A potted history...
Back in 1999 I took the leap of giving up the day job to play guitar for a Bill Kenwright Theatre tour called "Thank You For The Music". It was a 70's based tribute- style show. On drums was Paul Murphy an old friend from my days as a student in Leeds who also played in the Elio Pace band. On bass and keys was Andy Nichol. A singer called Helen York was 'Debbie Harry' for a couple of songs. It was being 'Blondie' for a 10 mins, 8 shows a week for 12 weeks that made us decide to form BLEACH, (and later So Blondie...dull story!) after the tour had finished.
From playing a few corporate events we realised there was a gap in the market for a good 80's cover band. We recruited Matthew Pateman (ex Bad Boys Inc frontman/boy) and SO80's was born! This lead to much greater demand within the corporate market and helped formulate some great relationships with Events companies, party planners and a few key agencies. Around 2004 The Scissor Sisters hit the UK. Several people noted how much Matthew and Helen's performance reminded them of Jake Shears and Anna Matronic. In 2005 we launched our tribute to the band which opened up the so far untapped University market for us.
From playing a few corporate events we realised there was a gap in the market for a good 80's cover band. We recruited Matthew Pateman (ex Bad Boys Inc frontman/boy) and SO80's was born! This lead to much greater demand within the corporate market and helped formulate some great relationships with Events companies, party planners and a few key agencies. Around 2004 The Scissor Sisters hit the UK. Several people noted how much Matthew and Helen's performance reminded them of Jake Shears and Anna Matronic. In 2005 we launched our tribute to the band which opened up the so far untapped University market for us.
So it was only a matter of time before we took all these options and started offering our clients multiple choices of 'bands' at their events - same 5 guys, great value for money etc... It was a no brainer to diversify into becoming a Party band/ Covers Band / Function band (we hate that label, but like the cheques!). Struggling to find a name we settled on MADHEN. At the time I hated it - thank god I lost that battle! Without knowing in 2000 the importance of Google and how marketing bands would change having a name that didn't mean anything (yet was somehow memorable) made us easier to find than most on the world wide web. The rest is history...
2013 was our busiest year to date with in excess of 120 events worldwide. Same five guys. 14 years, not out!
Rather than write copious prose about how amazing we are if you're interested in how we sound / perform have a look at our website: www.madhen.net. Better still, book us!
2013 was our busiest year to date with in excess of 120 events worldwide. Same five guys. 14 years, not out!
Rather than write copious prose about how amazing we are if you're interested in how we sound / perform have a look at our website: www.madhen.net. Better still, book us!