Hello.

Its been 7 months since I last posted on here, it’s time we started again. Here goes.

Hi, I’m Henny, short for Henrietta, full name Henrietta Gail Fox. I was born on 5th May 1993, which makes me 19 years 11 months 25 days young. I was born and grew up in Eccles, Salford, which makes me Northern through and through. My not-so-northern accent however comes from my grandparents who were from Cambridge - although catch me when I’m saying ‘both’ or after a couple of cheeky tipples, you soon hear the Manc side. I have 6 tattoos and 11 piercings. 

I went to a private primary school, knew my 9 times table by the time I was  9 then later went on to a state high school. Managed to get myself booted out of sixth form, so decided to put life into my own hands and start living. I worked in Romania at 16, travelled to Africa at 17, then moved to London at 18. Since being 14 I have had 6 jobs. I can make great froth for your favourite cappuccino, I know how to mock an Italian, I can sell you a Miss Selfridge account card (10% off your first shop and free vouchers? Maybe a side of debt with it too?) open your eyes to world poverty, knock up a mind blowing gin martini and tell you that Ryan Reynolds is just as good looking in the flesh eating a prawn cocktail. He also likes sparkling water, not still. 

I have three best friends, Emily Constantine, Richard Foster and Macy my dog. Richard is also my boyfriend (known as Mr Sous Chef in past blogs!) I have bad habits like picking my feet and scratching my nose and I hate mustard, horse radish and aniside. I also hate liars, false promises, cheats and people that disrespect others. I wouldn’t call myself a Christian, but I know the bible back to front. I also know that “faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen”. 

Last but not least, I am a musician. I’ve been playing instruments since I was 4 and writing songs since I was 16. Music is my life, it’s what I have that is mine. Music to me is saying what I could never say in words. Sometimes it can break, but other times it can rebuild. In my case it eases and restores, It brings back what was lost. I now have a new set of people backing me - we’re creating some new material and exploring new horizons. You can find us here - 

www. hennyfox.co.uk

and on twitter and facebook and on soundcloud. 

It’s good to be back.

Hen. 

ps. we need a bass player!! hint hint cough cough…

Happy 1 Year!!

So, it’s officially 1 year since my life in London began. To celebrate I’m doing a 17 hour shift at The Big K and listening to Sam Tames epic playlist. It’s been an emotional, challenging but amazing year so far and hopefully there will be many more to come!

In a year I’ve managed to:
1. Move house 3 times
2. Find an amazing job
3. Find an amazing man
4. Take my music to a whole new level
5. Meet some awesome friends for life
6. Close doors
7. Open new ones

And much much more.

Short but sweet, I must get back to work.

:o)

Piano Day.

It certainly is! Pianos are being recorded today along with maybe a couple new songs too. I’m really excited, everything is finally coming together. 

I’m just sat in Pret waiting for Keiran the piano man to show his lovely face, discovering that Nell Brydn, a singer songwriter I supported last year is playing on their sound system. Funny, it doesn’t seem long ago when me and the band supported her. She’s an incredible artist with a fantastic story. And here’s a link for you. No worries. http://nellbryden.com/

I don’t know if any of you were/are aware of my other band Felix and Fox. We were an acoustic duo that started nearly three years ago, gigging here and there, writing and recording away… Anyway, I came to the decision that I need to focus on my own music, my own inspirations and dreams. Therefore basically saying that there will be no ‘Fox’ in Felix & Fox. The music we made and the time we had as a band was wonderful, but it’s time for me to say goodbye. A massive thanks to all who supported us, you are all incredible people. It’s pretty hard for me to write that, but you have to close doors to open new ones and some doors just need to be closed. 

Anyway, Sheep has arrived so it’s time for me to go. Talk to you soon!

Hen x

Thunder only happens when it’s raining.

Apologies for the two week break. Things have been busy busy with work, TEFL, plans for the future, moving house, recording, visiting parents and getting better which thanks God I now am finally! 

Not much to say today - It’s my birthday in 2 weeks and no I won’t stop reminding people. :) I am excited to say the least. 

I went back to Manchester last week. Macy the dog is also finally better and now has two perfectly healthy, beautiful eyes. 

I know, boring today. Apologies again - I’m going to be quiet and laying low for a while until all this work is over. Then Henny will be and can be a happy Hen again. 

I’ll leave you with a little picture of how I spent my Thursday last week. Wine, cocktails and lots of laughs. Perfect. 

“Keep your head up, keep your heart strong…

…Keep your mind set in your ways and keep your heart strong.”

Just listening to Ben Howard while giving my money away to gas men and O2. He always seems to keep me cheery with his beautiful lyrics and eclectic melodies. Those of you who haven’t heard of him should check him out. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADP65wbBUpc&ob=av2e

So, I’m still coughing and spluttering, moaning about how I’m about to die and telling people to hurry up and get my funeral arranged. I’m not actually that bad, I’m just a girl and girls like to make massive dramas out of everything. Standard really. Without him really knowing, Mr Sous Chef has become my walking-talking tissue. Thats what boy friends are for right? 

Talking about the man, we went to see ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ last night. Probably one of the best plays I’ve seen by far. Everyone including ourselves was laughing literally throughout the whole show and the atmosphere it brought with it was amazing. It was just lovely being surrounded by over 800 happy people. 

Now, for his sake and just because I know he’s reading this thinking “tell them what you did next!!”, I will share my humiliation with the rest of you. What happened later on wasn’t actually that bad compared to, you know, world wars, tsunamis, nuclear bombs, third world poverty etc etc. Maybe if we were sitting in Pizza Hut or the like, we would have blended in quite nicely, my face white as a sheet and Rich’s white t-shirt covered in red wine…. It was admittedly all my fault. Slip of the hand some may say, but sat in an incredibly fancy restaurant and everyone looking at me like I was 1. bladdered or 2. throwing the wine at his face in a fit of fury did make me want to just jump into the nearest hole. Thankfully, I have an extremely patient man who after winding me up and making me feel extremely bad, continued to act like nothing of the sort had ever happened. The whole sequence of my hand slipping, the wine glass bouncing off the table and straight onto his chest just seemed to add to the evening and really ended up making the night just that little bit more special. Certainly one we’ll never forget in a hurry :)

Photos from the EP are being edited then will be on here for you all to see. Piano’s are about to be recorded - fingers crossed things should be finished for August time. 

In the mean time, I’m planning on making myself better and doing some TEFL work. Oh, the two of us are visiting Manc land next weekend! More updates on the doggy for you :)

Love,

Hen. 

One of the shots from the photo shoot.

Start of Summer

So everyone is out in shorts and dresses, reading books in the park, having bbqs and picnics even though it’s not even April yet! Hopefully the weather will stay lovely, it’s ones birthday soon 😉
So, the shoot went amazingly. Pete Gowdy my photo man took some beautiful shots despite being poorly sick. Also massive thanks to Georgia for putting up with my inability and lack of knowledge towards styling. She really is a wonder and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her.
I’m moving house at the moment. It’s so funny, I really never knew I had so much stuff. I managed to fill two bin bags of rubbish and clothes that I was forced to go through and sort but even so, I realised that I seem to be a natural hoarder. I blame my mum entirely!
That’s really all that’s been going on recently. Oh, my poorly doggy gets her collar off this week. More updates on her soon!
Hopefully my man will be here soon. I seem to have developed some kind of chest infection so I’m currently feeling extremely sorry for myself. Fingers crossed he brings steak 😝

Wednesday?!

I cannot believe it’s Wednesday already. I arrived in Manchester on Saturday and already I’m going back to busy, stressful London tomorrow morning. Time just flies by way too fast. I’ve had some lovely days here, just enough time to really wind down and get all revitalised again. I’ve seen all my nearest and dearest, wrote and recorded a new song, helped a friend out with some of his songs, slept more in 4 nights than I think I have in 4 weeks, eaten my body weight in tasty treats and prepared myself for the month to come. I saw my lovely might-as-well-be-my-sister Emily yesterday for some tea. We had a little dinner party with some friends then discussed the many predicaments of the world. All in all, a lovely evening. 

You should all check this guy out:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scales/314972581898241

He happens to be one of my closest friends back in Manchester and heads up his band ‘Scales’. He really is one of the most talented musicians I know and it’s always a pleasure to be asked to sing or record with him. He also happens to know better than I think I know myself, which is always fun when I go round for a brew and some sort of chill day and have my life story re-told to me. But yeah, he’s a good, good guy and deserves all the credit he can get for his music and song writing.

Talking of song writing, myself and Sonny put together a new song yesterday called ‘Twice’. It’s heavily jazz/soul influenced and was pretty much created and recorded in just over half an hour. As soon as I get the finishing product it will be up here and ready to go.

Anyway, back to TEFL work.

Love.

While I’m Waiting….

…for my tutor to get back to me on my assignment, I thought I’d do a little bit of blogging. 

So, I’m back in Manchester for a little while, giving myself some time to wind down, eat good food, sleep a little and spend some time with my poorly doggy. Macy, as you all well know, is my lovely little Westie. She’s my world, the light of my life, and the only little thing I will ever trust with my life. It’s hard being away from her when I’m in London, especially when I know she’s not very well. She recently had an operation on her eye which has made her into a full time patient. 2 sets of eye drops 4 times a day, tablets that I have to disguise in her boiled chicken which she has for lunch, (although she’s getting clever and is starting to eat the chicken and leave the tablets. Damn dog!) this stupid collar that she has to wear for the next two weeks - I mean, really, I do feel for her. She’s 6 too (42 in human years!) so it’s not like she’s the spring chicken she used to be! But I’m here working (or blogging!) and she’s asleep by my feet, enjoying life despite all this trauma she’s going through. Maybe I should start to take a leaf out of her book. Here is a little picture of us starting from when she was a puppy to now.

Apologies to anyone who had to witness my mad twitter rant the other day. A girl is allowed to get grumpy sometimes and theres no better place to rant on but twitter. Sometimes we all let our feelings get the better of us, although to be fair I had consumed a whole bottle of wine to myself before hand, which we all know never helps! I did feel a lot better afterwards and I had a pretty big response off either people checking that I hadn’t killed someone or people empathising with me. It turned out for the best anyway. 

Hopefully, after this week things might start to go back to normal. The past month has been a huge rollar coaster and me and my little brain don’t get on well with disturbances to our routines and comfort zones. Theres still a lot of things to get done - recordings, photo shoots, TEFL work, things that I had to put on hold while I sorted out life, but fingers crossed everything should just slot into place and I can go back to reality. 

Plus, it’s not long until International Henny’s Day. Yes, that’s right people, 5th May 2012 also known as Henny’s Birthday, aka International Henny’s Day, aka best day of the year. This year, it falls on a Saturday so we all have the Friday, Saturday, Sunday AND bank holiday Monday to celebrate. I expect street parties, picnics, music festivals, just one massive parhartay. It’s gonna be great :o)

Those of you who are wondering why Mr Sous Chef hasn’t been in my tweets recently, it’s because he’s took himself out of the country to go and get a tan and be a man with his man friends (I say man friends….the two of them like to walk around in my nightie. I don’t know if ‘man’ is the right word to use). I think its all a bit selfish really. Where is my sun? And most importantly who can cook for me while he isn’t here? Does he not know that I’m sitting here starving for some seabass in champagne sauce? Or some fancy mushroom, truffle thing risotto? Or what about salty caramel chocolates? Apparently non of that matters, so while he’s busy getting a tan, I’m busy moaning about him getting a tan. It all seems fair I think. 

Keep your eyes peeled on my music facebook for some exciting colaberations with myself and a lovely, talented Stuart Hannah. We met at the Stone Cave gig and have decided to come together and start writing some songs as a duo. We will be playing, as well as myself and as well as his band, in this gorgeous little festival in the summer called SUMMERJAM (http://www.facebook.com/events/364475623584117/) so its all very exciting!

(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Henny-Fox-Music/116417955066494)

My tutor still hasn’t emailed me back yet, I’m going to presume that I’ve just passed everything and she thinks I’m awesome. Plus, Macy needs a walk.

Enough blogging for one day, I’ll leave you with another cute little picture of me with poorly Macy.

Love to you all. 

It’s a horrible sensation, the sense of not knowing.

I have to know everything, especially when it comes to the people I care about. I think at the end of the day, it all boils down to trust. If you trusted someone, what would it matter? You would trust that they were doing the right thing, the loyal thing.  

“Trust takes a life time to build, but a second to destroy.”

I don’t know what made me think about all this, especially first thing on a Saturday morning, I guess I don’t really know what’s going on with certain situations, with certain people. It’s so easy to make yourself vulnerable to someone in the hope that they will do the same, then find yourself walked all over and hurt. In the words of Dallas Green, “I will blame myself for holding onto what I thought would keep you by my side” - it’s so true. Although, we’re now side tracking from my original point which was,

I don’t know.

I have to learn to trust.

I don’t want to just trust.

I want to know. 

Let’s hope that all that trust was worth it. 

ANYWAY - The gig last night was fantastic. It was in a little Turkish Restaurant/Bar in Dalston and we all rocked it. Of course, as we’re all northern, what do you expect? But yeah, it all went down a treat. :)

And so everything comes to an end.

As we begin to slowly approach the end of a hard, sad month, I’ve started to realise that there were things that I was meant to do this month that I haven’t actually done yet. Saying that, its also annoying how things that weren’t supposed to happen have taken up the time I had put aside to get on with the things that I love. But, these things had to be done and sorted and as another month approaches, I feel that it’s going to be a refreshing one. 

Talking about refreshing, I just made myself some fresh lemonade. I’m trying to detox my body this week, you know, do the usual things like stopping drinking, stopping smoking, getting more sleep and drinking more water. It helps that I’m dating a health food guru/non smoker/sloth man. 

Music wise - I have a gig this Friday 16th March in a little place called The Stone Cave in Dalston. I’m playing an acoustic set and will be on around half tenish so if you fancy it, it would be lovely to see you all there. Producer Pete has been poorly sick the past week so recording had to take a little break while he rests his weary soul. Hopefully he’ll be back and ready again soon!

So many links!!

Im back on facebook. It didn’t take long but I came to realise that the whole world seems tor revolve around it. When you’re trying to advertise your music and get fans on board, it’s hard to do it without. So, Henny Fox Music facebook page is back for those who have facebook. Here’s the link! 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Henny-Fox-Music/116417955066494

Also, I’ve become a manic tweeter the past few weeks. For shorter updates on the music front, here’s that as well.

https://twitter.com/#!/hennyfox

If you want to listen to some older tracks and the new ep which will be up soon, you can do so on here…

http://soundcloud.com/hennyfoxmusic

If you want to here me rant about life, then you can read about that on here!! 

Here’s a little picture to leave you with. My friend thought it would be funny. He didn’t know that dogs don’t like to ride horses.

It’s been a while.

Everything’s been going on! New jobs, photo shoots, recording, illnesses and warm weather whhattt!! I’m currently having a little lunch break from my TEFL course work. Hilarious what you discover on this thing. The main thing being that Scousers should never be allowed to teach. Ever. How can you teach a group of Japanese students how to speak English when you can’t even speak it yourself? I feel like writing about it in my conclusion although I think the chances of me passing would be very slim if I did. I suppose it’s not their fault that they’re a bit slow. 

My friend Emily came down last week to see me. We both discovered and realised the next day that Jager Bombs are officially from the devil. What was supposed to be a relaxed meal with some wine turned into a relaxed evening with some wine followed by ‘a proper Northern knees up!”. We brought Manchester to London. We made London great. 

Music wise - piano is being recorded this week and fingers crossed photos will be taken the week after. It’s gonna be a blast. 

It’s also countdown to the big day. 05/05/12 - thats right people, International Henny Day. Put it in your diary. We had a practice in work last night with some Maple Syrup Cake that in the end I couldn’t even eat because it was wheat infested. 

Come on Skinny Love…..

I’m in the middle of recording my own version of Skinny Love for my best friend. It’s her birthday on Thursday and she’s given me a list of songs she wants me to record. Skinny Love happens to be one of my favourite songs anyway, it brings back both happy and sad memories but always still sticks to me like glue. One of those songs that instantly takes you back two or three years no matter where you are or what you’re doing, I can always seem to picture myself exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it. Of course, I’m talking about the Bon Iver version…. I like Birdy, but nothing will beat the original. 

While we’re on the matter of thought provoking subjects, if you’re on twitter I suggest you follow 1. @Will_Smith and 2. @SoDamnTrue. If you’re like me and need constant reassurance that your life isn’t that rubbish and/or to stop stressing every two seconds then I really recommend following the two of them. They share some lovely mind provoking quotes and little sayings that always make me see that little bit clearer even if it’s just for a second. Sometimes all we need is that one little second to make the whole day brighter. 

Anyway, here is a picture of me and Emily - I’ll post the first recording up as soon as its done.

                                    

Oh Oh!! In terms of my EP, bass is done, now for piano, drums and the other little bits. I’ll keep you posted :o)

http://chasummers.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/ssh-tell-everyone/ →

….The link I was on about!!