Kifaru at Ska Splash.Well, what can we say.......? A great time was had by the band.
Arrived on the Friday about six o'clock & after a little confusion, got our accomodation for the weekend. The place had been a little hard to find, so Sarah was too tired to go driving around in search of a supermarket for supplies so we decided we could wait till Saturday. After one drink we realised we hadn't any beer back at base so we went shopping after all! We thought we could get to the shop & back before Roddy & The Skabilly Rebels came on at 10pm. Walking past the venue just after 9 we could hear Ratrace so we legged it back to base to drop our supplies off and catch the rest of their set. I think one band hadn't turned up so The Skabs went on an hour earlier. A good set from Roddy & the boys, shame I missed Hey Little Rich Girl. As we had our set at 12pm the next day I thought it prudent I go to bed at a reasonable time..........
Saturday: Got up at about 8am, apparently some of the single members of the band had got a bit shouty when they came in about 2 in the morning but.......that's our business! Got to the venue for about 11:30 only to find the FoH speakers had to be returned to base & replaced with some that actually worked! Kettering! Speakers turned up about 12, I was worried our set might be cancelled so as not to screw with running times but my fears were soon dismissed. We did a quick one song soundcheck, then had a quick break til 1pm when we started properly.
Set list for any one interested:
Waste away (Soundcheck)
1 Freedom fight
2 Walking down
3 Ethiopia cries
4 Feelings Divine
5 Sinner man
6 Reasons why
7 South Afrikkka
8 (Our one) Destination
9 Be with I
10 Remain in us.
It was great to see a lot of people come to see us, afer all being the first band on the second day at a festival (especially when it finished at 3am that morning!) is normally a dreaded spot. We got a good reaction from the audience & I think we entertained them. Shan our new keyboard player in only her second gig played like she'd been with us for ages.
After our set I went back to base while Errol Jason Paul & Shan all stayed at the venue. Later on I caught The Big's set, always entertaining, don't know how he can play guitar like that & sing! We all met up & caught the sets from Hotknives, Special Guests & The Rough Kutz. The Kutz were brilliant as usual though have gone through a line up change since I last saw 'em with only Mucka as Singer now. Chell Heath is excellent as usual with a stage invasion from our very own Shan! I only managed to catch The Beat & The Pioneers but the rest of the band say Mark Foggo's Skasters were brilliant.
Sunday: I don't really know what happened, as I don't really wanna listen to rumours & speculation, all I know is Jet (one of the promoters) is not there, Sarah the other promoter was but not very happy. I'm not gonna expand on any of the bullshit as it is not my place, I was just gutted that Jet had worked so hard & wasn't there to see out the last day............
The running order had been very truncated, many of the bands who were supposed to be appearing and had actually turned up were suddenly off the bill. (Nothing to do with Jet BTW).
Of the bands that did play, I managed to catch Cracked Actors from Brum (I particularly liked their 2nd to last song Flowers), Neville Staple Band & Prince Buster with Delroy Williams. I danced my ass off to Neville, that man has some energy in him! The Prince was as brilliant as I expected him to be. I Enjoyed Myself! We then drove home straight after Prince Buster closed the festival as some of us hadn't booked the Monday off! All in all a brill Festival and I'm looking forward to the next one. Hopefully we will be on the bill again (maybe sneak up the running order next time!).
Thanks for reading, Stevo Kifaru
After a year of upheaval, which saw our (brilliant) rhythm guitarist leave, The Godiva Festival as Support to The Aces, Dawn Penn & Prince Buster, Acquiring a keyboard player & having to teach her how to play 20+ songs & then just as we were ready to go out again, former Specials drummer Silverton Hutchison joined as a Saxophonist(!), cue more rehearsals, we are now ready to play out again, so here are the dates so far:- Friday 6th July, The Fletch, Coventry as support to Special Brew (TBC) bands from 9pm £6 Friday 13th July, The Godiva Festival, Coventry. Outdoor (Market) Stage (8:30pm Free) Thursday 2nd August, The Golden Cross, Coventry. Plus two other bands TBC. 8pm-1am Free Friday September 28th, Club Jamaica @ The Havana Bar, Southsea, Portsmouth 8pm-1am (TBC) (2x45 min sets Band onstage @ 10pm) £5 Saturday September 29th, Bullingdon Arms, Oxford as support to Orange Street (a Ska band from Portsmouth)
more dates as we get them
Saturday June 9th Bandstand in the Park, The Parade, Leamington Spa (afternoon, Free) Friday July 6th The Fletch, Coventry (Supporting Special Brew, Tickets £6) Friday July 13th Godiva Festival, Coventry (Market Stage, Outdoors, Free) Time tbc Saturday August 2nd Golden Cross, Coventry (Free)
The audition for the G-Factor 2007 competition which Kifaru are in is being held this Sunday 29th April at the Phoenix pub Coventry. Some might know this pub as the Colin Campbell.
Anyhow for those coming (or not) here is the set we will be playing:-
Walking down
Feelings Divine
Sinner man
Destination
Remain in us.
The first two songs are rockers style (ie kinda like the Clash meets Bob Marley. With Eddie Van Halen running on to play the guitar solo, lol). Then Sinner man is an all out roots tune, played at quite a downtempo, but no less effective for it. Then the last two songs are in our signature steppers style, think Jammin' (Bob Marley or Stevie Wonder!) if that don't get the crowd movin' then I would suspect Mafia involvement! So there we have a good showcase of all the styles we play, I hope the crowd are up for it, we sure will be!
Kifaru 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! We are a Reggae band from Coventry who came together as a 5 piece band in October 2004 who 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. Current Line Up:- Errol – Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar Jason – Bass Paul – Lead Guitar Sarah – Keyboards Stevo – Drums Contact Kifaru:- kifaruuk@yahoo.com 07904 369085 www.kifaru.co.uk
Kifaru
(Swahili: - Charging Rhino)
We are a five piece Reggae band from Coventry, who have been together for about two years. Although there are many Reggae artists in the City, we appear to be the only band.
The band comprises of Errol on vocals and rhythm guitar, Paul on lead guitar, Jason on bass, Sarah on keyboards and Stevo on drums..
We play 100% original material and have recorded two albums worth of songs so far. We have another 130 songs waiting to be rehearsed and put to tape!
The list of gigs includes many festival appearances, The Belgrade, Foleshill (two years running) and a highly successful set on Friday night in the Rhythm Tent at the Godiva Festival 2006.
We play a mixture of styles of Reggae and like to put our own twist on the music, bringing Rock, Jazz, Punk, Funk and a Pop sensibility to the mix. Like some of the Reggae greats, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, Black Uhuru and even to some extent Coventry’s’ own Specials there is a political leaning towards the lyrics in our songs.
Contact Kifaru;
07904 369085
e-mail; kifaruuk@yahoo.com
www.kifaru.co.uk
http://kifaru.multiply.com/
1 Reasons
2 Be with I
3 Freedom fight
4 Feelings Divine
5 Ethiopia Cries
6 Sinner man
7 Ghetto
8 Chalice
9 Throwaway your argument
10 Waste away
11 South Africa
12 Walking down that avenue
13 I love you son, Mother
14 Destination
15 Father gave I
16 Easy love
17 When it is easy
18 Lifes dream
19 Love is all I have
20 Sons & daughters
21 Jah one true light (Studio only)
2 new ones;
22 The wanderer (not the Dion & the Belmonts song!)
23 Remain in us
Not a set list as such, rather the choice of songs we pick from when we play live
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