Bonjah were a four-piece band based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. ''Bonjah'' was formed in 2006 in Tauranga New Zealand by Glenn Mossop, Regan Lethbridge, David Morgan, and Dan Chisholm. The band's tours include Japan, England, Germany, New Zealand and have toured Australia extensively through numerous national tours. The group have been nominated for various awards and supported major artists such as

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

, G Love & special Sauce,

The Beautiful Girls The Beautiful Girls are an Australian roots music group founded in Sydney in 2001 by Mat McHugh, Clay MacDonald, and Mitchell Connelly. They have released three extended plays, '' Morning Sun'' (2002), ''Goodtimes'' (2002), and '' The Weight ...

, Paul Kelly, Raggamuffin,

Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...

The Black Seeds The Black Seeds are a reggae inspired musical group from Wellington, New Zealand.Campbell-Livingston, Cecelia (2013)The Black Seeds, rooted in reggae, ''Jamaica Observer'', 27 November 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2013 Their rocksteady song "One ...

Trinity Roots TrinityRoots (1998–2005, 2011–present) are a band based in Wellington, New Zealand. Although they are commonly associated with New Zealand reggae they also embody a stripped back, jazz and soul-influenced rhythmic sound, which often ...

Eskimo Joe Eskimo Joe are an Australian alternative rock band that was formed in 1997 by Stuart MacLeod, on lead guitar, Joel Quartermain, on drums and guitar, and Kavyen Temperley, on bass guitar and vocals, in East Fremantle, Western Australia, Austral ...

. Most commonly known for their

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

roots element of music the group have progressively moved towards a soulful rock infused style which is evident in the 2011 Go Go Chaos album.

Festivals

Bonjah have featured at numerous Australian and International major festivals including

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...

Woodford Folk Festival The Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music and cultural festival held near the semi-rural town of Woodford, north of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events of its type in Australia. Every year ap ...

Pyramid Rock Festival The Pyramid Rock Festival was an Australian New Year's Eve camp-out rock music festival at Ventnor on Phillip Island. The original festival in 2004 was organised by local resident, Angus Cameron, and his two cousins. History Beginning as a sing ...

, Festival of the Sun, Apollo Bay Music Festival, West Coast Blues & Roots Festival & featured at various International festivals including Germany's JUWI FESTin 2012 & Greenroom Festival in Japan. In 2013, BONJAH released their first track from the Beautiful Wild album titled Evolution. March 2014 saw the group release their second single from the album titled Honey with an anticipated album release in early April.

History

Glenn Mossop, Regan Lethbridge, David Morgan, Dan Chisholm first met at school in

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and in 2004 when the members were studying at university in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand the group went under the moniker Bonjahbango. In later 2006 Bonjahbango was shortened to BONJAH and the members relocated to

, Australia. In 2009 Bonjah's track ''Fly'' was featured through various promotional campaigns and in March the band released ''Until Dawn'' with lead single ''Bring Back The Fire'' receiving an ''Apra Nomination ''for best Blues & Roots song of the year and was later followed with ''Fly'' the second single which was also inducted for

Apra APRA or Apra may refer to: Places *Apra, Punjab, a census town city in Jalandhar District of Punjab, India * Apra Harbor, the main port of Guam Acronyms * American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana), a Peruvi ...

nominations. During the summer of 2009 ''BONJAH'' toured Australia extensively and supported major artists such as

, Paul Kelly,

Ragga Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music. Similar to hip hop, sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music. Wayne Sm ...

muffin and played at many Australian festivals including

, Festival of the Sun, One Movement Festival and

Moomba Moomba (also known as the Moomba Festival) is held annually in Melbourne, Australia. Run by the City of Melbourne, it is Australia's largest free community festival. The Melburnian tradition is celebrated over four days, incorporating the Labo ...

Festival. The lead single from the Album ''Bring Back The Fire'' was re released in 2010 and later featured on a

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

movie

Matching Jack ''Matching Jack'' is a 2010 Australian drama film directed by Nadia Tass from a screenplay by Lynne Renew and David Parker, based on an unfilmed script by Renew entitled ''Love and Mortar''. Plot Life seems idyllic for Marisa (Jacinda Barrett ...

which was a film based on an unfilmed script by Renew entitled Love and Mortar Matching jack opened at number eight at the Australian box office in its opening weekend, taking in total $258,011. Following ''Bring Back The Fire's'' national release BONJAH ended up donating all of their proceeds to the Leukemia cause and was later invited to play "light the night" which was a leukaemia benefit showcase that also featured multi ARIA award winner

Wendy Mathews Wendy Joan Matthews (born 13 January 1960) is a Canadian-born Australian singer-songwriter who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist. She released Top 20 hit singles in the 1990s including " Token Angels", "L ...

and members of the

Jersey Boys ''Jersey Boys'' is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe, and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual break-up of th ...

at Sydney's recital hall on behalf of the Leukemia Foundation. In 2011 BONJAH released Go Go Chaos box collection set through Shock Records and toured Australia extensively on the back of their release with Triple J presenting the national tour. The group ended the Go Go Chaos tour in 2012 with a sell out showcase at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne where they partnered with Make a wish foundation Australia and ended up donating $1 of every ticket sold raising hundreds of dollars for the charitable foundation .

Discography

Albums

* ''Until Dawn'' (6 Mar 2009) MGM * ''Go Go Chaos'' (15 Jul 2011) Shock Records * ''Live at the Corner 2012'' (31 Aug 2012) Gaga Digi * ''Beautiful Wild'' (18 Apr 2014) AUS No. 41 Inertia

Singles

* ''Bring Back The Fire'' (10 Feb 2009) * ''Fly'' (17 Feb 2009) * ''Something We Should Know'' (1 Oct 2010) * ''The White Line'' (3 Feb 2011)

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

, - , rowspan="1", 2010 , , rowspan="1", Fly , , Best Blues & Roots Single, , , - , rowspan="1", 2010 , , rowspan="1", Bring Back The Fire , , Best Blues & Roots Single, , , -

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at ...

) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. , - ,

AIR Awards of 2009 The AIR Awards of 2009 is the fourth annual Australian Independent Record Labels Association Music Awards (generally known as the AIR Awards and Jagermeister AIR Awards) and was an award ceremony at The Forum Theatre, in Melbourne, Australia ...

, , ''Until Dawn'' , , Best Blues & Roots Album, , , - ,

AIR Awards of 2011 The AIR Awards of 2011 (or Jägermeister Independent Awards of 2011) is the sixth annual Australian Independent Record Labels Association Music Awards (generally known as the AIR Awards) and was an award ceremony at Revolt Art Space, in Melbourn ...

, , ''Go Go Chaos'' , , Best Blues & Roots Album, , , -

Rolling Stone Awards

, - , rowspan="1", 2011 , , rowspan="1", Artist Nomination , , Artist To Watch, , , -

Sources

MGM Distribution MGM Distribution (Metropolitan Groove Merchants) is the largest independent distributor of Australian music and music related merchandise and was established in April 1998 by Sebastian Chase. MGM Distribution was specifically set up as a dis ...

''MGM Distribution''. 13 October 2007. *

22 August 2010.
/ref> *

APRA Awards of 2010 The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 2010 (generally known as APRA Music Awards) was the 28th annual ceremony by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) to award outstanding achievements in contemporary songwritin ...

25 May 2010.
/ref>

References

{{Authority control Australian bluegrass music groups