(Ystrad Mynach, South Wales // Alive Natural Sound)
Henry’s Funeral Shoe was formed by two brothers in 2008 from South Wales, inspired and influenced by many of the albums that singer/guitarist Aled Clifford had looted from his father’s vinyl collection when he was growing up. The Who, CCR, Peter Green, Robert Johnson and the Beatles were favourites, and Aled quickly became a gifted guitar player, aided and taught by Ned Edwards, a long time collaborator of Van Morrison. Aled soon played with various bands, eventually doing some recording sessions for producer Ian Grimble, and even recording at the legendary Abbey Road studios. His younger brother Brennig started playing drums at nine. At fifteen he joined a local band, learning his trade by performing covers of The Clash and Thin Lizzy before moving on to writing original material. The dexterous brothers have finally joined forces to create some of the loudest soulful rock’n’roll to come out the UK in a long time. The release of their debut album Everything’s For Sale in 2009 was met with rave reviews from the press and public alike and the band toured extensively throughout The UK & Europe on the back of this through U-Turn touring (The Sonics, The White Strips, The Datsons). Single’s such as ‘Down the Line’ & ‘Don’t lose the rhythm’ have been used in a number of television programs in the UK, Europe and America most noticeable the 2011 American film ‘Puncture’ starring Chris Evans (Captain America, The Fantastic Four) the band started to build a loyal fan base throughout the UK and Europe and were even invited to play at Greenman Festival in 2010 alongside bands such as The Flaming lips, Billy Bragg & Doves. 2011 saw the release of the bands second album ‘Donkey Jacket’ which again was met by high prays from the press and media with MOJO & UNCUT magazine both giving the album *** CLASSIC ROCK giving it 8/10 calling it ‘Thumping good music with a timeless sound’ and BLUES MATTERS calling the band ‘One of the few authentic-sounding British blues-rock band touring the circuit today’. The band even had **** in ROCK AND FOLK the most prominent and popular music magazine in France. The albums got heavy rotation on all major UK, European and American radio including Radio 1, Radio 2 & BBC 6 music to name a few. The Single Dog Scratched Ear was used by Fiat in their advert to launch the 500 abarth series and featured none other than Charlie Sheen. The video went viral on you tube with over 1 million views in a week and over 7 million to date and was then picked up my Zodiak Media and used in the popular BBC THREE program Being Human. On the live circuit the band are known for their high energy and engaging performances, and in 2012 were sharing the stage with such bands as Feeder & Reef at The Steelhouse festival (Hands down find of the Festival 2012 were Henry’s Funeral Shoe) & Status Quo at The Bulldog Bash Festival 2012 – Most promising band I have seen in the last ten years – Big Chris, festival organiser and the band were even invited to fly out and headline Friday night of ‘The Deep blues festival 2012’ which was hold in Minnesota USA – What an amazing show, my crowed enjoyed every minute of these welsh wonders – Chris Johnson (festival organiser) Towards the latter part of 2012 into 2013 the profile of the band was beginning to raise more and more and it was at this point that the band received an e mail inviting them to fly out to Miami to play with none other than KISS & LYNYRD SKYNYRD on the legendary floating festivals ‘The Kiss Kruise & Lynyrd Skynyrds Simple man cruise. The band played two flawless performances on each cruise attracting attention from the CEO of the festival who was impressed enough with
the band to write them a written testimonial : “As the world’s leading headline music cruise festival promoter we get hundreds of quality bands applying to perform on our ships each year. This years surprise package was Henry’s Funeral Shoe. We plan on making them frequent performers on our music festivals at sea. They are something to be discovered for sure.” – Andy Levine (CEO of Sixthman) 2014 sees the release of the bands brand new E.P and then exstensive touring of UK, Europe and America Don’t lose the rhythm!!