"There ain't nobody here but us chickens."
Louis Jordan.
Between them, The Henhouse Band have played thousands of shows at the world's most glamourous gin-joints and most glorious dive-bars in dozens of countries, (and cruiseships, and even onboard a plane!) The Speakeasy Spirit is in safe hands!
Minnie du Ton
"Du ton" means the pitch of a note, or the colour of a voice. Minnie embodies the female performer in the recording age, but colours the world her own way; some days brassy, but simultaneously fragile and tragic; often comically so.Like every good saloon manager, she is more than capable of keeping her rowdy patrons in order.
The Rooster
George 'Rooster' London is Minnie's business partner and musical director, which means he likes to sniff around The Hens and tell people what to do. Onstage he likes to play upright bass, sing occassionally and contradict Minnie.It's her name above the Henhouse door, but some days Minnie lets The Rooster believe that he's in charge.
JJ Johnston
James 'JJ' Johnston has been striking skins with sticks since he got his first drum kit at the age of two.When not providing backbone at the Henhouse, he can be found at the recording studios he runs in north London, or on a stage somewhere shuffling out jazz, boogie-woogie, blues or rockabilly rhythms.
Nick 'Chops' Harris
Nick joined our family at just the right time to spur us forward once again and he and his guitar have quickly become a core part of the Henhouse.A fabulous player, composer and producer, we're blessed to have someone like him on board who combines a traditional music education with an instinctive gift.
Jonathan 'Boothy' Boothroyd
Jon joined the Henhouse when we needed a late-notice musician, but his skill and temperament quickly established him as a valuable part of the band's core at the piano.His diverse musical background and love of the American Standards makes Boothy a great pianist for us (and it's also really useful that he blows a mean tenor sax, clarinet and harmonica!)
Pinstripe Pete
Nicknamed 'Pinstripe' for his love of sharp suits, Pete Walker was once asked why his trumpet didn't sound more like a saxophone. He prefered it to sound like a trumpet(!) so bought himself a cheap sax and found he was hooked to that too!He now travels with his small music shop; trumpet, flugle horn, tenor & soprano sax, clarinet, and flute.
Jenna Ma Honey
The violin doesn’t fall into the typified mould of a background instrument and neither does its charmer. With a training ground in orchestral, vaudeville, punk, ska, pop and gypsy, Jenna is driven by a passion to mesmerise.Within the Henhouse, she's more than simply a musician, so watch this space to see what other performances Minnie concocts with her.
Emanuel 'Emi' Agbo
A powerhouse of the kit and the Henhouse's first drummer, he's currently now travelling and expanding his musical knowledge.There will always be a seat at the Henhouse table for 'The Bear' and he still joins us occassionally, providing additional percussion or guitar, or sound engineering for us.
Tom 'Icebreaker' Mansi
Tom studied jazz at Guildhall and moved to Cuba to study double bass with some of the musical greats and foster his love of swing, jazz, boogie, rockabilly and Latin playing.Charismatic and passionate, his voice and bass are in great demand and when Rooster's unavailable, he's one of very few other bass players that Minnie's happy to have on stage.
Paul 'Pablo Blanco' White
A great guitarist with a bursting kitbag including western, classical, resonator and pedal-steel guitars, as well as banjo.Paul's wielded an axe for more bands, on more stages and studios than we could possibly list here, and as a member of the Shock & Awe studio family it was natural that he'd become part of ours too.
Jamie Michael Harris
Another multi-instrumentalist member of the Henhouse Horns, Jamie studied at the world-famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.A popular live and studio session player, Jamie plays saxophones, flute and clarinet as well as the EWI (Akai's Electric Wind Instrument).
