British Band - The Leisure Society
Nick Hemming Surprise Nomination for Prestigious Ivor Novello Award
Apr 22, 2009 Michelle Strozykowski
A certain degree of surprise has been expressed by the mainstream media over the latest Ivor Novello nominations (announced 21/04/09). The prestigious music awards, presented annually to honour British song and music writers, have chosen to nominate a relatively unknown singer songwriter, Nick Hemming.
The Leisure Society
Hemming, who hails from the small midlands brewing town of Burton-on-Trent, is the lead singer and songwriter of Brighton based band The Leisure Society. Their beautifully crafted, modern folk songs have been compared to Fleet Foxes, and have garnered them several celebrity fans such as DJ Zane Lowe and Guy Garvey from Elbow.
Garvey has long championed the band on his BBC 6 Music radio show, and, one would imagine, is only too pleased to see that Nick is nominated alongside him in the most coveted of all Ivor Novello categories, the Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
The Leisure Society also features Hemming's friend, flatmate and musical collaborator Christian Hardy (also from Burton), along with assorted members of the Brighton Willkommen collective; Helen Whitaker, William Calderbank, Michael Siddell, Sebastian Hankins, Darren Bonehill and Beatrice Sanjust di Teulada.
Ivor Novello Awards 2009 – Nominations
The nominations for Best Song Musically and Lyrically at the 2009 Ivors are:
- “My Mistakes Were Made For You”, The Last Shadow Puppets. Written by Miles Kane and Alex Turner.
- “One Day Like This”, Elbow. Written by Guy Garvey, Richard Jupp, Craig Potter, Mark Potter and Peter Turner.
- “The Last of the Melting Snow”, The Leisure Society. Written by Nicholas Hemming
Last year's winner in the same category was the Amy Winehouse song “Love is a Losing Game”.
The Last of the Melting Snow
“The Last of the Melting Snow” is a haunting song, quite captivating in its simple, elegiac beauty. It's a sure thing that none of The Leisure Society's steadily growing base of fans will be the slightest bit surprised it's been nominated for a Novello, but it is quite a coup to be the first ever unsigned band to be recognised for the award.
A coup and an absolute crime, although undoubtedly The Leisure Society are doing alright by themselves. Hear the song here, along with the gorgeous current single “A Matter of Time”, on The Leisure Society myspace page.
Nick Hemming was inspired to write the song after a difficult break up with an ex-girlfriend. One that, in fact, pushed him to leave his home town and move to London. Now living and working at a textiles factory in Brighton, Nick was picked up by taxi and delivered to the nominations ceremony yesterday before being ferried back to work.
Yes, Hemming needs a day job to make ends meet, just like the rest of today's busy society. All the more reason to champion this underdog all the way to the top!
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