Los Mockers were a popular 1960s rock band in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

that was part of the

Uruguayan Invasion The Uruguayan Invasion was a musical phenomenon of the 1960s similar to the British Invasion, with rock bands from Uruguay gaining popularity in Argentina. History Inspired by British bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, many young music ...

. They were heavily influenced by

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

and covered many of their songs (in English). The band was formed in 1963 on

Montevideo, Uruguay Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

but moved to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in 1966 after winning a contract with

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

Argentina. The original lineup disbanded in 1967. They briefly re-united in 2006.

History

The band formed in 1963. They were originally called The Notorious before being renamed The Mockers. In 1966, they won a recording contract with EMI of Argentina, so they recorded their first single in April, and in September, recorded "I want to go" and "Baby Mine", which were not included in the LP that would be published later. A month later they released their next single, entitled "Empty Harem" / "Let me try again." Their third single, "Captain Grey" / "Confusion" was released in mid- 1967, to boost sales of the album. Although keyboardist Stephen Hirshfield, had already left the training, he traveled from Montevideo to participate in the recording. The original lineup would disbanded in 1967.Unterberger, Richie. "Los Mockers: Artist Biography." ''Allmusic'' http://www.allmusic.com/artist/los-mockers-mn0001745731/biography They returned to Buenos Aires, for a series of programs on Channel 9. The record company proposed to re-record them on the condition that change their original name, but the group refused as there was no contract signed. With little work and economic issues, plus internal conflicts among its members, vocalist Polo Pereira left and was quickly replaced by pianist and singer Carlos Franzeti. On September 23 of 2006, forty years on from first recording, Mockers met in Valencia (Spain), with all their original members, except Freigeda Beto, who died in a traffic accident early in 1972 in Montevideo. Over the years there were several edited collections of their whole discography; among them are "The Original Recordings 1965-1967" and "Complete Recordings".

Band members

*Polo Pereira (guitar, vocals) *Jorge Fernández (guitar, backing vocals) *Esteban Hirschfield (organ, backing vocals, harmonica) *Julio Montero (bass, vocals) *Beto Freigeda (drums)

Discography

Singles

*Quiero irme/Nena mía (1966) *Empty Harem/Let me try again (1966) *Captain Grey/Confusion (1967)

Albums

*''Los Mockers'' (1966) *''Los Mockers II'' (1968)

References

External links

Facebook page

Official Web Site
Uruguayan rock music groups Musical groups established in 1963 1963 establishments in Uruguay {{Uruguay-singer-stub