The Hot City Horns

From hotcityhorns.com:

Over the past decade, the Hot City Horns have been performing around the world to sell out Arena and Stadium tours. They have performed on numerous live tours, recordings and major TV shows.

Live/Recording Credits include:

Jess Glynne, Olly Murs, Emeli Sande, JP Cooper, The Maccabees, Hurts, Fleur East, Paolo Nutini, Robbie Williams, Iggy Azalea ft. Jennifer Hudson, John Newman, Madness

TV Credits include:

X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, Later…With Jools Holland, The Graham Norton Show, The Jonathan Ross Show, BBC Radio 1 ‘Live Lounge’, An Audience With…, Strictly Come Dancing, Glastonbury Festival, V Festival, Alan Carr Chatty Man, 

The Hot City Horns had their first gig with McCartney at the Grand Central Station concert in New York in August 2018 and joined the McCartney band as part of the Freshen Up Tour.

From the Freshen Up tour book:

As fate would have it Mike Davis and Paul Burton met over ten years ago when they were both students at LIPA – the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA was co-founded by Paul in 1996 on the site of the school he attended as a child and he remains their Lead Patron).

“Having studied at the University Paul set up it was a great honour to be asked to go on tour with him“, says Paul Burton.

At the same time Kenji Fenton was studying nearby at the Royal College of Music. It wasn’t until they all moved to London, occasionally working together that they started spending time and performing as a group. They’ve now been performing together as Hot City Horns for over five years working with an array of artists both on tours and in the studio.

Hot City Horns first joined Paul to perform at Grand Central Station. “It was quite an eye opener,” remember Mike Davis, “from actually seeing him in action on stage right down to even getting in the building and seeing just how crazy the fans reactions were to him. He sent New York into full grid lock!“

Recalling their first meeting with Paul, Kenji Fenton recollects, “It was like a first date! You desperately want to be normal but lose your cool as soon as he says ‘hello’!”

A few years ago, I was getting ready for a new tour and thought, ‘What are we going to do to be a little bit different? It’d be great to bring back the horns!’ So, I rang [keyboard player] Wix – because he’s kind of like our musical director in the band – and asked him if he knew anyone who would be suitable. Funnily enough, he’d just done a charity gig with this great little horn section called the Hot City Horns. And coincidentally, two of them went to my old school, LIPA!

The Liverpool Institute was the grammar school that George Harrison and I had been to, and when it closed down we saved it and made it into a performing arts school. Two of the Hot City Horns guys, Mike and Paul, had gone through LIPA. So, it felt like a full circle moment inviting them to join the tour. And they’re great! One of the things we always wanted to teach the students was to have a great attitude: you know, just simple little things like showing up on time, not getting drunk before performing, and generally having a good work ethic. These guys are like that. They’re really nice people. 

Paul McCartney – Interview with paulmccartney.com, March 27, 2025