Hugh McGinlay 15 March 2017

Jimmy Hornet is proud to present Hugh McGinlay LIVE on stage

Dinner available from 6 pm.

Full Bar Service available.

Music Set 1: 8 pm to 8:4 0pm

Music Set 2: 9:20 pm to 10:0 0pm

Hugh was born in the UK in 1980 but came to Australia before he could walk and was in Melbourne before he could talk. After a pleasant childhood, he was on the road to becoming a journalist when he realized that every day he just wanted to play guitar. Songwriting had always come easily to him so age 17 he decided to be a songwriter.

At the time his greatest dream was to play in a café and have a girl smile at him.

Gigging steadily with High School bands and solo shows he cut his teeth on the Melbourne folk circuit. In 2000 he was recruited in Blues Band Howlin’ Time, which has at one time or other been fronted by Geoff Achison, Ash Grunwald, Geoff Payne and Justin Connor. Having left this band he started alt-blues band The Pelicans.

The Pelicans spent the next 3 years playing in Melbourne and along the east coast. Their last show was in 2004.

From this Hugh focussed on solo work. Having released his first EP Rome wasn’t built anyway he had been gigging steadily, developing his style of lyrical storytelling. He spent 2004 and 2005 recording his debut album Second Guess released on his own record label – Red End Records. The album was favourably reviewed and received radio play in Australia and abroad.

To diversify, Hugh began a musical project with his wife Louise Kent, a jazz infused duo called Desperately Not Yoko. Louise’s vocal made the group instantly successful and they were soon joined by Ryan Vermuelan and Phil Cadman on Drums and Keys respectively. DNY release a self titled EP in 2007 and received airplay in Europe, America and Australia.

Hugh Toured Europe in 2007 and 2008, playing the Wychwood festival in Cheltenham and the Garden festival in Jersey. In 2008 he began recording his sophomore album Elsewhere, a stripped back album of poetic lyrics and acoustic guitar. Following a year of touring solo he yearned for a fuller sound and greater access to knock knock jokes while on tour, so he began the Hugh McGinlay and the Recessive Genes in its current incarnation. They began recording Hugh’s Third Album Bliss in July 2012. Bliss was released in 2015 and is Hugh’s most successful recording to date with international airplay and rave reviews.

Hugh toured New Zealand in March 2013, then again in 2015, he’s going again in 2017, I mean wasn’t all the Aussie touring enough?

When not working on music, Hugh writes offbeat fiction. He was a finalist in Griffith’s Review for his novella ‘Mosquito’. His first novel Jinx was published in 2015 to critical and commercial acclaim. Hugh is working on a second in the series (featuring hard-drinking milliner Catherine Kint and barman Boris Shakhovshoy) with a working title Pachyderm.

Hugh lives in Melbourne with Louise, their two children, a cat and 3 chickens.