Mitch Benn And The Distractions

Mitch Benn is a sought-after act on the comedy circuit and widely acknowledged as one of the best writer/performers of comic songs in the country. Mitch began his comedy career in Edinburgh in 1994. He moved to London in 1996 and quickly established himself as a comedy club headliner as well as a favourite on the university circuit. Mitch is a regular writer and performer on The Now Show for BBC Radio 4 and It's Been A Bad Week for BBC Radio Two. Three series of his successful Radio Four show, Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music have been broadcast so far. He also presents The Mitch Benn Music Show on BBC Radio Seven. On TV, Mitch appears regularly on The One Show as the writer and arranger of The Complaints Choir. Mitch contributes occasional songs to Bremner Bird And Fortune. He has also appeared on The Last Word, Gas, Live At Jongleurs, The Warehouse and Today With Des & Mel, The Comedy Store, The World Stands Up, Raymaan Is Laat and Out There. Mitch has toured extensively abroad, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Ireland, Montreal, Holland and South Africa (including a two-week run at the Grahamstown Theatre Festival in 1998). In 1995 Mitch won the Best New Comic Award at the Glastonbury Festival and has played there every year since, including an hour-long extended set in 1999 which drew a standing ovation from an audience of 1500. In 1998 he won the Mercury Comedian Of The Year prize at the Leicester Comedy Festival. Mitch has performed many times at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, including hour-long solo shows between 1997 and 1999. He also appeared in the successful revue show The Bootleg Bootleg Beatles in 1998 and the showcase Carlton Comedy Warehouse in 1999. In 2003 Mitch formed the band Mitch Benn & The Distractions with Kirsty Newton and Tash Baylis. After a successful run at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe they took up a residency at The Bedford in Balham in October 2003. Mitch Benn & The Distractions completed a successful national tour in 2004, to coincide with the release of their album Too Late To Cancel. Mitch Benn & The Distractions' debut single, Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now, was released in 2005 ahead of the release of the album Crimes Against Music. The video for the single was posted online at attracting 8000 hits in one hour. Mitch brought a reconvened Mitch Benn And The Distractions back to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007, performing a nightly two-hour show, The Mitch Benn Music Club. A live album, recorded on the last night of the festival, entitled Official Bootleg Edinburgh 2007 was released in 2007 to coincide with the start of another national tour, which concluded in December 2007.