Now into their 25th year, The Bamboos have maintained their worldwide reputation as trailblazers of Funk & Soul. Their 11th studio album This Is How You Do It signals yet another stage in their continual evolution. The album explores new ground yet remains unmistakably the trademark combination of Lance Ferguson’s Soul powered production style, their effortless groove powered by a nine piece band and Kylie Auldist’s incredible voice.
After touring around Australia countless times, the band were thrilled to tour Europe and UK in November 2023 to support that album, the first time they have played in that part of the world since 2010. Despite that gap in time the band’s fanbase turned out more enthusiastically than ever across Spain, Germany, Paris and the UK. Three cities were in fact sell-outs, most notably the closing night with two sold out shows at the iconic Jazz Café in London, with a matinee show pulled together at the last minute to cater to the unprecedented demand before they flew home.
Upon forming in 2000 The Bamboos held their own against the overwhelming tide of rock music on Australian stages and became a foundation of the now world famous “Melbourne Soul Scene”. The Deep Funk of their initial singles and albums caused ripples worldwide, and they become the first Australian band with that sound to be signed to international labels and tour Europe and the UK. Kylie Auldist joined the band in 2007 and in a short space of time they became one of the first local Funk & Soul live drawcards, establishing a reputation as one of the best live bands in the country, regardless of genre. They soon evolved from that sound, incorporating a more complex blend of modern songwriting with classic soul arrangements, appealing to both purist fans of the genre as much as casual music fans by focusing on what’s important: songwriting, groove and powerful vocals.
Along the way they have been nominated for seven ARIA Awards (including back-to-back nominations in 2022 and 2023) and five APRA Songwriting Awards. They’ve blown away audiences at festivals and venues everywhere from London to Tokyo to playing in front of 15,000 people at Womadelaide. The list of international and local guest vocalists that they have collaborated with is testament to the respect they garner, and include the likes of Aloe Blacc, Durand Jones, Megan Washington, Tim Rogers, Daniel Merriweather, Dan Sultan, Urthboy, Alice Russell and Joey Dosik. In 2023 they were invited to play Jam Cruise, the long running floating music festival on the Caribbean, where they joined artists such as George Porter Jr. (bass player for The Meters), Butcher Brown, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio and the legendary UK ‘70s Funk act Cymande.
Their previous studio album, 2021’s Hard Up was the best received of their career to date with an ARIA nomination and radio support across Europe, UK and the US (where they cracked the Top 20 FMQB Triple A albums radio chart). On top of that there were songs taken from it that were used in the feature film 80 For Brady, NBC TV show Kenan and an international ad campaign for Old El Paso. In late 2022 they also released Live At Hamer Hall, the live recording of their shows with the fifty piece Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performed during a break in lockdowns the previous year. In 2025 they were invited to perform with The Canberra Symphony Orchestra as the central musical events for the annual Enlighten festival. Over the course of their career they have released albums on international labels such as Ubiquity, Tru Thoughts, Atlantic, Sony, Nettwerk and, since 2018, on Ferguson’s own Pacific Theatre Records (distributed worldwide by BMG).
To mark the band’s 25th anniversary Impressed Recordings compiled and released ‘The Bamboos Best’ a deluxe gatefold 2LP/CD compilation of the band’s recorded. After all these years, Lance Ferguson and the
band show no sign, not just of slowing down, but to never stop innovating and reinventing their sound for their loving and ever growing global fanbase.