HEBE X ICS

We met ICS back in October 2010. Team Hebe attended a Harvey Nichols event and saw the boys perform for the first time alongside a catwalk. We loved their sound which was, and still is, difficult to pin down, so we introduced ourselves to the band and so began the Hebe/ICS love affair.

In May 2011 we produced Leeds In Barcelona: A Creative Encounter which took Leeds creative talent over to Barcelona for a special showcase event. This was the perfect opportunity to collaborate with ICS for the first time, which was what we had been wanting to do since we met them. It gave ICS a great opportunity to perform to a European audience of opinion-formers and we knew they were the perfect band to take as they are ‘fresh, innovative and heavily influenced by the underground of the city and the fashion scene (Lee, Hebe May 2011)’.

Josh performing in Barcelona

After the Creative Encounter

The Barcelona Creative Encounter was great for many reasons but one of the most important was the relationships that were formed on the trip. When you have fashion designers, DJs, bands and media specialists hanging together for three days you are constantly talking creative collaborations and getting to know more about what each other is about. 

On the trip we introduced ICS to our friends at Back to Basics: Dave Beer and Tristan Da Cunha. The guys got on like a house on fire and we were soon talking of what we could do when we got back to Leeds.

We all already knew in the back of our minds that we needed to work together in an official capacity, but obviously first we had to drink lots of beer, watch documentaries about The Clash and party together before any deal was agreed!

After this hard work was done, so was the deal and now ICS are officially managed by Team Hebe and Dave Beer! The boys performed at the Back to Basics 20th anniversary bash with Bez and Pritch which was fun and are scheduled to play Live at Leeds on May 5th. Keep checking the ICS website and Facebook page for updates about upcoming gigs and track releases. In the meantime check out a track from the new EP, Cassette Tapes below...

 ICS do a one-time acoustic set at Lee's birthday party

Hebe October Round-Up

Leeds Fashion Show award winner Crystal Padmore takes to the catwalk

Wow! What a month that was! We had a seriously interesting October both on the blog and in general Hebe life. Here is a quick look back at the month that was all about big news and fashion! 

In October we announced a new relationship that we are really excited about. Hebe Media has been appointed the 'preferred digital supplier' and 'brand ambassador' by Land Securities for the new Trinity Leeds scheme. We are really looking forward to working with the Land Securities team over the coming months and there are some seriously cool projects in the pipeline and a couple that are already underway.

The first of those was the sponsorship of Leeds Fashion Show 2011 by Trinity Leeds. This something we are really proud of. Leeds Fashion Show is such a great project created by great people and the fact that Trinity Leeds have come in and added support is really good news. Hopefully this is just the start of the relationship and next year we can do even more together. We took along the 'T' to meet and greet some of the Leeds' fashion crowd in the first part of the 'Taking the T into Leeds' campaign.

The 'T' at Leeds Fashion Show (Photo Michael Walker)www.mickwphotography.co.uk

Speaking of fashion, we put out a 2-part feature on Leeds Fashion Scene. The first part looked at the current situation and what was going on here. The second part looked at the future and how we might improve our position in the global fashion scene. We knew it would ruffle a few feathers and it certainly did! The reaction has been amazing. In addition to all the comments, likes and tweets about the posts we also received lots of private emails, DMs and messages. We have to say that the overall feedback has been along the lines of 'well said' and 'right lets do this!' which is exactly the response we hoped for. There are new plans cooking now around this and we will be making some announcements soon.

On the blog earlier in the month we posted the new video from our favourite Swede (sorry The Pap) Adam Tensta, which as per usual is ace!

Looking forward, if October was all about fashion then November is all about film. Today we will be announcing a new film competition involving Left Eye Blind, Trinity Leeds and Everyman Cinemas. The project is the second project in the 'Taking the T into Leeds' campaign. We think it is going to be amazing. As with the Leeds Fashion Show project, supporting and highlighting brilliant Leeds projects and talent sits right at the heart of what we are doing. 

Keeping on the film tip, we are proud to have some of our projects supporting the Leeds International Film Festival this year. Hebe Media, LOL! Leeds Online and UK Observing Diary will all be playing a role in supporting the festival and it's team. We will also be sponsoring a film, that we will announce today! We must at this point give a shout out to Kay Brown, who is an absolute star! Without people like Kay we would not have projects like this in the city, we are lucky to have her here.

Stay tuned during November for more exciting announcements around new projects and partnerships that we are currently finalising. 

See you again soon!

The Hebe Hit List: Corey Latif Williams

Photo: Julian Essink Fotografie

In this new series of posts, we are featuring the people we are going to try and work with in the next year. We made a 'hit list' list last year, but kept it secret inside Hebe. We managed to tick off a lot of people on the 'Year 1 List' such as Hyper Island, Heineken, LeLook and IED Barcelona. Now we focus on the 'Year 2 List' and first up is one of our favourite RnB artists: Corey Latif Williams. 

I first started checking out 'Latif's' stuff in 2006, most noteably the tracks Who's Lovin Her Now and the brilliant U Think U Know. I could tell immediately Latif was something special and after further digging I discovered he had non-other then the absolute legend that is Teddy Pendergrass as a mentor. Around this time (2006-2007) I was really into Latif, Johnta Austin (thanks to Turn It Up) and Ryan Leslie (thanks to Used 2 Be) . These guys were bringing something fresh at that time and regular collaborations between them usually resulted in some quality stuff. (I will try to dig out some of my live mixes from this time and post)

Since then the Grammy Award Nominated Latif has been in the studio working on new material and also getting his writing on for a number of other artists such as Chris Brown, The Roots and Musiq Soulchild. He has also put out a number of tracks online such as I Love U, Promise Me and No Mystery. 

U Think U Know feat. Ryan Leslie by Corey Latif 

Hebe x Latif 

In our past few music events we have featured stuff from house music legends like the Back to Basics gang and up and coming Punk / Dub band ICS. We definitely want to do something with RnB in the coming months and Latif fits the bill perfectly: He is young, mega-talented and we can see some amazing potential for collaboration with some of our peeps here in the UK. Remixes, live-performances, creative collaborations with fashion designers and artists, the possabilities are endless.

We are planning Creative Encounters with cities in America next year and we will definitely be exploring the possibility of hooking up with Latif and getting him involved. After all he did provide the soundtrack for some of the music and fashion projects that eventually led to the creation of Hebe Media so it would be amazing for us to make that contact five years after we were introduced to Latif and get him involved with some of our projects.

Watch this space over the coming months and hopefully we will report back good news! In the meantime check out his new track below :)

The Hebe Week In Pics

Always nice to see the results of lots of hard work - The new Hyper Island catalogue Last week we caught up with the Leeds In Bcn crew @ Marshall's MillAnd the beers flowed!Graham looking cool with his tea cup ;)Warming up for the 10k Race For LifeSprint finish, ooooosh! Great atmosphere at Temple Newsam, LeedsBig thumbs up to everyone who took part in the RFLTransformers piece in Selfridges, Trafford CentreAs if this isn't our very own Simon from Hebe!
Shang Ting drinking a 'Shang Ting' in Mojos!Crepes at Granary Wharf Waterfront FestivalGiant Jenga at Out of the WoodsLive music in the sunshine :)The water taxi! We need to have this on all the time!

Team Hebe hits Manchester for a bit of KOL

Leeds in Barcelona: The Showcase

Last month we headed out to Barcelona for Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter. Here we concentrate on the second part of the project - Leeds Taylor which was a showcase event of creative talent from both Leeds and Barcelona. (You can check out the first part of the project here: The Conference)

Leeds Taylor was held at the amazing Hotel ME in Barcelona. The idea behind the event from our point of view, was to showcase Leeds creative talent to massive audience of international opinion leaders and, more broadly speaking, further develop ties between the two cities. But rather then just go to Barcelona and try to 'sell' we wanted to create an experience that was more of a collaboration, something that was a one-off special project. To do this we teamed up with Marketing Leeds and our good friends LeLook and set about creating a platform where Leeds and Barcelona creatives could be seen together. For the fashion talent involved in the project this was in the form of a photo-shoot and catwalk show. 

Photoshoot at Hotel MECatwalk featuring Dom Dick & HarryA piece from the latest James Steward collectionDom Dick and Harry and Nicholas DeakinsJames Steward A/W

The soundtrack for the event was supplied first of all by Barcelona DJ and all round superstar DJ Mustache. Then followed a live performance from Leeds band ICS and they absolutely smashed it! Their performance included material from their new EP mixed up with some really cool covers including Nelly - Ride With Me, and Tinie Tempah - Pass Out. Then the showcase moved up to the 6th floor where the sounds of legendary Leeds club BacktoBasics and more specifically Dave Beer and Tristan Da Cunha kept the 1000 strong crowd entertained for hours more.

ICS left a lasting impression on the Catalan crowd

The showcase attracted more then 1000 people

The reaction to the event in Barcelona was amazing. Loads of people from the Barca creative scene now want to visit Leeds and hook up with designers, artists, bands and DJs here. The directors of the European Institute of Design want to travel here this summer and discuss ways we can collaborate further. Spanish national television will feature the project in a show later this month, introducing millions more to what we created and drive more interest and awareness of Leeds as an interesting international creative city.

Over the coming weeks we will report back on further fallout from the event including some of the next steps people are taking and we will post a copy of the spot on Spanish television. Discussions are taking place involving the talent featured in the project and we are sure that in the immediate and long term, some really cool things are going to emerge from this project.