Biography
Junkanoo were a percussive band from Christchurch who put out a split album release on Campbell McLay’s Onset/Offset label in 1986, recorded at Arne van Bussell’s Nightshift Studios. The bands name has an interesting origin:
Junkanoo is a festival that was originated during the period of African chattel slavery in British American colonies. It is practiced most notably in Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize, and historically in North Carolina and Miami, where there are significant settlements of West Indian people during the post-emancipation era. In the present day, there are considerable variations in performance and spelling, but there are the shared elements of masquerade (or masking), drumming, dance, and parading.
Wikipedia definition of Junkanoo
The group featured members of some pretty notable local underground (and not so underground) groups.
Members
- Norman Dufty (Liquidelirium, Ritchie Venus and the Blue Beetles, The McGoohans, The Puddle, vocals?)
- Sally Mulcahy (percussion)
- Nick Strong (Mainly Spaniards, They Were Expendable, percussion / vocals)
- Peter Mitchell (Hiding From Stan, Squirm, The Renderers, Creeley, Hiss Explosion, percussion)
- Craig Davison (Scorched Earth Policy, Drowning is Easy, percussion / vocals)
- Donna Lawson (The Terminals, Dillinger’s Brain, The McGoohans, percussion)
- Kirsty Cameron (percussion)
- Bill Vosburgh (The Spies, Perfect Strangers, The Bill Fosby Assassins, The After Dinner Mints, Brother Love and the Homebacon Gang, clarinet)
Discography
- Junkanoo (w/ Dillinger’s Brain, 1986, Onset/Offset, PR2346)