MONDATTA FUNK

Lead Vocals: Lauren Dove

Guitar: Mark Howes

Bass: Keith Willers (2)Simon Kinch (3)Kieran Brennan

Drums: Chris Griggs

"Mondatta formed early 2004/5 with Chris Griggs on drums, Keith Willers on Bass and Mark Howes on Guitar. They had started without a singer and took the name from a Police song Zenyatta Mondatta. I had moved to Norwich after Uni and started advertising as a Soul and Jazz singing teacher. I got a call to meet them thinking that it would be function band stuff but they happened to be into the same vintage of funk and soul, similar artists. We met at the Playhouse. We had a few gigs in that line-up and then Keith left as he was in the band Lot 55 and they were getting busy. We met Simon Kinch who was studying Music and Maths at the UEA and recorded our first E.P with him. We gigged Norwich, places like The Queen Charlotte on Dereham Road. He moved back to Oxford after his degree so we advertised again for another bass player. There we joined with Kieran Brennan who we did the most writing and gigs with. We performed in a lot of Norwich festivals, the Next Big Thing, and supported Speedometer. Our first big line-up gig was in 2008 and then another one in 2009. Kieran moved to London in 2009 and Mark and I had started Dove and Boweevil which kind of took over so we just sort of fizzled out. Chris later moved to Brighton and in 2018 discovered that we were all living n Norwich again. I had started the Lady Dove's Funk Club jam night and it seemed that people's interest in Funk was popular so we decided to do a large reunion gig at the NAC." LD24/072020

<> (Willers - Lot55) Dove & Boweevil

Compilations
Cover	Title	Label	YoR
	NEXT BIG THING III		2006
Position	Track name		Studio
A5	FOOL YOU