I moved to Colne with my family the day we found out my Dad had terminal cancer. It wasn't the brightest of moments, I'll be honest. It came at a time though, when we'd finally sold our house in Nelson and it meant I was debt-free after a long period of financial struggle. A bittersweet moment.
We'd always liked the idea of living in Colne because it's a vibrant, community-driven place with a strong creative scene and growing up playing in bands over the years, means I've had my fair share of experience there. My wife and I counted the shops up the main street and we were blown away by how many there are. The pubs in Colne are also varied and many, which is worlds-apart from Nelson.
The biggest thing for me though, is being in my band ALL HAIL HYENA and just how welcomed we've felt since becoming part of the local community. It's not easy being in an original band that doesn't play any covers. In fact, it's one of the biggest challenges I've faced over the many years of performing music.
Mojos Of Colne was one of the first venues to really welcome us into the fold and look after us. We've felt absolutely loved there and they've helped us grow a lovely local fan base, something we weren't really able to do in Nelson or Burnley.
Fast forward to a few months ago and we were contacted by The Muni in Colne, asking if we'd like to headline the main auditorium and put on a big ALL HAIL HYENA show - of course we said yes. This is huge for us and we see it as a big step towards giving Colne something strong to hold on to. We hit a million streams on Spotify recently, thanks to a viral video of us surprising our no.1 fan in his garden a couple of years ago. A million. It's almost unfathomable to us, an unsigned local band from Burnley and Pendle, achieving this level of success. We're buzzing about it all. I deeply wish my Dad was still around to see all this happening but I'm sure he's watching from somewhere beyond the veil.
Our hope, is people see the value in what we're creating and come and share the joy and excitement and wonkiness of our music, performance and the effort we put into our live shows. We want to be talked about. We want to bring people an experience to remember and bring people together who love music, progression and just being good people.
Not only that, we want to use our position to lift others up wherever we can and so we're being supported by the divine Rebecca Spooner. She's a wonderful songwriter and we see big things for her on the horizon, so don't miss her!
We're playing The Muni on 5th June. It would be amazing to see as many people there from Colne as possible.
Tickets can be purchased here: https://themunitheatre-tickets.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173660758/events/428687172