Bio

You may recognize Hopetoun Brown as the horn section who continue to light up the stage with local funk juggernaut Supergroove. The fiery pair haven’t stopped honing their love of blues and rhythm, which originally kindled those Supergroove flames in Ponsonby all those years ago. The duo named their new band after the central Auckland streets they used to live on and which they still roam, welded to their horns.

Tim Stewart and Nick Atkinson have formed a band called Hopetoun Brown which revolves around Tim's big soulful voice coupled to the deep tones of Nick's bass clarinet.

Back in their school days Nick and Tim fell in love with the unique sounds of New Orleans after seeing The Dirty Dozen Brass Band march down Queen Street. "It was the rhythms that drew you in" reflects Tim who goes on at length about the large amounts of stone-cold funk pouring from the assorted horns that fateful day. Since then they've worked on their chops sharpening their skills on that classic Southern repertoire, but late last year something happened that changed their sound. Tim started to sing that Big Easy classic Saint James Infirmary. When the bass clarinet picked out the bass-line Hopetoun Brown was born. "There's such a natural balance between Tim's voice and sound of the low clarinet" says Nick. "They're very complementary, almost complete."

Since then they've been gigging around central Auckland haunts like the Portland Public House, Golden Dawn, The Wine Cellar and the Leigh Sawmill where they were able to do an extra late session out by the briar recently. "Once we got stomping there was gravel flying everywhere" says Tim gleefully.

Band Members:
Tim Stewart
Nick Atkinson

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