THE HOT ONE TWO

Who are you?

We are The Hot One Two; a five-piece, hard rock band with an agenda to breathe new life and originality into the world of rock, whilst also paying homage and drawing inspiration from “the greats”. We’ll be tearing up a few stages with some frantic and raucous live shows along the way, with an energy that hopefully translates as well on record as it does on stage!

We’re proud to say we’ve already amassed a loyal and loving fanbase, and are passionate about adding to the group (the aptly named “Hot One Crew”). We want to introduce new members to build a real sense of community, spread the good word of the band, and our rocking overlords.

Roll Call

Simon West – Frontman / Vocals

“I have always enjoyed playing and listening to music from a very young age. My parents and sister were always a huge part of getting me into music, ultimately encouraging me to learn and pursue a career in music.

My influences range from Queen to Meat Loaf and everything in between. Watching frontmen like Freddie, not only singing well but performing to the crowd and understanding that it is all part of the show, has been huge in developing all the details that go into one of our shows.

Playing live music with your friends, to fans and random strangers all singing along will never get old and is honestly the greatest feeling.

I am tremendously proud of everything this band has achieved to date, especially our debut album, and I cannot wait to share it with the world.”

Nick Blackburn – Bass / Backing Vocals

“I love performing and always have, ever since playing my first gig at the tender age of 13 at my secondary school annual rock show! There’s nothing more exciting than driving around the country with your best mates, playing the music you love and having a few beers and a few laughs along the way! That being said, what really gets me going is creating, I love writing music and I love seeing a song evolve from an idea into a piece of art. I’ve never tried to write music to fill a brief and always written the music I want to write, and to take our music on the road, to see people digging it and singing along really is one of the best feelings anyone can have!”

Nick Manners – Lead Guitar / Backing Vocals

“Righto! Manners here, there’s two Nick’s in the band so I go by my surname. I was a bit of a bedroom guitarist growing up to be honest with you and didn’t really start thinking I wanted to be in a band until I graduated from The Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, alongside Nick & Joe. We started playing in a function band for a few years and then Nick turned around one evening and said, “I’ve written a few songs, ‘do ya wanna listen?”. We never really looked back after that.

I grew up with Rock n Roll on the radio. An annual trip to see the mighty Quo with my dad brings back fond memories. One of the first albums I bought was The Darkness’ ‘Permission to Land’. I also remember hearing the word slash attributed to someone. I must have been about 10, I remember thinking there’s no way that’s someone’s name, that’s ridiculous. A couple of years later it clicked…He’s a real guy, and he F***ING SHREDS! He’s been one of my guitar idols ever since really.

I’ve been on The Hot One Two train since it set off and we’ve come so far. We’ve built a great chemistry in the band and have an even better team supporting us. I can’t wait to chuck the kitchen sink at it and give it everything we’ve got.

Kev Baker – Rhythm Guitar / Backing Vocals

“I’m a bit of a loon to be honest and have been known to pull the odd face or two when we play live. Truth be told, I can’t help it, I see that people in the crowd enjoy what we do and completely lose myself in the moment. For me, playing live has never been about looking cool, because I don’t particularly think I am cool, its more about creating energy for the crowd to feed off and for them to leave feeling like they’ve had their money’s worth.”

Joe Chivers – Drums

Nick B and I grew up in the same little village in Cambridge and both started playing our respective instruments at the same time. We grew up learning our instruments together (which massively helps with our musical chemistry!) and I was on that very same stage at the age of 12 alongside him – the rest, as they say, is history!

I’ve been with the band from day one and to echo Simon’s point, couldn’t be prouder of where we’re currently at in our journey, particularly with the album release looming and all the effort that’s gone into it – the end product has been totally worth it and wish we could share it with you all sooner!

Hailing From?

As a collective we say we’re from Cambridge. Most of us do live in Cambridge but some of us live in small villages on the outskirts. It’s easier for us to just collectively say we’re from the Cambridgeshire area.

Journey So Far

Well, we go back nearly 10 years believe it or not! Grab a cuppa and sit down as we’re about to take you through the history of the band year on year.

2014 - Nick Blackburn (Bibble), Nick Manners (Manners) and Joe Chivers (Joe) were fresh faced & blurry eyed with music degrees in hand after 3 years of higher education studying at The Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM). The three started working in a function band playing weddings, parties & bar mitzvahs up and down the country.

2016 - The Hot One Two formed. The lineup was different to what you see now but Bibble, Manners and Joe were sick of playing ‘Valerie’ and ‘Superstition’ so started writing some rock music.

2017 - The band found some success in early 2017. Winning awards at a local Band Competition and playing at The

Cambridge Rock Festival. We also opened for local rock heroes Hollowstar, who have recently become a firm favorite on the scene.

2017 – We released our first EP ‘Come Whatever May’, in September of 2017, recorded at Crooks Hall Studio with producer John Metcalfe.

2018 - After a turbulent year of lineup changes, Bibble, Manners & Joe sought the vocal talents of Simon West. Having had a conversation way back in 2016 about joining the band, this time around Simon was able to take the reins as lead singer for The Hot One Two. With a background of function work, an education in sound and a love of Freddie Mercury it was clear he was the man for the job.

2019 - The band started pushing for more shows and a busier year. Being able to perform further afield saw support slots for SKAM, Dead Mans Whisky, and Scarlet Rebels to name a few. We re-released ‘Come Whatever May’ with Simon’s new vocals, meanwhile we saw a growing home fanbase and the release of our Christmas single ‘Pints of Cheer’ - Yes, we have a Christmas song!

2020 – What a year for the world! Before the pandemic hit, we played our first show outside of the UK! 24 hours in Copenhagen at Vesterbro Rock Festival supplied us with enough stories for the rest of the year! 2020 also saw the band sign our first contract with Iron Road Talent Management joining Wolf Jaw amongst others on the roster.

During the pandemic we saw a lot of bands fall off the radar as they felt that they couldn’t do anything if they were unable to perform live. We took this opportunity and grabbed it with both hands, to write our debut album over Zoom calls with each other. Granted, this isn’t the usual way we like to do things, but writing during lockdown brought us time, which we used to seriously think about the songs we were writing. We like to think the tracks are well thought out in terms of their structure and are not just your standard ‘Verse, Bridge, Chorus’ type arrangements which can come across as being quite ‘samey’. After taking some advice from our management, the decision was made to delay the release of our album to grow our fan base nationally on the live circuit.

2021 - We have always been a five-piece band however the second guitar had been somewhat of a revolving door for us, that is until a Kev Baker sized door wedge came along and slotted in as the last piece of the puzzle. Bringing a wealth of experience from playing in numerous bands, a passion for live shows and a steady, business minded head, Kev lit a fire under The

Hot One Two that’s still burning pretty f***** hot!

2022 - Saw us release our second EP -’Unrestrained’ coupled with the single ‘Bleed On Me’, which was well received. We had parted ways with our manager, but it didn’t take us long to find a new guiding hand whose vision aligned with our own. Following a gig at Sharkfest in Cannock we signed to Tower Rok Band Management, and we are really delighted with how the first year has gone. Greg Dean has many years’ experience in the music industry and has provided sound advice and a clear strategy for the band that we are all pleased with. He also digs the music – which helps! With our album now mixed and mastered, we got filming our music videos and were privileged to work with the fantastic Kris Barras in a director capacity. We have shot two music videos which Kris directed and are excited to release the accompanying singles. 2023 – Although we’re only into the first quarter of the year, we have had an amazing start to our album release campaign. Our first single ‘The Fray’ was picked up by Planet Rock Radio as their single of the week which blew our minds! With so many releases planned, and extensive touring secured across the UK, including some fantastic festivals, we’re super excited for what the year ahead will bring for us.

Influences / Sound

Now there’s a question! We all have similar influences, the mix across the band are Queen, The Darkness, Alter Bridge, Guns n Roses, AC/DC, Pantera, The Wildhearts. anything guitar and harmony driven really! In terms of our sound, we’re a solid hard rock band with a classic rock edge.

Biggest Gig / Proudest Moment to date

We’ve had a few to be honest! Sharing stages with bands like Those Damn Crows and Florence Black, working closely with Kris Barras on our videos, being playlisted on Planet Rock and of course we’re pumped to be playing Hard Rock Hell Sleaze and Hard Rock Hell 16 later this year!

What does the future hold?

A lot of hard work and grafting to keep up the momentum we have currently. We’re excited that our debut album is being released in November and are hopeful that the number of live shows we have booked in for this year will help to raise our profile in preparation for the launch. We’re already booking live shows well into 2024 so things at this stage are looking very positive. We’re all committed to pushing the band as far as we can take it and hope that we can continue to build our fanbase so that we can go on this journey together.