Supergroove

Supergroove
Origin	New Zealand
Genres	Funk rock
Years active	1989–1997 2007-current
Associated acts	Che Fu
Members
Che Ness Joe Lonie Tim Stewart Ben Sciascia Karl Steven Ian Jones Nick Atkinson
Past members
Paul Russell

Supergroove is a New Zealand funk rock music group. Their debut album Traction was released in 1994. The group disbanded in 1997 but recently reformed in 2007.

History

The band was founded New Year's Eve 1989/1990, and originally named the Low-Down Dirty Blues Band. They split up in 1997 over creative differences. Notable former members include Che Ness, aka Che Fu, now with a successful solo career, Joe Lonie, a music video producer, and Paul Russell, who moved on to start the New Zealand band Eight (who recently split), and who still studio drums with Che Fu and Brooke Fraser. Two other ex-members, Tim Stewart (trumpet) and Ben Sciascia (guitar) formed a new band in late 2005 called Svelte. Ian Jones recently joined upcoming Sydney band, Lost Valentinos on drums. Karl Steven has completed a PhD in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy at Cambridge University and is now a member of Auckland surf-punk band The Drab Doo-Riffs.

Supergroove's first release was the single Here Comes the Supergroove, which wasn't added to either of their original albums. Supergroove released two albums of original content - Traction, from which four singles were taken, and Backspacer, which yielded two singles. Between the two they recorded the EP Tractor, and put out an EP of remixes, GreatMixes. Seven years after the group split a 'Best Of' compilation, Postage, was released.

Awards

1995 New Zealand Music Awards

• Best Group
• Album of the Year (Traction)
• Best Video (Jo Fischer & Matt Noonan – Can't Get Enough)
• Best Producer (Karl Steven & Malcolm Welsford – Traction)

1997 New Zealand Music Awards

• Best Video (Sigi Spath & Joe Lonie – If I Had My Way)
• Best Producer (Malcolm Welsford & Karl Steven - Backspacer)

Former member Che Ness, now performing as Che Fu, was named Best Male Vocalist. "Chains", which he recorded with DLT, was Single of the Year and its performers shared the Best Songwriter award.

Members

• Che Ness, aka Che Fu
• Joe Lonie
• Paul Russell
• Tim Stewart
• Ben Sciascia
• Ian Jones
• Nick Atkinson
• Karl Steven

Performance

• Saturday, 15 January 1994, Supergroove played at Mountain Rock III, Mountain Rock Music Festival, later partying backstage with Idol Fret, a group of young Supergroove fans who also played at the festival.

Reunion

Despite what was widely considered to be a less than amicable break up, Supergroove supported Crowded House for the three shows of their October 2007 New Zealand tour. This reunion included Che Fu, Jo Lonie, Tim Stewart, Ben Sciascia, Ian Jones, Nick Atkinson and Karl Steven.

Supergroove continued in 2007 on a summer tour, playing alongside popular New Zealand bands such as Atlas, Elemeno P, The Feelers and were one of the headline Kiwi acts of the Big Day Out 2008 in Auckland. The band featured in the University of Otago's, the University of Canterbury's and the University of Waikato's 2008 orientation weeks.^{[citation needed]}

Supergroove also played at the Groove in the Park 2008 festival held on New Zealand's Waitangi Day (6 February), at the Western Springs in Auckland.

Supergroove played at the Homegrown festival in Wellington on 14 March 2009

Discography

Date of Release	Title	Label	Charted	Certification	Catalog Number
Albums
1994	Traction	BMG	1 (NZ)	Platinum (NZ), Gold (Indonesia)	74321 27954 2
1996	Backspacer	RCA	2 (NZ)	Gold (NZ)
2003	Postage	BMG	10 (NZ)	-
EPs
1995	Tractor		-	Platinum (NZ)
1994	GreatMixes	BMG	-	-	74321 30851 2
Singles
1992	Here Comes The Supergroove	-	21 (NZ)
1993	Scorpio Girls	-	3 (NZ)	Gold (NZ)
	Can't Get Enough	-	1 (NZ), 32 (Aus)	Platinum (NZ)
	You Gotta Know	-	4 (NZ)
	Sitting Inside My Head	-	6 (NZ)	Gold (NZ)
1996	If I Had My Way	-	7 (NZ)
1996	5th Wheel	-	-
	Only Ever You	-	-
2003	For Whatever Remix	-	-

External links

• Supergroove Myspace Page
• Supergroove profile at Muzic.net.nz
• Svelte website