It's been an epic weekend!  Lodestar and Stroud Fringe Festival were fantastic and I met loads of lovely people! Thank you so much for your support - it makes me really happy to know that you enjoy and connect with my music :-)

I can't believe that "Old Eyes" music video has passed 1000 views in 2 days!  Thanks so much for all of your sharing with friends, family and on social media - every single retweet makes a difference so I'm extremely grateful.  In case you haven't seen it yet, or if you'd like to watch it again, here it is:

This week I'll be heading down to Sussex!  Catch me on BBC Radio Solent on Wednesday afternoon from around 3:30ish, where I'll be doing an interview and playing a song or 2 live in the studio.  Then on Friday night I'll be in Shoreham for a gig at The West Street Loft.  Doors open at 7:30 and I'll have support from the wonderful Hickory Signals :-)  Tickets cost £5 on the door.  Hope to see you there!

Laterz xx

What a fantastic night we had at Painswick on Monday!  Thanks so much to everyone who came along and supported - what a buzz to play a headline show to a packed room :-)

This week I busked in Stratford upon Avon for the first time.  I'll definitely be going back soon as it's a wonderful place in more ways than one.  Hopefully I'll be playing a gig there at some point soon as well!

"Old Eyes" has had loads of radio coverage this week on BBC Glos, BBC introducing, Radio Croydon, Radio Winchcombe etc so I hope you've managed to catch it at some point whether on purpose or by accident.  I did a session with Worcester Hospital radio and have more booked in with Bus Stop Radio and Radio Winchcombe to look forward to.

I hope you're around next weekend to catch me at either Lodestar Festival or the Stroud Fringe - can't wait for both of those.  Then on the 5th of September I'm down in Shoreham for an evening at The West Street Loft, supported by the wonderful Hickory Signals.

The video for "Old Eyes" will be out in the next few days, but until then here is a blast from the not too distant past to amuse you on a Sunday evening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeAzY58ARmM

'Old Eyes' music video is now finished!  It'll be up very soon, so get excited - I am!

Tomorrow evening at the Painswick Centre, Painswick I'll be performing as a three piece as part of the Painswick Arts Festival.  Doors open at 7:30 and tickets are £8 in advance (see my events page) or £10 on the door.  Also performing is Philip Douch, who will be reading some very amusing stories of his own creation.  Not one to miss!

I had a fantastic time with Henry on Friday performing at Yoxford Arts festival in Suffolk.  The venue was a lovely church and the acoustics in there were amazing, such a treat!  Thanks to everyone who came and supported and said 'hi', was lovely to chat to you.

Very excited to announce an awesome new gig in Bath :-)  It's at the Chapel Arts Centre on September 26th and I'll be performing as a three piece with Henry and Asha.  I'll have support as well from a fabulous guest, who for now remains a secret...

Don't forget I'll be at Lodestar Festival in Cambridge on August 30th, on the Laura Jane Stage at 4:30pm - make sure you use the code hb14 when booking you tickets as you'll get 10% off!  Then on the 31st I'm on the main stage of the Stroud Fringe Festival in the Bank Gardens at 5:10pm, which I'm really excited about as last year I performed on the Subrooms café stage - amazing what can happen in a year!  If you're in London, fear not, I have a gig on September 13th at Proud Camden - more details to follow.

Keep an eye out for the music video!

Hat Bat x

New Single - It's not too long before my new single 'Old Eyes' will be released - 22nd September!  Put it in the diary and let's get excited :-)  Before the track appears on iTunes you can hear it on the radio - it's been playlisted on Radio Croydon, had airplay on SevernFM and various other local radio stations and (I just heard today) is soon to be playlisted on BBC Radio Glos!!  I also learned yesterday that I'm being aired in Australia on FBI Radio in Sydney - so cool to know that people are listening to my music on the other side of the world!

Music Video -  I'm in the process of making my first ever music video at the moment!  It's for 'Old Eyes' and will be appearing on YouTube and all my other social media channels at the beginning of September (at the latest), so keep a look out!  The star of the film is Panda, half bear half dog, and I have never met a more photogenic animal.  When this comes out, I need the help of all of you to spread it like crazy so hopefully I can beat February's record of number 19 in the iTunes singer songwriter chart!

This past weekend I was at Halsway Manor, the national centre for folk near Taunton, for a collaboration and songwriting event put on by BBC Introducing in the west.  The six of us, Ange Hardy, Natalie Holmes, George Wilding, Archie Churchill-Moss, Sharon Lazibyrd and I, wrote new stuff, arranged old songs to make contemporary songs, played two concerts and were filmed for a BBC documentary that comes out in the next few weeks (I'll let you know the exact details when I know, and of course I'll post the links).  I met some really lovely people, learned lots and I really hope we get to do it again sometime!

In other news, I am extremely proud to say that both 'Old Eyes' and 'All About Love' have made it through to the semi final stage of the UK songwriting contest!  I'm not sure when the finalists are announced but hopefully it's not too long!  The judges include some pretty big industry names :-)  Here's the website if you'd like to find out more http://www.songwritingcontest.co.uk.

Gigs - on the 15th I'll be performing with Henry at Yoxford Festival in Suffolk, then on the 18th at the Painswick Centre as part of the Painswick Arts Festival.  That night Philip Douch, original story-teller will also be performing (see my events page for more details).  August finishes with a bang as I then have two festivals back to back over the last weekend.  Lodestar on the Saturday and the main stage at the Stroud Fringe Festival on the Sunday.  If you're coming along to any of those make sure you come and say hi afterwards!

Until next time x

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped me to reach 1000 Facebook likes!  The lucky competition prize winners are as follows:-
1st Joseph Morel - 2 free tickets to a gig of mine of your choice, 2 x signed copies of all current releases up to and including the album when it is released, the opportunity (if you're up for it) for you/the two of you to be extras in Hattie's Christmas Video.
2nd Beverley Coghlan - all of the above minus video stardom.
3rd Suzanne I'ons - 2 x signed copies of all current releases up to and including the album when it is released.

I've had some fantastic gigs in the last couple of weeks.  Supporting Seth Lakeman at Monmouth Festival was such a great experience and easily the biggest crowd I've played to - thanks to those of you who came and said hi afterwards :-)  Then I was off to London for a couple of days for a folkalicious gig at The Lexington in Islington supporting incredible guitarist and singer songwriter Fabian Holland and brilliant showman Luke Concannon (half of Nizlopi).  A packed venue and such an appreciative audience - definitely the best London gig I've done thus far!  Finally Cambridge Folk Festival this Thursday - Friday.  I managed to grab 2 unofficial slots for myself in the end on Friday - one in The Den for 15 mins and one in The Club Tent for 20 mins so pretty much a full set overall and audiences of between 100-250ish people for both - what an experience!  Hopefully I'll be back next year with a programmed slot!

Some great gigs coming up for the rest of August, all on my events page but here you go - on the 15th I'm playing at Yoxford Festival in Suffolk, then on the 18th I'll be doing an evening gig as part of The Painswick Arts Festival, for tickets http://www.painswickartsfestival.com/buy-tickets.html, and a big last weekend with Lodestar Festival, followed by the main stage at the Stroud Fringe Festival on the Sunday afternoon.  For 10% off your Lodestar tickets please quote this code hb14.  See you along the road!

Also, keep an ear and an eye out for my new single 'Old Eyes', which will be released at the end of September.  We're shooting a video for it next week which will be up on Youtube at the beginning of September :-)  I'll let you know about Radio airplay as soon as I know so you can have a listen in.

Hope there's sun where you are and here's to the next 1000 likes! xx