Comeback Kid South African Tour 2014

26 October 2013 0

Rodriguez’ Brooklyn Concert (Bob Dylan, You Need to Revisit Highway Sixto One) | White Shaka

Rodriguez at the Barclay Center[Courtesy: Brooklyn Vegan]

When the crowd in the arena rose, whistling, cheering and applauding at the appearance of this legend of our youths, it seemed like an historic moment in the making. Barely able to see, Sixto Rodriguez was lead onto the stage by his daughter and an assistant, put on a top hat and began to sing in a remarkably young, robust voice.

This voice of our youth, might have needed a little help getting there but contrary to the rumors was not frail at all. He played the songs we love, Sugarman,I Wonder, Inner City Blues, Crucify Your Mind and we all thank him for that. But the moments were more mystery than history: if you came to understand the magic of Rodriguez and recapture the strange mixture of dread and rebellion that his music stood for South Africans during apartheid – you didn’t get it there.

On the other hand, if you read on, you just might get it here.

It turns out that Rodriguez is a very sweet natured man – think Paarl Perlé on a breezy night – and while he played his obligatory hits from his first albums and acknowledged the many South Africans in the audience, this was no South African show. He never discussed the songs, there was no commentary, no lingering with choruses or any attempt to engage the audience. We didn’t get to revisit the strange rebelliousness he represented for white South Africans in the 70’s and 80’s – the world they comfortably hated and knew to be wrong but whose alternative was just too hard to confront.

He just sang them so he could gt them out of the way to sing what he really wanted. It turns out, the old prophet of destruction yearned to be a classic, early sixties blues rock crooner and his greatest joy was playing songs like Lucille and A Whole Lotta Shaking Going On. His younger back up band reveled in those standards and despite needed to huddle between songs, played those old rock licks like they grew up with them. This could be the top group at any State Fair. As Sixto said in his wisecracking patter, he didn’t want to be a great legend, “just an ordinary legend.”

20 October 2013 5

Dinosaur Days Revisited Benefit For Leon Economides

Cafe Barcelona in Pretoria is the place to be at 7pm on the 16th November to show support for Leon Economides.

A number of years ago, Leon was held up at gunpoint in an armed robbery in his offices, and was badly assaulted, which led to his spinal column being seriously injured when a few lower vertebra were broken as a result of him being kicked in the back and the assailants jumping on his back when he was made to lie face down on the floor. The damage was quite extensive, and this this has led to many failed back procedures since 2008 (the diagnosis is called “Failed Back Procedure Syndrome”) and other complications, rendering him unable to work properly or live a normal life, together with huge medical bills. This has affected his income tremendously, and has led to other medical conditions that are attributed to the condition.

It is a long and involved story, but to summarize: Due to medical aid and life policy exclusions / waiting periods and other financial issues, Leon’s medical expenses got out of control as the complications, and need, for further, and ongoing medical procedures, continue. He has recently consulted with a new anaesthesiologist / pain specialist at the Wilgeheuwel Hospital who has advised that, whilst there is no cure for the nerve and disc damage done, he might be able to alleviate and reduce the debilitating pain Leon is experiencing every day of his life, with a different procedure to the ones that Leon has already had, and which have not been successful, hopefully thus affording him a better quality of life.

Johnathan Martin came up with the idea of a benefit concert, and he and Charl Barry have set about arranging this. The purpose of the benefit concert is to try and assist Leon with the costs of this latest procedure, which is to be held in the later part of November.

Johnathan and Charl contacted various musicians, secured a venue and a PA, together with a sound engineer. It’s now its up to us, the public, to show up and help pay Leon’s medical bills, a sort of “thank you” for the music and support of SA bands and musicians over the years.

CAFE BARCELONA, in Elardus Park, Pretoria, was kind enough to give us the venue, together with their PA. The concert will be held from 7pm on 16 NOVEMBER 2013, and Conrad Jamneck will do the sound.

The musicians that so kindly offered their services for free, are:

Son
The Fake Leather Blues Band
Aiden Martin Band
Agro
Johnathan Martin and In My Blood
The Black Cat Bones
Mauritz Lotz

ALSO…..

Peter Pulvenis from BAND O’ GYPSYS will come out of retirement for this gig, thanks to Gary Fulton.

The entrance fee will be R100 per person. The money will be paid into a fund which will be used to pay for Leon’s medical bills.

Cafe Barcelona

Elardus Park Shopping Centre,

cnr Delmas & Barnard Streets,

Elardus Park,

Pretoria

phone: 012 – 345 3602

email: info@cafebarcelona.co.za

Visit the Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/events/225073830992372/

For more information contact Johnathan Martin on noquarterband@yahoo.co.uk

17 October 2013 0

Allan Faull: Memorial Service – Mon, 14 Oct @ 5pm (Silwood Kitchens)

Where:

Silwood Kitchen

Silwood Road

Rondebosch

Cape Town 7700

Tel: 021 686 4894

When:

Monday, 14^th October

5pm for 5h30pm

9 October 2013 0

Press Release Mean Black Mamba: Raw foot stomping roots music – Album launch Friday 11 Oct – Side Street Studios 48 Albert Road Woodstock

Mean Black Mamba: Raw foot stomping roots music that grooves your body and soul. Words of humor and hope sliding between writhing riffs and the insistent thump of a cowhide drum. This is afro swamp gospel, this is blues n’ roll. Gritty & hard hitting, the music winds you off the floor and twists you to your feet. Fresh. Cosmic delta juju. Like its name-snake, mean with a smile on its face.

Born on the southern tip of Africa, Guy Collins has been playing guitar for most of his years. His interest really took off when he was 15 on a warm day. The long distance groove from somewhere in the American south, Howlin’ Wolf on Highway 49, beamed into the living room. African roots, blues, rock ‘n roll. A continual search for an elusive sound.

“James van Minnen can extract a beat from a feather and a shoe if it were asked of him; seated at his drums he appears as a blur of limbs and crashing steel from which infectious rhythms emanate in metronomic waves…he infuses African and Middle Eastern rhythms into songs with hypnotic effect”

Mahala Review (voted in the top 25 artists of 2012 by IMR Magazine)

James van Minnen and Guy Collins have both been in the music scene for years, mostly somewhat under the radar, fuelling the backline in some of the more well-known outfits around.

Mean Black Mamba is the result of infrequent collaborations between these two musicians over the past decade, an unnamed two-piece appearing at house parties, street markets and other events where they have slipped in incognito and blown people away with their rich, gritty and rootsy sound.

Live, MBM follows the template of roots and rural musicians everywhere:

“Grooves are made for dancing and once people get moving, the music takes it’s own course. There are no rules when we are playing and while we have recorded an album of concise songs, we can stretch them out live and segue them into each other over whatever groove or tempo feels right at the time.

I believe that recording an album is an opportunity to create an art piece that reflects a moment in time and we have done our best to make an album that can stand for itself while imbuing it with the raw essence of our live sound.” – Guy Collins

“Our live shows clearly get people going and I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the music is as fresh to us as it is to the audience, being willing to ride the mamba wherever it chooses to take us.” – James van Minnen

Their much-anticipated “Killer album.” (Tim Lengfeld, Audio Mastering Engineer) will be launched at Side Street Studios, 48 Albert Rd, Woodstock, on October 11th this year where you can experience this and what is guaranteed to be one helluva shindig with some fantastic guest artists and collaborators.

Pre-buy albums, entry and awesome deals via their IndieGogo campaign at www.igg.me/at/mean-black-mamba

for press queries contact