Matt Henshaw

”’Matt Henshaw”’ (born ”’Matthew Henshaw”’; 10 September 1987) is an English singer-songwriter and musician from [[Ilkeston]] between [[Nottingham]] and [[Derby]].http://duckduckgo.com/c/English_singer-songwriters He was a founding member of the [[English Midlands|midlands]] indie/blues band [[Censored]] as lead singer, songwriter and guitarist.  The band split in 2008 and he would re-emerge in 2010 as a solo artist collaborating with numerous artists and musicians, namely [[Birmingham]]-born hip-hop MC [[ReggiiMental]].

==Biography==

===Early life===

Henshaw was born in [[Nottingham City Hospital]] in 1987.  He attended schools in [[Kirk Hallam Community Technology College|Kirk Hallam]] and [[Heanor Gate Science College|Heanor]] in [[Derbyshire]] before attending [[Ilkeston Grammar School|Ilkeston Arts College]] where he met the other founding members of Censored.

According to Henshaw, he was influenced by music from a very young age, listening to artists such as [[Sam Cooke]], [[Otis Redding]], [[Marvin Gaye]] and early [[Motown]] records.  He was also heavily influenced by the songwriters of the sixties, [[The Beatles|Lennon & McCartney]] ([[The Beatles]]), [[Steve Marriott]] and [[Ronnie Lane]] ([[The Small Faces]]) and [[Ray Davies]] ([[The Kinks]]).{{cite web | url = http://sohostrut.blogspot.com/2008/09/censored.html | title = Matt Henshaw interview 2008 | accessdate = 2010-05-29}}  [[Alex Turner]], [[Damon Albarn]] [[Ian Brown]] and [[Syd Barret]] have also been cited as influences in interviews over the years.http://parwich.org/2008/07/26/y-not-festival-preview-part-one/http://www.geocities.ws/modsongsuk/tbotb.htm

Matt has stated in the past that every decision he makes is “governed by how it would affect the ones I love … and my mod ethics”{{cite web | url = http://sohostrut.blogspot.com/2008/09/censored.html | title = Matt Henshaw interview 2008 | accessdate = 2010-05-29}}

===Censored (2004-2008)===

{{Main|Censored}}

[[Image:CensoredBand.jpg|right|thumb|200px]]

After forming Censored with Chris Goring and Nathan Clarke in the early noughties their early sound was often described being “ensconced in the classic British ‘mod’ sound”{{cite web | url = http://drownedinsound.com/gigs/1379/reviews/13306- | title = Drowned in Sound review of early Nottingham gig | accessdate = 2010-03-07}}{{cite web | url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTpfYJL_7c/ |  title = Censored performing Shake @ Leeds Festival 2006 | accessdate = 2010-03-06}} in part due to their cover of [[Sam Cooke]]’s ‘[[Shake]]’ and “straight up punk-rock.”http://www.thiscitymagazine.co.uk/ 

The band were selected in 2005 by [[Lee Jeans]] to play their stage at the [[Reading and Leeds Festivals|Carling Weekend: Leeds and Reading Festivals]]{{cite web | url =  http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/content/articles/2005/09/06/censored_interview_2005_feature.shtml | title = BBC Interview 2005 | publisher = [[BBC]]}} and again in 2006 by [[TopMan]].{{cite web | url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTpfYJL_7c/ |  title = Censored performing Shake @ Leeds Festival 2006 | accessdate = 2010-03-06}}