Supergroove
{{Short description|New Zealand funk rock band}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Supergroove
| image =
| image_size =
| landscape =
| alt =
| caption =
| background = group_or_band
| alias = Low Down Dirty Blues Band
| origin = Auckland, New Zealand
| genre = Funk rock, Rap rock{{cite web|first= Peter |last= de Graaf |title= Trio freaked out in the groove |newspaper= The Northern Advocate |url= http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=113492 |date= 28 October 2014 |access-date= 22 March 2015}}
| years_active = {{start date|1989}}–{{end date|1997}}, {{start date|2007}}–present
| label = BMG
| associated_acts = Che Fu, Drab Doo-Riffs, Svelte
| website =
| current_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 reformed in 2007.
History
The band was founded on New Year's Eve 1989/1990, having previously been named the Low-Down Dirty Blues Band.Chunn, Mike and Chunn, Jeremy. The Mechanics of Popular Music, GP Publications, 1995, {{ISBN|1-8695-6130-9}}.
Prior to Supergroove's second album Backspacer, singer Che Fu and trumpeter Tim Stewart were fired from the band.{{Cite web |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/41008/Che-Fu-fired-up-and-ready-to-Supergroove |title=Che Fu fired up and ready to Supergroove|date=31 January 2009|website=Stuff |access-date=8 June 2023}}{{Cite web |url= https://dubdotdash.blogspot.com/2013/05/che-fu-2-b-spacific-revisited.html |title=Dub dot dash: Che Fu - 2bSpacific revisited |first=Peter |last=Mclennan |website=Dubdotdash.blogspot.com|date=23 May 2013|access-date=8 June 2023}}{{Cite news |title=Hopetoun Brown: Supergroove's tooting twosome go it alone |url= https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/hopetoun-brown-supergrooves-tooting-twosome-go-it-alone/U77ZCPME66UI2YMQUYTUMDRB4I/ |date=29 October 2015 |website=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=21 November 2024}}
Solo careers
Notable former members include Che Ness, aka Che Fu, now with a successful solo career, Paul Russell, who still studio drums with Che Fu. Two other ex-members, Tim Stewart (trumpet) and Ben Sciascia (guitar) formed a new band in late 2005 called Svelte[https://web.archive.org/web/20120215070419/http://www.svelte.co/] with Stewart on Lead vocals and Bass. Stewart went on to form Hopetoun Brown, a two-piece band, with fellow ex-Groover, Nick Atkinson - they released their first album in 2015 and also often appear together as the horn section for other performers including Tami Neilson, Dave Dobbyn and Don McGlashan.{{cite news |title=Supergroove's tooting twosome go it alone |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/hopetoun-brown-supergrooves-tooting-twosome-go-it-alone/U77ZCPME66UI2YMQUYTUMDRB4I/ |access-date=21 October 2024 |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=27 August 2015 |language=en-NZ}}
Reunions
Supergroove continued in 2007 on a summer tour, playing alongside popular New Zealand bands such as Atlas, Elemeno P, The Feelers[https://archive.today/20120716081505/http://c4tv.co.nz/Home/tabid/36/articleID/2252/cat/3/Default.aspx] and were one of the headline Kiwi acts of the Big Day Out 2008 in Auckland.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bigdayout.com/news/pressreleases.php|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029114112/http://www.bigdayout.com/news/pressreleases.php|url-status=dead|title=Big Day Out Press Releases|archive-date=29 October 2007|access-date=8 June 2023}} The band featured in the University of Otago's, the University of Canterbury's and the University of Waikato's 2008 orientation weeks.{{cite web|title=Orientation 2008|url=http://issuu.com/gyro_zine/docs/gyro_issue_1_orientation_sm|website=Issuu.com|date=9 February 2008 |access-date=17 June 2013}}{{cite web|title=Supergroove events from 2008|url=http://www.last.fm/music/Supergroove/+events/2008|work=Last.FM|date=18 January 2008 |access-date=17 June 2013}}
Supergroove played at the Groove in the Park 2010 festival held on New Zealand's Waitangi Day (6 February), at the Western Springs in Auckland. Supergroove also played at the Homegrown Festival in Wellington on 14 March 2009.{{cite web | url=https://www.homegrown.net.nz/page/37-Line-Up+Jim-Beam-Rock-Stage | title=Jim Beam Rock Stage: 2009 | publisher=Vodafone Homegrown | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208183420/https://www.homegrown.net.nz/page/37-Line-Up+Jim-Beam-Rock-Stage | archivedate=8 February 2009 |url-status=dead }}
Supergroove returned for another reunion tour in April 2025, featuring the original lineup (saxophonist Nick Atkinson, vocalists Karl Steven and Che Fu, drummer Ian Jones, bassist Joe Lonie, guitarist Ben Sciascia and trumpeter Tim Stewart). This tour started on 7 April 2025 in Rotorua and ended 27 April, with 14 shows in 9 venues. Apart from the main centres, they also had shows in Whanganui, Nelson, Invercargill and Havelock North. Troy Kingi, Rubi Du and DJ King Kapisi joined them, not so much as support as "intertwined" into the shows.https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/supergroove-the-phenomenon-tour-starts-with-two-shows-in-rotorua/IWYERWMEZNG25C7LZ3YHPFK72M/ Support from the public was so strong that several extra nights had to be added.https://nzmusic.org.nz/music-industry-news/supergroove-the-phenomenon-tour-new-dates-added/
Members
Current
- Che Ness – vocals {{small|(1989–1995, 2007-present)}}
- Karl Steven – vocals, keyboards, harmonica {{small|(1989–1997, 2007-present)}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sciascia.co.nz/files/3914/0909/7151/supergroove-14.jpg|format=JPG|title=Photographic image|website=Sciascia.co.nz|access-date=8 June 2023}}
- Ben Sciascia – guitar {{small|(1989–1997, 2007-present)}}
- Joe Lonie – bass {{small|(1989–1997, 2007-present)}}
- Tim Stewart – trumpet {{small|(1989–1995, 2007-present)}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/supergroove-mn0000378986 |title = Supergroove Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More|website = AllMusic}}
- Nick Atkinson – saxophone {{small|(1989–1997, 2007-present)}}, keyboards {{small|(1995–1997)}}
- Ian Jones – drums {{small|(1994-1997, 2007-present)}}
Former
- Paul Russell – drums {{small|(1989–1994)}}
=Timeline=
{{#tag:timeline|
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:22
PlotArea = left:110 bottom:90 top:5 right:10
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:1990 till:{{#time:m/d/Y}}
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:3
ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1990
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1990
Colors =
id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals
id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar
id:bass value:blue legend:Bass
id:drums value:orange legend:Drums
id:sax value:yellow legend:Saxophone
id:trumpet value:pink legend:Trumpet
id:keyboards value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:harm value:lavender legend:Harmonica
id:studio value:black legend:Studio_album
id:ep value:gray(0.57) legend:Extended_play
id:bestof value:gray(0.9) legend:Greatest_hits_compilation
id:bars value:gray(0.97)
BackgroundColors = bars:bars
LineData =
layer:back
color:studio
at:07/05/1994
at:09/13/1996
color:ep
at:09/27/1994
at:06/19/1996
color:bestof
at:11/06/2003
BarData =
bar:Che text:"Che Ness"
bar:Karl text:"Karl Steven"
bar:Ben text:"Ben Sciascia"
bar:Joe text:"Joe Lonie"
bar:Tim text:"Tim Stewart"
bar:Nick text:"Nick Atkinson"
bar:Paul text:"Paul Russell"
bar:Ian text:"Ian Jones"
PlotData =
width:13
bar:Che from:start till:06/06/1995 color:vocals
bar:Che from:01/01/2007 till:end color:vocals
bar:Karl from:start till:01/01/1997 color:vocals
bar:Karl from:start till:01/01/1997 color:keyboards width:3
bar:Karl from:start till:01/01/1997 color:harm width:7
bar:Karl from:01/01/2007 till:end color:vocals
bar:Karl from:01/01/2007 till:end color:keyboards width:3
bar:Karl from:01/01/2007 till:end color:harm width:7
bar:Ben from:start till:01/01/1997 color:guitar
bar:Ben from:01/01/2007 till:end color:guitar
bar:Joe from:start till:01/01/1997 color:bass
bar:Joe from:01/01/2007 till:end color:bass
bar:Tim from:start till:06/06/1995 color:trumpet
bar:Tim from:01/01/2007 till:end color:trumpet
bar:Nick from:start till:06/06/1995 color:sax
bar:Nick from:06/06/1995 till:01/01/1997 color:keyboards
bar:Nick from:01/01/2007 till:end color:sax
bar:Paul from:start till:08/05/1994 color:drums
bar:Ian from:08/05/1994 till:01/01/1997 color:drums
bar:Ian from:01/01/2007 till:end color:drums
}}
Discography
= Albums =
| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"| Year !rowspan="2"| Album ! colspan="2" | Peak chart !rowspan="2"| Certifications |
| NZ {{cite web|url=https://charts.nz/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Supergroove|website=Charts.nz|title=Supergroove in New Zealand Charts|access-date=5 July 2017}} ! AUS
|
|---|
| 1994
| Traction
| align="center"| 1 | align="center"| 46 |
|
1996
| align="center" | 2 | align="center"| — |
|
| 2003
| Postage
| align="center" | 10 | align="center"| — | align="center"| |
= EPs =
| class="wikitable"
!rowspan="2"| Year !rowspan="2"| Album ! Peak chart !rowspan="2"| Certifications |
| NZ |
|---|
| 1994{{Cite web|url=https://www.deezer.com/us/album/7991782|title=Tractor|date=11 July 1994|website=Deezer.com}}
| Tractor | align="center" | 2 |
|
1996
| align="center" | 34 | |
= Singles =
| class="wikitable" |
| rowspan="2" | Year
! rowspan="2" | Title ! colspan="2" | Peak chart ! rowspan="2" | Certifications ! rowspan="2" | Album |
|---|
| NZ ! AUS |
| 1992
| "Here Comes The Supergroove" | align="center" | 21 | align="center" | — | | Non-album single |
| rowspan=2 | 1993
| "You Gotta Know" | align="center" | 4 | align="center" | 57 | | rowspan=4 | Traction |
| "Scorpio Girls"
| align="center" | 3 | align="center" | — |
|
| rowspan=2 | 1994
| "Can't Get Enough" | align="center" | 1 | align="center" | 32 |
|
| "Sitting Inside My Head"
| align="center" | 6 | align="center" | — |
|
| rowspan=2 | 1996
| "If I Had My Way" | align="center" | 7 | align="center" | — | | rowspan=2 | Backspacer |
| "5th Wheel"
| align="center" | — | align="center" | — | |
| 2003
| "For Whatever Remix" | align="center" | — | align="center" | — | | Postage |
Awards
= New Zealand Music Awards =
{{awards table}}
! Ref
|-
| align="center" | 1994
| Malcolm Welsford – "You Gotta Know"
| Best Engineer
| {{nom}}
|-
| align="center" rowspan="6" | 1995
| Traction
| Album of the Year
| {{won}}
|-
| "Can't Get Enough"
| Single of the Year
| {{nom}}
|-
| Supergroove
| Best Group
| {{won}}
|-
| Jo Fischer and Matt Noonan – "Can't Get Enough"
| Best Video
| {{won}}
|-
| Karl Steven & Malcolm Welsford – Traction
| Best Producer
| {{won}}
|-
| Malcolm Welsford – Traction
| Best Engineer
| {{won}}
|-
| align="center" rowspan="2" | 1996
| Supergroove
| International Achievement
| {{nom}}
|-
| Sigi Spath and Jo Fisher – "You Gotta Know"
| Best Video
| {{won}}
|-
| rowspan="3" align="center" | 1997
| Sigi Spath and Joe Lonie – "If I Had My Way"
| Best Video
| {{won}}
|-
| Malcolm Welsford and Karl Steven – Backspacer
| Best Producer
| {{won}}
|-
| Malcolm Welsford – Backspacer
| Best Engineer
| {{nom}}
|-
| align="center" | 2014
| Supergroove
| {{yes2|Awarded}}
|}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/supergroove AudioCulture profile]
- [http://www.muzic.net.nz/artists/93.html Supergroove profile at Muzic.net.nz]
{{Supergroove|state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:New Zealand funk musical groups