Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Its an increasingly rare occassion that you see a band you know very little about, having heard very little music, and emerge from the gig completely blown away by their talents. Last nights performance by Connan & the Mockasins at the Water Rats in London - part of a three week residency at the venue - was one of those occassions.
At the centre of the New Zealand trio - who have now relocated to London indefinitely - is Connan Hosford, a slight, big haired lad who plays guitar with unnerving ease and possesses a voice which, when it first hits your ears, leaves you in a state of confusion as to exactly how you should be feeling. That's how good it is!
And you can't help but watch! All three of the group are trained jazz musicians, so they play their instruments like pros, but with a carelessness and youthful abandon which is inspiring. - Music Week
Discography
2004 - Naughty Holidays EP - Self Released
2006 - Uuu It's Teasy - EP - Self Released
2007 - Sneaky Sneaky Dog Friend 7" - Parlophone
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Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
As a tall stranger in the night paints a nearby footpath amber with a shower of tequila and Jack Daniels induced vomit, Connan and his band of merry men are seventeen minutes into a rocking blues outro that has a Friday night Dogs Bollix crowd stomping the ground and dancing with such ferocity that the various Irish trinkets that adorn the pub walls tremble and shake upon their very hooks.
The stranger stumbles back through the double doors because even in this state, he knows he does not want to miss any more of what he can hear only as a muffled hurricane of good times spilling out on to the street.
It has been barely two years since Connan recruited Ross Walker and his gargantuan upright bass, and Seamus Ebbs with his ferocious drumming power, to join him as his moccasins. Yet this is a band who has carved their name across the countrys indie rock scene with a sold out debut EP (Naughty Holidays), and live show upon live show of sixties-influenced blues, rock and psychedelia. You can tell they have been on the stage a lot. They own it, and everyone who sees and hears Connan and the Mockasins know it to be true.
Were going over to London late May and just staying there indefinitely, says Connan as he sits down in a concrete driveway outside the venue early evening. He looks as though he can hardly believe his own ears saying it. I think from the start we have been planning for it, but now it feels like its actually going to happen. We are laying everything on the line for this, but if it doesnt work well try it again, he smiles, Ive never left New Zealand before. Id never even been to the south island until we started touring down there. What do you reckon? he laughs Is it quite scary?
To be continued
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