting vibe to it. This song wouldn't be out of place on the soundtrack of Notting Hill or Love Actually. It's very uplifting, very positive. I can imagine Hugh Grant skipping down to the cafe to buy his coffee whilst thinking dreamily of Julia Roberts. I like this song!" - Damien Maddison of Maddison.

"A sublime cocktail of jazz and blues with a hint of pop thrown in to the mix for good measure." - Claire Mooney.

"Nick Holmes can turn a cliche into a catch-phrase and a platitude into a stinging sentence that loops around your brain for a decade." - Melvyn Bragg.

The Nick Holmes Band serves a wonderful cocktail of catchy, danceable, acoustic pop rock. This is blended with warm-hearted, though undeniably cool, jazz with just a soupcon of blues.

Their audience are given a brimful cup full of warm, joyful music that makes the heart glow. These guys love to play live and watching their visible fun and enthusiasm as they play is very infectious. Make no mistake, this is a cooking-with-gas LIVE band intent on giving the audience a good time with great songs sung and played with brio, vim and vigour.

Holmes writes joyful, warm-hearted songs about what we love most: our lives and our loves. As one of his lyrics, from "Don't You Take Second Best," a song he wrote for his daughter professes:

"And even the cynical, can't avoid the calling
You'd think they'd run a mile, but they're the first to fall in.
And should you ever find, love leaves you behind
Don't you take second best
And should you lose you way, and love ever gets to fight another day
Don't you take second best, Don't you take second best."

Exquisite, deft touches meld with lulling lyrical simplicity just like the late, and very great poet/songwriter, Jake Thackray, of whom he is an ardent fan. The great thing about Holmes' songs is that, unlike many singer songwriters, he doesn't grizzle. This excerpt is taken from "White Sand." - How does this grab you?

"See the people, with their coffee skin
Not caring about much anything
Beachcombing for their very souls there
Huckleberry Finn-ing as they go there on that White Sand"

While the Nick Holmes Band appeal strongly to younger audiences, it is amazing how many self-assured, well-groomed, confident women of "a certain age," attend Nick Holmes Band gigs. There is something in the combination of well-written lyrics, deftly written tunes played with gusto and talent that appeals to women who want it all - Alpha females flock to this guy.

Holmes looks happy and at ease with his audience. In a post modern age he is a silverback troubadour with love and fire in his heart and soul; "bien dans sa peau.*"

"* happy in his skin."
And talking of people who are happy in their skin, here is a master of the craft of songwriting, Mr Burt Bacharach, singing the wonderful, and grown up song, "Alfie," in a rather wonderful and grown up fashion:

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/06/2006
Band Website: www.myspace.com/nickholmesband (this one)
Band Members: If you like our songs you may want to get them from iTunes by clicking on the following link: iTunes
Hope you like them.
Nick Holmes Band Members are:

Nick Hewyn Holmes - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals and songwriting - bit of piano.
Alan Arthur - Acoustic Lead Guitar / Electric Guitar.
Ben Wiltshire - Acoustic Double Bass / Fender Precision Bass Guitar.
Ben Dumville - Trumpet
Drums and Percussion: (pick one of the following)
Paul Bowen -
Jonathan Schouton-
Danny Montgomery -
This is Nick Hewyn Holmes doing a solo spot at the Cinnamon Club, Bowden UK playing "These Fools Insist." in March

...And this is Nick Hewyn Holmes doing another solo spot, this time on piano. This song is called "Darling Heart," played on the piano for the first time in public, again at the Cinnamon Club, Bowden, Altrincham UK.

Influences:
Jake Thackray
- the very first person I ever saw playing the guitar on TV and it was him who started me off wanting to play the guitar and write songs - I met him once at the SongFest 1985 in the Brewery Arts centre in Kendal UK. A very genuine, and genuinely funny man - he was brilliant.
He died a bankrupt and that is a crying shame because he had so much wit and talent and here he is pricking pomposity in a way many understood at the time though I am not sure if he would be understood today. Anyway, cop a load of this:

The Beatles, Paul Simon, Alexandra Louise Busuttil, The Divine Comedy, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, The Doobie Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Glen Campbell, The Bikini Brothers, Dusty Springfield, Wet Wet Wet, Deacon Blue, Thin Lizzy, Rod Arthur (A great friend and a great actor - You'll know his face if not his name as he has appeared all over television from Cranford to Dr Who).
Marc Bolan, Roy Orbison, Jacques Tati, Cilla Black (Her "Anyone Who Had A Heart" is THE definitive version of that song - catch this:

Jacques Brel, George Brassens (HUGE influence on Jake Thackray). Tony Joe White -Check out "Polk Salad Annie", Richard Digence, Van Morrison, John Martyn OBE RIP, Doyle Dykes (REALLY classy guitarist), Sixwire, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Carol Ann Thompson, Scouting For Girls, Matt Monro, Lyndon Absolon, Sarah Vaughan, Rickie Lee Jones.
Harry Brockway, Herb Alpert, Dave Clark 5, The Hollies, ABBA, Peter Noone's Herman's Hermits, Sensational Alex Harvey Band (where are you, Zal Cleminson?), Bryan Glancy ( I miss you, Brian. That was too damn young), David Gray, Lindisfarne, Billy Bragg, Roger Whittaker (Do you know how many albums he sold by NOT being cool?), Mick Hucknall - I was at Manchester Poly when he was there playing in the Student Union bar most weeks - how lucky was I?.
The Three Johns, The Mekons, John Ellis, Deborah Malone. Lord! What a voice on the woman, Henry Normal.
Ben Wiltshire, Ben Dumville, Jonathan Schouton, Alan Arthur, Danny Montgomery, Ben Crabrat, Michael Buble, Petula Clark, Black Oak Arkansas, Iain James Elliot, Tim Corfield, Jonathan Whitbread, Duke Ellington, Claire Lewis, Jackie Chan ("War! What is it Good For?" - doubtless the definitive cover), John Thomson, David John McCullough, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Halliday, Damien Maddison, Del Amitri, Jane Moore, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior, and Dean Martin, Ray Davies and Terry Pratchett... Thank you, thank you, Terry Pratchett.
Anyway, this is "Big Brown Eyes," originally written for Debbie Phillips and now rededicated to my son, Sam. He transmogrified from an erudite, articulate, not to say gobby,young man into a bumbling inarticulate at the sight of a gorgeous, drop dead stunning French waitress with huge, beautiful brown eyes in Saumur, France.
What possible success strategy can nature have evolved that causes young men to devolve and dissolve so quickly at the sight and presence of a beautiful young woman?
Anyway, this is me playing "Big Brown Eyes," whilst doing a solo spot at the Kro 2 Bar Manchester.

Sounds Like: Van Morrison - Deacon Blue - John Martyn - Doobie Brothers - Gipsy Kings.
This is us playing "You Make Me Smile" on my birthday gig on January 27th.

Record Label: Tunecore
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

August Bank Holiday gig supporting the Baskervilles in Morpeth, Northumbria

A great series of gig-ettes throughout the Saturday of the August bank holiday, played at the Red Bull Hotel in Morpeth, Northumbria for the annual August bank holiday Rutherford reunion.Dr Bill Ruthe...
Posted by on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:49:00 GMT

Broadstairs Folk Festival

Just a big, big thank you to all those friends, old and new, that we met at the Broadstairs Folk Festival.It is a great event and, if you were there, you know how good a time we had. We did 4 gigs in ...
Posted by on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:39:00 GMT

Ras Al Khaimah

Just come back from Ras Al Khaimah, about 90 miles from Dubai. Jetlagged to the max but some wonderful memories, like:1 being woken at 5:30 in the morning by the beautiful sounds of the call to the fa...
Posted by on Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:11:00 GMT

New Kro 2 Videos

Hiya!I am putting together our live performances as a band and some of my solo spots. I really like the pureness of recording the live band and then just getting the performances out over the web. I t...
Posted by on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:10:00 GMT

Wow! We have a video

Please check out the new video section ("Videos" underneath the photograph on the left). I played a gig at the Kro 2 Bar on Oxford Road Manchester on Sunday 13th Jan 2009. As it was a solo spot I ...
Posted by on Wed, 14 Jan 2009 03:11:00 GMT

Coo! Hello to our subscibers!

Hi Cindy! and Hi Pedro and Luis! Happy New Year!
Posted by on Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:55:00 GMT

You can now download 4 tracks on this site for free!

You can now download 4 out of the 6 tracks on this site for free. Only "You Make Me Smile" and "White Sand" are reserved (it's part of our agreement with iTunes).So please feel free to download "Cindy...
Posted by on Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:26:00 GMT

"You Make Me Smile" EP Now out on iTunes

HiyaTo celebrate our EP being released on iTunes, Amazon and LaLa, I have put "Breathtaker" "Cindy," "Darling Heart," and "Near Enough" up here for free download. In exchange, I need a favour off you:...
Posted by on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:39:00 GMT

Please join our campaign to get 'Wake Up To Wogan' to play "You Make Me Smile!"

Hiya Would you help us to get "You Make Me Smile" played on Terry Wogan's "Wake Up To Wogan" morning show? If enough people emailed in, we reckon they would. Would you like to help? All you have to do...
Posted by on Mon, 05 May 2008 10:35:00 GMT