Rogue Traders

Rogue Traders are an ARIA-award winning pop and rock influenced electronic dance music act from Australia, notable for their 2006 international hit singles Voodoo Child, Way To Go! and Watching You. The band is fronted by co-founder, DJ and producer Jamie Appleby (aka James Ash), and lead singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte. Drummer Cameron McGlinchey and guitarist Tim Henwood (of The Androids & Palace of the King) complete the live line-up of the band. Co-founder Steve Davis and Ash's wife, Melinda Appleby, often contribute to the songwriting process but choose to stay out of the spotlight. Appleby also provided lead vocals on some pre-Bassingthwaighte materiel, including the 2002 single Give Into Me. Ash and Davis first met in London in 1989. Before forming Rogue Traders in 2002, the duo worked together on various projects, most notably dance act Union State. In 2003, they released their debut album as Rogue Traders, titled We Know What You're Up To. Singles Give In To Me and Stay? (the latter featuring Ash on vocals) were both minor top 100 chart tracks in Australia. However their re-working of INXS' Need You Tonight, One Of My Kind, managed to achieve considerable success, peaking at #10 in the ARIA charts and scoring them an ARIA award. After the success of One Of My Kind, Ash and Davis decided to form a fully-fledged band and returned in 2005 with their sophomore album Here Come The Drums featuring vocalist Natalie Bassingthwaighte. Bassingthwaighte had previously risen to fame in Australia as an actress on the television show Neighbours, and her roles in critically acclaimed stage musicals such as Grease, Rent and Chicago. Davis began working solely as a songwriter for the band and hid away from the spotlight. The band went on to have major success in Australia, becoming of the biggest pop groups in the country with a string of consecutive hit singles and tours. In 2007 they released their third album, Better In The Dark. After embarking on a sold-out tour in 2008 in support of the album, Bassingthwaighte and McGlinchey, who had met in the band and been dating for quite some time, announced they would be parting ways with the group. Bassingthwaighte went on to pursue a successful solo career and married McGlinchey in 2011. In 2009, indie pop singer/songwriter Melinda Jackson (nicknamed Mindi, so not to be confused with Ash's wife Melinda Appleby) joined the group as their new frontwoman along with Peter Marin replacing McGlinchey on drums. They released one album, Night Of The Living Drums, but failed to meet the success of previous efforts despite receiving positive reviews and the band were subsequently dropped from the label and went on an indefinite hiatus. In 2015, it was announced that Bassingthwaighte and McGlinchey would be returning to the band for the 10th anniversary of Here Come The Drums. The band have since been performing live at various events around Australia. In March 2017, Bassingthwaighte revealed they were writing new music to be released later in the year, and in early April the band hit the studio for their first recording sessions. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.