Artists

The Leisure Society ooze charm. Anyone that happened upon Northampton Square in Islington on a crisp Spring Sunday morning for our sister-site Bandstand Busking’s latest recording will have been utterly won over by this very English answer to Department of Eagles: a clean, nostalgic folk sound underpinned by unmistakably Ray Davies-like wry and whimsical songwriting. Numbering eight, their roots lie in Burton-Upon-Trent from where songwriter Nick Hemming decamped to work with fellow Burtonite Christian Hardy (Christian Silva) in London and one-by-one the pair coaxed members of Brighton’s Wilkommen Collective (Sons Of Noel and Adrian, Shoreline etc) until The Leisure Society was born.

Hemming’s musical roots go back further into the West Midlands however, beginning with early 90’s indie band She Talks To Angels and Unisex, an extension of late eighties space rockers The Telescopes. The former are certainly better known for what they did next with actor Paddy Considine and director/screenwriter Shane Meadows making up Hemming’s first bandmates. Indeed he has written and performed music for two of Meadow’s films - A Room for Romeo Brass and Dead Man's Shoes. Over a decade on The Leisure Society is naturally a far more mature project but also a far more serious prospect.
‘The Last Of The Melting Snow’ - the band’s debut single released just before Christmas that would shoot Hemming to fame in April of the following year through an Ivor Novello nomination - made sure of that. A gentle, glistening and beautiful song, it is in fact quite perfect songwriting. Think otherwise and there might just be something missing left of centre beneath your chest. It set March’s full release The Sleeper up nicely for a band who just scream quiet, word of mouth success over the coming months and hopefully years.