Supergroove

The band was founded on New Year's Eve 1989/1990, having previously been named the Low-Down Dirty Blues Band.[2]

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.

Prior to Supergroove's second album Backspacer, Che Fu was fired from the band.[3] The band then entirely split up in 1997 over creative differences. Seven years after the group split a 'Best Of' compilation, Postage, was released.

• In 1990 Supergroove were the support act for New Kids On The Block at Mount Smart Stadium.
• Saturday, 15 January 1994, Supergroove played at Mountain Rock III, Mountain Rock Music Festival.

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.[4] Ian Jones joined upcoming Sydney band Lost Valentinos on drums. Karl Steven 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.

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[5] and were one of the headline Kiwi acts of the Big Day Out 2008 in Auckland.[6] The band featured in the University of Otago's, the University of Canterbury's and the University of Waikato's 2008 orientation weeks.[7][8]

Supergroove 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 also played at the Homegrown Festival in Wellington on 14 March 2009.[9]

In February 2015, Supergroove reunited to play in all shows of The Winery Tour – 12 shows at various vineyards around New Zealand. http://thewinerytour.co.nz

Current members

• Che Ness – vocals (1989–1995, 2007-present)[3]
• Karl Steven – vocals, keyboards, harmonica (1989–1997, 2007-present)[10]
• Ben Sciascia – guitar (1989–1997, 2007-present)
• Joe Lonie – bass (1989–1997, 2007-present)
• Tim Stewart – trumpet (1989–1995, 2007-present)[11]
• Nick Atkinson – saxophone (1989–1997, 2007-present), keyboards (1995–1997)[11]
• Ian Jones – drums (1994-1997, 2007-present)

Former members

• Paul Russell – drums (1989–1994)

Timeline

• AudioCulture profile
• Supergroove profile at Muzic.net.nz