Music: Hockley Hustle Presents An Album of Collaborations To Raise Funds For Homeless Support Charity Emmanuel House

An album of collaborations featuring an intriguing line up of established and emerging artists from Nottingham has been put together by Hockley Hustle after a successful bid to secure Arts Council funding.

Launching this month with a first release from the rapper and poet Ty Healy featuring Harleighblu’s distinctive soul vocals, the mouthwatering curation of artists looks set to deliver some surprises with never heard before music mashups.

Harleighblu. Photo credit Svenja Trierscheid

Ty Healy

Some of the exciting upcoming releases by artists creating completely new material together for the album include BBC 6 Music faves and Nottingham punks Do Nothing who ‘channel LCD Soundsystem, stand up comedy and The Simpsons’ – NME working with songwriting duo Megatrain and their offbeat view of the world.

The album is a must-have for all fans of Nottingham’s vibrant live music scene bringing together the established singer-songwriters Rob Green, Natalie Duncan and Georgie along with spoken word artist Bridie Squires, the underground dance MC Bru-C and the real life rap of Jah Digga to name just a few.

Cover artwork for the album has been commisioned from four artists: Honey Williams, Emily Catherine, Soz Mate and Jasmin Issaka

The 10 track album will raise money for Emmanuel House, the charity that works across the city to support the homeless community, and aims to plug the gap in donations after the annual festival was not able to go ahead last October.

Denis Tully, CEO at Emmanuel House, said: “We are thrilled to be involved in such an exciting project and would like to thank Hockley Hustle for choosing Emmanuel House again. We are so lucky to be connected with Nottingham’s creative community.

“Our main aim is to prevent people becoming homeless and to support those who are homeless into accommodation, but homelessness will not be defeated unless initiatives like Emmanuel House have the support of the community. Emmanuel House just would not be able to do what it does without the support of projects like Hockley Hustle. You literally do make the difference.”

The Hockley Hustle Album of Collaborations will feature 20 of Nottingham’s most established artists as well as the new crop of emerging artists. The tracks will be released on a monthly basis via digital download with 100 percent of money raised going directly to the charity.

BBC Introducing in the East Midlands will have the first exclusive airplay of Ty Healy ft Harleighblu track ‘Not Enuff’ by BBC’s new music champion Dean Jackson, who will be playing a new track from the album each month on his Saturday evening show.

Harleighblu said: “Hockley Hustle has and always will be an important event in the Nottingham music scene. It’s where most of us had our first gigs… now we may tour the world but we annually get invited back to play HH. And I look forward to it every year. Myself and Ty Healy created this very honest song after a tough year of not being able to perform our music capturing our thoughts on the financial and mental impact on artists and musicians during this time. A collaboration long overdue!”

Ty Healy added: “Hockey Hustle is the heartbeat of the live music scene in the city. Whether performing or just going to watch artists, it always inspired us to get creative. With this collab track between me and Harleighblu, we wanted to make it clear that performing our music is a vital source both financially and spiritually. The hustle needs to come back with a bang ASAP so we can do what we do best.”

The full roster of artists taking part reads like a who’s who of Nottingham’s music scene with the majority of the acts having played the multi-venue Hockley Hustle festival over the years.

Ty Healy / Harleighblu
Georgie / Huw Costin
Bru-c / Origin One / Emily Makis
Megatrain / Do Nothing
Rob Green / Natalie Duncan
Franky Bones / Saffron
Ling Peng /
Congi / Jah Digga
Keto / Nick Jonah Davis
Bridie Squires / Claude Money

Festival director Ben Welch explains: “We raised £12,500 for local charities in 2019, so we were very keen to find a way to continue to fundraise and support Emmanuel House after the 2020 festival couldn’t go ahead.”

Tommy Farmyard, festival director, added: “Not only will this Album of Collaborations help a charity that works tirelessly across the city to support the homeless community, it also funnels money to artists right now and gives them an opportunity to connect and work together. We’re excited to see what they create!”

Four local artists have also been commissioned to design different parts of a map of Nottinghamshire that will be combined to create the album cover. They are Honey Williams, Emily Catherine, Soz Mate and Jasmin Issaka.

Each track will be available to purchase exclusively from Bandcamp with an option to make additional donations to the Emmanuel House charity. The full digital album will be available towards the end of the year after all the tracks are released.

www.hockleyhustle.bandcamp.com

Hockley Hustle has also announced that the festival will be back this year on Sunday 24th October. Announcements coming soon on the line up as well as a number of other live events throughout the year to look out for. To keep up to date, follow Hockley Hustle socials