James Ash (born Jamie Graham Appleby; 10 June 1973), is an English-born Australian musician, songwriter and record producer. He is the co-founder and keyboardist of Australian electro-rock group

Rogue Traders Rogue Traders is an Australian electronic rock band formed in Melbourne, Victoria in 2002 by mainstay James Ash on keyboards. In 1989, Ash met fellow original member Steve Davis in London while both were working as DJs. Before forming Rogue ...

, where he plays the keyboard and guitar. Ash was born in

Windsor, Berkshire Windsor is a historic town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch. The town is situated we ...

, England and his early schooling was at

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

Gardens,

Golders Green Golders Green is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet in north London, northwest of Charing Cross. It began as a medieval small suburban linear settlement near a farm and public grazing area green, and dates to the early 19th century. It ...

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames and the City of London. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshi ...

and then

Ashfold School Lower Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the B2110, B2115 and A281 roads south-east from Horsham, and is centred on Holy Trinity Church and The Plough public house, where t ...

in Buckinghamshire. He and his brother Gary then moved to

Langwarrin Langwarrin ( ) is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, central business district, located within the City of Frankston Local government areas of Victoria, local government ar ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, Australia in 1982. The move only lasted 18 months, however, and the boys returned to the United Kingdom. Education continued at Paignton College,

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

– then Cheam High,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. Ash moved back to Australia in 1988 for one year and undertook Year 11 at Sandringham Secondary College in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Ash began writing music in 1989 on an

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

. Soon after returning to the United Kingdom in 1989, James met long-term collaborator Steve Davis who introduced him to Dance Music and DJing. Meanwhile, James completed his education at

Carshalton College South Thames Colleges Group (STCG) is a large further education institution that operates four colleges in south-west London: South Thames College, Kingston College, Merton College, and Carshalton College. The four main campuses are in Wandswort ...

, Carshalton in 1992 and finally emigrated back once again to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Ash joined Melbourne community based radio station

Hitz FM HITZ FM is a privately owned and a commercial radio station in Accra, the capital of Ghana, winner of ABGMA Best Radio Show Entertainment award for the year 2024. The station is owned and run by the media group company Multimedia Group Limited ...

in 1993 as an on-air announcer. He began DJing in clubs in late 1993. Ash's first proper DJ gig was at

venue Lazar's and was acquired after he lied about his skills as a nightclub DJ. He had actually never DJ'ed in a nightclub before. Ash got dragged off after just ten minutes by the manager who told him he was rubbish. He convinced the manager to give him another try next week and came into the venue during the daytimes to practise. Ash has been an active member of Australia's DJ fraternity since 1994, and has held residencies at most of Melbourne's leading clubs over the years. Ash's first record released was ''Be With Me'' under the name Faith in Technology through Colossal Records. He quickly followed this up with ''Thunderchild'' under the moniker Thunderchild, released through leading Australian Dance label, Vicious Vinyl. Since 1994 Ash has released over forty remixes and original productions under names including: Faith In Technology, Thunderchild, Elan, Union State and Rogue Traders. In 1998 Ash turned 25 and moved to Melbourne dance radio station Kiss FM where he remained for the next few years. In 2000 Ash and long-term collaborator Steve Davis changed the name of their production partnership from Union State to Rogue Traders. In November 2008 after having enjoyed the success of two hit Rogue Traders albums and while working on the fourth Rogue Traders album, Ash released a dance song "Son of 91" on

TV Rock TV Rock were an Australian dance music duo consisting of Grant Smillie and Ivan Gough. Biography TV Rock entered the mainstream in February 2006 with their hit " Flaunt It" featuring Seany B which reached #1 for five weeks, spent 39 weeks ...

's record label, making this track the first Ash had released under his own name. The track is a throwback to late eighties to early nineties dance music.

Personal life

James is married to singer Melinda Appleby (née Richards) who appeared on the first Rogue Traders album ''

We Know What You're Up To ''We Know What You're Up To'' is the debut studio album by Australian band Rogue Traders. It was released by Vicious Grooves, Virgin in Australia on 5 May 2003 (see 2003 in music). After disappointing sales and poor publicity, Rogue Traders was ...

'' and continued to contribute to the writing of the following Rogue Traders albums.

Awards and nominations

APRA Award

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Dance Work of the Year nomination for "Don't You Wanna Feel" written by Jamie Appleby, Steven Davis,

Natalie Bassingthwaighte Natalie Bassingthwaighte (; born 1 September 1975) is an Australian singer, actress and television personality. Born and raised in Wollongong, New South Wales, she began her career in musical theatre. She later pursued an acting career in 1998 ...

, Dougal Drummond.

References

External links

Rogue Traders official siteRoguesonline.com: A Rogue Traders fansiteRogue Traders Official Forum, which James frequents Rogue Traders official Myspace site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ash, James 1973 births APRA Award winners Living people English DJs English keyboardists Musicians from Windsor, Berkshire English emigrants to Australia Rogue Traders members Musicians from Melbourne