When their local Dalston karaoke night (Uncle Sams R.I.P.) packed it in, Mike Gabel and Jennifer Earle found themselves faced with nowhere to get their weekly karaoke fix so they took matters into their own hands and decided to start their own.
Combining their love of karaoke with their love of searching out weird and wonderful objects, they decided to add a spin and win wheel of fortune so every singer could have the chance of winning a fantastic one of a kind prize. This gave the singers extra incentive to get up and make fools of themselves, and gave Jennifer & Mike and an outlet for their collecting obsession.
Anyone who has been to their flat knows they have a lot of stuff.
In June 2004 the first ever Hot Breath Karaoke took off at The Spread Eagle, a Shoreditch bar recently re-opened after a long lifetime as a strip club (the pole was still on stage!). The night was a massive success but unfortunately The Spread Eagle went out of business the next day leaving Hot Breath Karaoke homeless.
HBK TRIVIA: Who was the 1st person to sing at Hot Breath Karaoke?
ANSWER: Ben Jacobs AKA Max Tundra!
After a few months of searching Hot Breath Karaoke finally found its home at a rough and ready boozer on Old Street called the Legion. This was the beginning of a long and successful residency at The Legion that would continue for the next 5 years.
Still not satified with hosting a karaoke with a wheel of fortune and prizes, Hot Breath Karaoke began hosting special one off themed nights featuring customised songlists, free snacks, low buget music videos filmed on the day and ridiculous costumes. The Hot Breath Karaoke recreation of Live Aid actually raised 27 pounds for the Dalston Oxfam!
For our all-ballads Vantines Day special we gave
away a dream date to The Tiroler Hut!
HBK TRIVIA: What do Kevin Rowland, Alexis Taylor, Beth Ditto,
Jonathan Ross, Patrick Wolf and Gareth Gates
all have in common?
ANSWER: They have all sang at Hot Breath Karaoke!
Hot Breath Karaoke has hosted over 250 karaoke nights in venues across London including Sketch, The Old Blue Last, The Soho Revue Bar, The Haggerston, The Lauriston, The Stag's Head, The Hospital Club, Shunt Vaults. We have also hit the festival stages at Bestival, The Big Chill, Latitude and the Art Car Boot Fair.
We were also voted Time Out Magazine's Best Karaoke Night.
We even once recreated all of Pink Floyds
Dark Side Of The Moon in karaoke with a laser show!
And to prove that karaoke can be hi brow too,
we've even done karaoke in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern.
As long as there are people willing to get up on stage
and make complete fools of themselves,
Hot Breath Karaoke will be there for them.