Born from a love of The Kinks, the Stones, The Who and The Jam, this British 4-piece wear their influences on their sleeves; Mod, Motown, Northern Soul, Rhythm & Blues, Punk attitude. The Heys have everything that a great guitar-pop band should have, three minutes of fuzzy major chords, full, rich bass, shouty, ominpresent backing vocals and an impossibly addictive chorus.
Tom, the singer songwriter in The Heys feeds off the tradition and passion of British 60âs beat music and combines it with incisive comment on modern life. Their debut album Young, Bored & Broke screams the frustrations and the simple joys of living day-to-day, hand to mouth. Bad jobs-good friends. A working-class band through and through.
The self-produced album was recorded underground in their basement studio in the UK. âThis way itâs all about the musicâ says Tom. âWe wanted an honest direct sound and we wanted to be in control so we did it ourselvesâ.
The first Radio 1 play by Alan McGee came after he received the demo from a guy in Reading. Winning XFM unsigned led to a headline appearance at the Budrising festival at The Waterats in London. June 07 saw the white label promo release of Pressure, through promotions company Upshot on 7" green vinyl to massive DJ acclaim. Comparisons have been made with Elvis Costello, Ray Davis, The Who and The Enemy.
Following the myspace explosion, The Heys have had over 132,000 hits and have a dedicated fanbase. This has led to contact from Vinyl Junkie in Tokyo and the first vinyl limited edition singles sold in Japan. Numberonemusic.com/theheys was launched in March 06 and since then has received over 249,000 plays.
Whilst creating a buzz on independent North American radio shows such as KEXP 90.3fm in Seattle and X-103.3fm in Indianapolis, their killer tune âPressureâ has also featured on Record of the Day in the UK and the soundtrack for the Gumball Rally 3000.
Meanwhile in the UK pulserated.com (Sky) has picked up on Pressure and Friday Night with plays on The Session, The Mix and Hottrax. The Heys also received a feature On Steve Lamacq's BBC6 Music radio show.
âI know absolutely nothing about this band, other than the fact they are very, very good.â Creation Records Guru Alan McGee on BBC Radio 1.
...to write and produce as good as Scene or the swaggering Don't and take on the labels on national radio is achievement indeed.- Tom Sales, Leamington Courier
The most original band I have seen in this area, ever. Phil Cooper
Cheeky, sexy, catchy, tight, and just very, very damn good - The Wunderbar
"Pressure" is everything that a great guitar-pop single should be, three minutes of fuzzy major chords, full, rich bass, shouty, ominpresent backing vocals and an impossibly addictive chorus...Essentially, The Heys are still a struggling unsigned band. There's no scheduled date for even a hugely limited commercial release of this utterly brilliant piece of pop music...Maybe there's hope though, recently Hard-Fi have broken through in a major way, with big tunes and a sound at odds with most current British guitar-based music. And they've done it with none of the wit, talent and flair that The Heys possess...So go to the website, an endearingly perfunctory MySpace affair, of this little-known band, and listen to "Pressure", because it's the only place you're likely to hear it for the time being, but if there's any justice in the record industry you won't be able to hear it for free forever. - Michael Docherty, CDTimes.co.uk
New EP just oozes current cool and thumping rock and roll- Leamington Courier
...a perfectly blended cocktail of groove, swagger and old school rock n roll. Theyre a joy to watch... this is a band you really want to be getting down to on that dance floor. - Stew Kingscott, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire
This band really caught our ears for the usual reason (or not that usual sadly) - they've got at least one really good song. Pressure is it. Great verse, great energy, great delivery. - Record Of The Day
The Heys are quite simply shit hot. If you've got the chance I encourage anyone and everyone to check them out asap.... - Tom, Hunt For Decent Music
visit www.myspace.com/theheys
kidintheriot
said:
I love \'Under Pressure\' but it gets stuck in my head for days! Mar 23
MEGAdoug69
said:
great. you even look like that guy out of hard fi. dont you just love bass guitar and drums in verses. Mar 18
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