Mitch's biog
Mitch's website
The Distractions - are Kirsty Newton on bass and keyboards and Tash Baylis on drums and percussion. As Mitch wryly commented when they tried things out for the first time at Tony Moore's Kashmir Klub, he'd spent years getting a hard time on the comedy circuit for playing music... now he was playing a music club and was about to get a hard time from musicians because his songs were funny. F**k it - why can't you do both? The truth is this is music AND comedy at it's best. You'll have to go a long way to find three better musicians and you'll have to go a long way to find funnier songs. Mitch solo can only play a small proportion of the songs he has recorded on his album radio face and on BBC Radio's "Now Show" and "It's Been A Bad Week". With The Distractions, no such limits apply.... "smell the glove"
Kirsty Newton Tash Baylis
After a short
season at Sound in Leicester Square, the band played the 2003 Glastonbury
Festival before embarking on a much acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival.
In the Autumn of 2003, they recorded Mitch's very own radio series for Radio
4 - "Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music". The four part series aired in
Feb/Mar 04 at 11.00pm and was then repeated in the prestigious 6.30pm slot
in Apr/May. A six part second series has recently been commissioned by
Radio 4, the first episode of which was recorded in August at The
Edinburgh Festival. The remainder of the series will be recorded early next
year for transmission in Feb/Mar 2005.
REVIEWS
"Comical musical genius" THE DAILY MAIL
"Major fame is only a few bars away" Bruce Dessau, THE EVENING STANDARD
"Razor sharp observation slickly packaged in truly funny songs. Very funny, very clever lyrics" SCOTSMAN.COM *****
"Mighty powerful comedy songs... Benn's lyrics are crammed with enough jokes to keep most comedians ticking over for life" THE LIST ****
"Has the audience mesmerised. Song after song of ingenious satire hits the spot with pinpoint accuracy." THREE WEEKS ****
"Nowhere has music and comedy been blended together to such effect. Brilliant." SCOTSGAY *****