Hockey Head Back Home After Summer of Success

Posted on Oct 14th 2009 11:42AM by Stephen Dowling
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It's been a summer to remember for Hockey.

A little over a year ago and the band were almost unknown outside of their home city of Portland. Then, thanks to being spotted by the Guardian newspaper, the band found themselves being feted in the UK -- which led to them spending the bulk of the sunny months traversing Europe's festival circuit before they even had an album out.

A strange experience, bass player Jeremy Reynolds admits, but not one the band are in a hurry to complain about.

"It was a pretty awesome experience all in all, and it was pretty cool to see the crowds get a little bigger each time until we did Bestival on Isle of Wight mid-way through September, and that was probably the biggest crowd we had all summer. It was interesting to see the progress just through the festivals. Glastonbury was the first one we did, all the way through to Reading and Leeds, and T in the Park."

Not the band, who released their debut 'Mind Chaos' last month, have to put their heads in an autumnal frame. They kicked off their first major tour last week, teaming up with fellow Portlandians Portugal the man which will see them wend their way through the likes of Massachusetts and upstate New York.

"Strike at the heartland of America first." Reynolds says. " I guess it's like back to school – it's Fall time, back to clubs. I guess I'm ready. I had so much time over the summer, it was like a kind of summer camp. It's time to take it back indoors. We only really toured one time in the States, and that was December last year with the Virgins, so we have to do the same thing we did in the UK, which is good old fashioned taking it out on the road, plugging away and getting our name out there. But in our country."

Months of touring with little more than a few singles in the shops has finally come to an end, with 'Mind Chaos' now out on both sides of the Atlantic (Reynolds tells Spinner he's already had texts from plenty of friends saying they have just bought his album). So has he had that first spine-tingling experience of walking into a record store and seeing his album on the shelves?

"You know, I walked past a closed record store in Brighton, and saw our record on the new releases shelf. I pressed my face up against the glass going 'Oh my god!"

The band aren't actually pictured on the album's sleeve -- they could pass themselves off as fans and urge passers-by to purchase the record...

'Exactly. That could all work in our favour. We should all start dressing up and showing up at record stores with a fake moustache and a top hat: "It's the best record I have ever heard...'"