THE LONDON ESSENTIALS live music band is a welcome fixture at many of the most high profile events around the world – working with the best planners – and giving each occasion an instant injection of fun with their enthusiasm and unique presence. Every six weeks or so, Ben Matthews (below, right) – who is founder – travels to the US with his band to perform and, so far, they’ve appeared at the most prestigious venues located in Nantucket, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Long Beach and Miami…
BEN ON WORKING IN THE STATES: “So far, we’ve performed at venues in Nantucket, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Long Beach and Miami… we’re just getting started really! Our very first performance was playing for a private party in wonderful Nantucket. Unfortunately that night all the hotels were full therefore couldn’t accommodate the band so we ended up finding the ‘Tandemeer’ (below, left) via AirBnB. She’s the beautiful ketch sailing boat seen in the Eddie Murphy movie, ‘Trading Places’ – I ended up sleeping on deck under the stars; it was absolutely magical…”
ABOVE: VIP Event organisers: Colin Cowie based in Miami; Bruce Russell based in The Hamptons
BEN ON US AUDIENCES: “Luckily for us, what we bring is fairly universal; energy and fun translate pretty well anywhere – although the British sense of humour can at times involves a little more irony and self-deprecation which we have to be careful with! I mean, come on, The London Essentials are quite optimistic for Brits so we’re trying to meet the Americans half way!”
BEN ON THE US TASTE IN MUSIC: “Because we’re always products of our own environments, we have to be sure that what is a major hit in the UK might not have quite the same impact in the US – although, more and more, all of the biggest tracks hit all shores…”
BEN ON THE LAUNCH OF FONTAINEBLEAU LAS VEGAS: “It was great to get a chance to work with event organiser, Colin Cowie, who’s such a high profile name in the business! For us, and indeed it’s the same for any events supplier with what they offer, it’s all about how the guests are left feeling, so when it comes to the organiser it’s always reassuring for us when someone ‘gets’ what we produce and understands exactly which scenario is needed for us to have the most impact. Colin is a master of this!”
ABOVE: Keith Urban; President of Fontainebleau Development, Brett Mufson and his wife Alexa Leigh; Jeffrey Soffer, Justin Beiber, Paul Anka at the opening of Fontainebleau Las Vegas
When working alongside global names in the entertainment industry, there’s always a slight ‘pinch yourself’ moment… but then we move on quickly, remembering we’re all the same underneath!”
Ben Matthews, The London Essentials
BEN ON NEW BUSINESS: “About 80% of our work comes to us by word of mouth; at peak times we can be getting as many as 20 new enquiries a day so it can sometimes be hard to work out where an event was referred to us from – our first thought is always to find out if we’re even the right fit for the event in question! It’s only in recent times that the band has had a big enough team to be making serious inroads into the US market and, as yet, we’re still getting lots of events without representation – now we’re in a position to be able to string more dates together, so we’re certainly starting to look for the right people!”
CONTACT: http://www.thelondonessentials.com
