Henge Frontman Matthew C. Whitaker Solo Tour Comes to Frome

Featured Image: Antony Barkworth-Knight

Despite intentionally making his tricks go wrong, Tommy Cooper was actually a skilled magician and member of The Magic Circle. SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg was a marine biologist, and Benny Hill really was a milkman. In order to deride an art effectively you must first master it. It therefore stands to reason Matthew C. Whitaker, frontman of the cosplay prog-rave outfit HENGE, also has some highly acclaimed solo material….

Matthew takes his February album Songs for the Weary on the road solo this October, opening in Belgium and the Netherlands before touring across the UK, including Frome’s Cheese & Grain’s sister venue The Tree House on Wednesday 21st October.

The one and only time I’ve seen Henge was at the Cheese, making haste for the county border after fondly reviewing their album Journey to Voltus B last year, and it was a gig I’d need to be abducted and lobotomised to forget. Matthew’s solo material can be equally as cosmic, as it drifts through gentle pieces for classical guitar, lush string arrangements, and subtle electronics, but it also contrasts vastly, and is a particularly mellower experience than Henge.

There’s cool jazz sax, whistles, fingerpicked guitar and delicate yet quirky observations in these hushed and patient patterns, taking you along with it as it drifts through space. Songs for the Weary has found a home on BBC Radio 6 Music, with singles Lucid Dreamer and Chestnut Tree championed by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, Craig Charles, and Deb Grant.

The run follows a widely praised set of UK and European dates earlier this year, when Whitaker was joined on stage by the album’s producer and multi-instrumentalist Alan Keary. This time, he takes to the stage completely solo.

Manchester-based musician and composer Matthew sings about losing a train of thought, which is apt, it twinkles through you like Bowie at his most exquisite or Paul’s later work with The Beatles, backed by Peter, Paul and Mary, for an episode of Button Moon.

And before you say it, milkman is an art; it can take years to master the three-bottle-grip whilst being chased by an enraged Yorkshire terrier up a garden path.

More info on Matthew C. Whitaker

The UK tour dates look like this:

11/10/26 – Lancaster Music Festival, Lancaster

13/10/26 – Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow

14/10/26 – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh

18/10/26 – Storyhouse, Chester

19/10/26 – The Bullingdon, Oxford

20/10/26 – Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester

21/10/26 – The Tree House, Frome

24/10/26 – The Grand, Clitheroe

26/10/26 – The Hare And Hounds, Birmingham

27/10/26 – Signature Brew, London

29/10/26 – Amped, Huddersfield

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