Bob Marley, The Specials, Steel Pulse, The Selecter, Culture, Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, Horace Andy, Frankie Paul, Easy Star All Stars, Toots & The Maytals, The Clash, Aswad,
(Key-fah-roo)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Okay, lets get the meaning of the name out of the way first. It is taken from the Swahili language, & depending who translates, Kifaru means either Charging Rhinoceros or Rhinoceros. We prefer the first one as it gives it a bit of an edge! Thanks to our friend Juliet Mehon for coming up with the name in the first place & kindly giving us permission to use it.
We are a Reggae band from Coventry who came together in a 5 piece line up in October 2004 and we play 100% original material in a mixture of styles of Reggae. From the early roots style, through lovers rock and rockers up to modern ragga rhythms, with some ‘dub’ thrown in for good measure. In the music we also like to put our own twist, bringing Rock, Jazz, Punk, Funk and a Pop sensibility to the mix. So far we have recorded two albums worth of material, although we have another 130 songs waiting to be recorded!
We played our first gig in June 2005 at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry as part of the Black awareness Festival. The band at this time comprised of Errol on Vocals, Jason on Bass, Paul & Skully on guitars with Stevo on drums. We are proud that, like Coventry’s most famous musical pioneers the Specials, we are a multi-cultural band as this seems to be a rarity in Reggae & Ska bands now.
The list of gigs includes many festival appearances, The Belgrade, Foleshill Festival (two years running) and a highly successful set on Friday night in the Rhythm Tent at the Godiva Festival 2006. We have also played The Jailhouse & Jumpin’ Jaks in Coventry and various venues around the Midlands supporting such Artists as Desmond Dekkers’ Aces, Delroy Williams, Dawn Penn, The Pioneers, Roddy Radiation (ex The Specials) & The Skabilly Rebels, The Rough Kutz & Too Hot.
We have suffered one line up change in our history, when our rhythm guitarist Skully left. We carried on as a four piece for a while with Errol playing rhythm guitar and singing. We eventually brought in a keyboard player, Sarah, to bring a much needed fullness to the sound
In August 2006 Kifaru were approached by producer David Lowe (Touch & Go, Dreamcatcher, Various TV theme tunes including the very striking BBC news theme music) to provide some authentic music for a BBC documentary series called Wild Caribbean, which was broadcast in January & February 2007. We contributed to two songs, the roots reggae style of Monkey movin’ ,which was featured in the final episode of the series, and So Hot which was released on the EMI soundtrack to the series and is an up-tempo Ska number. These can be found as sound-clips on our website.
In 2007 we played the Coventry Godiva Festival again and are being lined up to play again this year. Watch this space as they say.
2007 was a funny year for Kifaru, we gained a saxaphone in the shape of Silverton Hutchison, original drummer for the Specials, who played several gigs with us & then disappeared! We supported well known Ska bands such as Skaville UK with Rhoda Dakar & Special Brew also playing many of our own headlining gigs.
In February 2008 we entered the studio where we recorded 15 songs in one day and are currently mixing them before unleashing them on people!
In April we are playing at the Ska Splash Festival in a line up that includes Prince Buster, Symarip, The Pioneers, The Beat, Roddy & Neville from The Specials with their bands and many more. This will be our last gig with Sarah ..boards but we will be joined by Shan (better known as Beatbabe to all Ska fans) as her replacement/2nd keyboardist from this gig onwards.
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Pama Intl-Happenstance is the first of 3 singles to be taken from Pama Intl's much anticipated forthcoming album Pama Outernational (scheduled for a Oct/Nov'09 release)
Check out the slackers may 1 - 24! to hear the latest mp3s go to www.myspace.com/theslackers May 1 – Carcelles, Be – Pacrock Festival May 2 – Eeklo, Be – N9 May 3 – Lelystad, NL - Underground May 4 – Dordrecht, NL - Bibelot May 5 – Leeuwarden, Nl - Liberation Fest May 6 – Tampere, Fi – Klubi May 7- Helsinki, Fi – Tavestia May 8 – Paris, Fr – Music To Rock the Nation Fest May 9 – Koln, DE - Werkstatt May 10 – Braunschweig, De – Jolly Joker May 11 – Lindau, DE – Club Vaudeville May 12 – Geneva, CH – L’Usine May 13 – Zurich, CH – Club Future May 14 – Hazelbrouk, Fr – Shaka Laka > May 15 Brighton - Engine Room > May 16 Sheffield - Carling Academy 2 > May 17 Southampton - Soul Cellar > May 18 Bristol - Thekla > May 19 London - Underworld > May 20 Plymouth - White Rabbit > May 21 Dublin - Academy > May 22 Belfast - Spring & Airbrake > May 23 Carlisle - Brickyard > May 24 Leeds - Slam Dunk Festival New Self Medication vinyl! New dvd – Live at the Flamingo Cantina out now! for new cds, dvds, and vinyl in europe check out www.phonocaster.com
Always Keep the inner light going and continue to follow your soul. No borders, No artificial vibes . No commercial driven efforts. Treat the work as you would your principles. Mostly just have fun creating. Do u until the wheels fall off. May u have a wonderful New Year Always stay true Kifaru
