Rotorua trio tour on world stage

Three Rotorua musicians have returned home after a tour of Europe as part of Moana & the Tribe.

Three Rotorua musicians have returned home after a worldwide tour as part of Moana & the Tribe.

Drummer Mickey Ututaonga and haka exponents Laurence Kershaw and Kemara Kennedy are part of the distinctive Maori band and have been on a seven-week tour taking them deep into the Arctic Circle.

The tour began north of Tromso in Norway. Kershaw, who is of Ngati Pikiao and Ngati Whakaue descent and is a hunter when he isn't onstage, said it was a surreal experience.

"It was 24-hour sunlight," he said. "We were given reindeer and whale meat from the tangata whenua, our Sami hosts. I came back with an antler to carve. It was different - an awesome start to the tour."

They played to a full capacity crowd at the Riddu Riddu Festival, where hosts asked lead singer Moana Maniapoto and vocalist Trina Maniapoto (Tuhourangi/Ngati Pikiao) to present a poster to a 16-year old survivor of the Utoya Island massacre of 2011.

The band was due to sing at Riddu Riddu on the day of the massacre, but sang instead at a memorial concert on the festival site that night. Their return two years later was described as "part of the healing"' by festival organisers. Another highlight was Sziget (Budapest), the biggest festival in Europe. They shared the stage with international acts such as Blur, Nick Cave, Franz Ferdinand and DJ David Guetta playing to more than 360,000 partygoers.

"Laurence and Kemara were nimble on their feet, all right," Maniapoto said.

"I burnt my hand just touching the microphone. Our audience, who were mainly in bikinis and shorts, were hiding under the trees, desperate to be out of the sun.'

The two experienced haka performers also ran daily haka workshops during the festival and saw that children could cast aside inhibitions a little easier than adults.

"There was this kid from England - he was watching us tell the participants to put a bit more grunt into it," said Kershaw.

"He just couldn't help himself. He screamed out the commands over the top of all the adults and totally nailed it. Deadly serious, too."

Moana & the Tribe had a sell-out concert in Warsaw, performed at the Ulsan World Music and Jarasum International Jazz Festivals (Korea) before ending their tour at the inaugural Boomerang Festival, established by Australian festival director Rhoda Roberts and Byron Blues Festival promoter Peter Noble.

"I was nervous about bringing a live drummer into the band," said Maniapoto. "They always seemed to hog sound check time and drown out the vocalists but not Mickey. He is a very tasty drummer and a great vocalist."

The group was formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Maniapoto. Other Rotorua members included Scotty Morrison, Aneta Morgan, Horomona Horo (now based in Palmerston North) and bass player Max Stowers (now in Sydney).