Katchafire

Katchafire
Origin	New Zealand
Genres	Reggae
Years active	1997–present
Labels	[Lion House Records]
Website	[1]
Members
Tere Ngarua Jordan Bell Jamey Ferguson Haani Totorewa Logan Bell Grenville Bell Leon Davey
Past members
Ara Adams-Tamatea Thompson Hohepa Harry Halpin

Katchafire is a New Zealand roots reggae band from Hamilton, New Zealand.

Katchafire formed in 1997 as a Bob Marley tribute band and later began writing and performing their own songs. They have released four albums: Revival (2003) which featured the highest-selling New Zealand single of 2003, "Giddy Up"; Slow Burning (2005) Say What You're Thinking (2007) and On the Road Again (2010) Katchafire began recording their third album, Say What You're Thinking, as a seven-piece at Auckland's York Street Studio's toward the end of 2006.

The band has toured Australia, the UK, Europe, the USA, and New Caledonia, and has played at festivals with international reggae acts such as Mr Gang, Horace Andy, Moonraisers, Gentleman and was the only Pacific act to tour with artists Arrested Development, The Wailers, Maxi Priest and UB40 as part of the 2008 Raggamuffin. Their name was inspired by the Bob Marley and The Wailers album Catch A Fire.

The band released their fourth studio album, On The Road Again, which has been inspired by their recent worldwide touring.

Band members

The band's original line-up consisted of Grenville Bell (guitar), Haani Totorewa (keyboards, vocals) Tere Ngarua (bass guitar), Thompson Hohepa (guitar, vocals) Logan Bell (guitar, lead vocals) and Jordan Bell (drums).

Katchafire has been through many changes over the years with Tere Ngarua replaced by Ara Adams-Tamatea on bass and the addition of Jamey Ferguson (keyboards, sax, lead vocals) and Leon Davey (vocals, percussion).

For the second album Slow Burning the band was augmented by horn section Le Sexion with Feal (saxophone), Mols (trumpet) and Thomas (trombone) from reggae band Mr Gang of France (See album cover inlay credits).

There were further line-up changes in 2006: Ara Adams-Tamatea left the band to become the group's booking agent and original bass player Tere Ngarua re-joined the group as bassist, Thompson Hohepa also left the band.

Discography

Albums

Date of Release	Title	Label	Charted	Country	Catalog Number
2003	Revival	Shock/BMG	5	-
2005	Slow Burning	Mai/Shock	5	-
2007	Say What You're Thinking	EMI	5	-
2010	On the Road Again	Lion House Records	3	-

Featured appearances

Katchafire have appeared on a number of compilations since 2002 in New Zealand. The following is a list of these albums that have featured tracks by Katchafire.

Release	Album	Label	Track
2002	Simply the Best Reggae Album	Warner Music	"Bounce"
2003	The Reggae Collection	Universal Music	"Collie Herb Man" and "Giddy Up"
2003	Off the Hook 3	Sony Music	"Get Away" (Remix)
2004	Conscious Roots	Capitol Music	"Get Away"
2005	Conscious Roots 2	Capitol Music	"Frisk Me Down"
2006	More Nature	Sony BMG	"Giddy Up"
2007	Conscious Roots 4	EMI	"This World"

Singles

Year	Single	Album	NZ Singles Chart
2002	"Giddy Up"	Revival	4
2002	"Get Away"	Revival	8
2002	"Who You With"	Revival	10
2003	"Colour Me Life"	Revival	-
2003	"Bounce"	Revival	-
2003	"Seriously"	Revival	-
2004	"Rude Girl"	Slow Burning	-
2005	"Hey Girl"	Slow Burning	-
2006	"Frisk Me Down"	Slow Burning	-
2007	"Say What You're Thinking"	Say What You're Thinking	-
2008	"Love Letter"	Say What You're Thinking	-
2009	"Working"	Say What You're Thinking	-
2010	"Slow Down" feat. Rebel Souljahz	Bring Back The Days	-
2010	"Just You & Me" feat. Na Wai	-	-
2010	"On The Road Again"	On The Road Again	-
2010	"Groove Again"	On The Road Again	-

External links

• Official Website
• Official MySpace Website
• Official Facebook Page