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Day three began with the banging of bongos. I could faintly hear singing as a procession of bongo drummers traipsed through the farm. I decided it was time for a bath. Two days of dirt makes for a smelly person.
The trip down to the river is mandatory. In fact, it’s how we spent most of our morning. Chilling with beer, freezing in the 11°C water and splashing about until our knees were blue. Some of us stayed under for so long, we may have permanently altered our body temperature.
The sky is a clear blue with a bit of chill in the air. The sharp cold running through my nose reminds me how manic life in Johannesburg really is. Not once this year have I seen the air so clear. In between drinking and chatting, the faint music from the main tent forms the perfect backdrop to a perfect morning.
Trudging back to the centre of the party, Arlyn Culwick’s sweet sounds float through the air as the hippies practice their poi with ribbons. Newtown are fantastic and The Nomadic Orchestra urge me to sit and listen.
The sun makes everyone lazy and we see people sprawled around waiting for the rugby match to start. Being a KZN festival, most Fenners support The Sharks. It’s smiles and beer all around as we trounce The Hurricanes. High spirits and highness. Perfect to welcome Ard Matthews.
Ard Matthews
Now, anyone who knows anything about South African music would know Ard is a legend. Front man of Just Jinger, he is masterful, even on his own. Acoustic versions of the songs we love best tug at my heartstrings, and his cover of Cat Stevens’ Father and Son leaves not a dry eye in the house. Cold and slightly wet from the bit of rain, everyone huddles under the tent listening to him. He’s such a Durban boy. Still humble, still human.
On the other stage, the vibe is very different. Fruits and Veggies, an eclectic band of madness, take the stage and Purity’s bug eyes and crazy stage antics make for an energetic and wild performance. I can’t not dance. It’s as if she has the audience under a spell saying ‘dance, motherfuckers, dance!’. Not too unlike her, too.
Fruits & Veggies
The Car Boot Vendors follow and do pretty much the same thing. Both bands, very close in age, style and circle of friends, are lively, insane and pretty darn good. Not really something for international stages, but sheer enjoyment nonetheless. Their don’t-care attitudes and on-stage performances make them formidable in Durban. I would like to see how they fare in Joburg.
Car Boot Vendors
Boo! ends off the evening with a bang as Chris Chameleon in a signature drag queen outfit takes the stage. Old great songs mixed with a few new ones gets the crowd dancing, but I can’t help but feel they’re kind of losing their touch. This performance seemed a bit lacklustre until their usual flamboyant end. Their usual ‘monkipunk’ style was there, but without the flair that makes the trio as amazing as they are known to be.
Boo!
Campfire time and my camping mates steal a tree and try to plant it with tent pegs. Splashy Stupidity. Another reason this weekend is so epic.
Sunday is met with hymns coming from some tents, easter eggs falling from the sky and another trip to the river before we head up to watch the final day of bands.
The Hairy Legged Lentil Eaters, a group of guys who never grew up singing silly songs about short people and Henry VIII busk on the rocks as a small group look on sitting on the grass. The sun streams through the gaps in the tie-dye tent sheltering them and they are just so cool. Life of Riley, a two-piece made up of a guitarist and singer are cute and stuff. But it kind of reminds me of myself sitting around a park with my friends, someone playing, someone singing. Nothing special, but definitely something special for Sunday morning.
The day is lazy. The fast-approaching winter sun beats down and we sit on the rocks listening to the music, not one of us wanting to talk about the prospect of leaving tomorrow. The beer is warm, and a nap is in order. The tree falls on my head as I sleep. Tent pegs aren’t as good as roots.
The evening brings the Jack Mantis Band. They’re undoubtedly good. Highly recommended, just don’t follow them on Facebook because they spam sometimes. Their music is anything but spam. Chilled at times, sometimes intense, I really like them. Especially when they call on Dan Patlansky to play All Along the Watchtower with them.
Lowprofile
Lowprofile are disappointing. They used to be so cool, but now it’s just the same old thing. I expected them to grow in the years I’ve been out of Durban but they’re all just the same. Nothing new in terms of music, stage performance or… anything. I used to like them. Now they’re just old hat.
Then came the big one. Dan Patlansky. My God! I could swear it was as if heaven descended upon Splashy Fen and came in the form of this young, insanely talented man. He closes his eyes, plugs in his guitar and just plays. An hour of magic, his picking at the strings almost as if he were picking at my solar plexus. That feeling of the music enveloping you and swirling around your head until it almost brings you to tears.
Dan Patlansky
After that, not much else could be more amazing. Dance, You’re on Fire, Sibling Rivalry and Captain Stu all moved our feet. But the weekend was made complete by Dan and Holiday Murray, who impressed me the most.
Back to the campfire and out comes the guitar. We sing and chat until 4am. We can’t believe it’s almost time to go back to the real world.
Packing up is never a happy time, but we all make the best of it and down the last of our beers. Hitting the road, the adrenaline and excitement of the weekend hits us and lulls us to sleep. Until next year, Splashy Fen. Until next year.
Splashy Fen Music Festival is always on the top of my ‘to do’ list every year. This year, the first time I would be driving my own car to the farm in Underberg, I was a wee apprehensive. Leaving at 5am and armed with snacks, supplies and good music, two friends of mine and I set off in the darkness to the heart of the Drakensberg Mountains on a rainy Thursday morning.
The drive is always an adventure as we pass goats, deal with random pedestrians trying to sell us single raw eggs from a carton, try to avoid cows and see a few llamas on the side of the road too. It’s on these types of drives one gets to see just how beautiful South Africa is. It’s beyond breathtaking; the rolling hills, greenery and wildlife are par for the course. But the fact that all this land holds so much history, and man has never been able to fully invade this land is amazing.
Getting into Underberg, the roads become dirtier and we get more anxious to hit the festival. Turning the volume up, seeing other cars piled with gumboots, tents and sleeping bags, we hoot at each other with the knowledge that our lives are going to be slightly altered after this weekend. All we have to do is endure the bitch of a road that is the D600 – the road to the Splashy Fen Farm.
We arrive at the farm just after midday. It’s packed. Muddy. My god, is it muddy. My feet scream obscenities at me at the prospect of walking through that shit. People are already drunk, stoned or high on life. People are setting up tents and starting their braais, some already in the river and some passed out from the drive. It’s almost as if EVERY cool person left their city and descended upon the farm. We set up our tent, have a bite to eat and go cow tipping. I get injured. Welcome to Splashy.
The music on Thursday night is mostly disappointing but Holiday Murray stole the limelight. A ‘progressive folk rock’ four piece, this band is polished, talented and is going to go places. Very much like the Fleet Foxes and a young Crosby, Stills and Nash, I have high hopes for this bunch of guys from Cape Town. They’re nice guys to boot. I hear sighs and swoons from women behind me as guitarist Justin Davenport picks up a ukulele. I don’t blame them.
Holiday Murray
Isochronous sounded better than they did at RAMfest. Perhaps it was just the sound. Their old stuff sounded as awesome as I remember. Their new stuff? Nah… not for me. However, The Otherwise rocked out until the last person was too tired to dance anymore. This Durban band is punk, rock, sleaze, drugs and booze mixed into one incredibly energetic and potent cocktail. They draw from the punk legends of old and refine it to something almost Arctic Monkey-esque. I like them. A lot.
Isochronous
The Otherwise
Friday brings in the legends, and the waterworks.
With a walkabout around the farm, meeting old friends, making new ones and getting up to random mischief, we are welcomed to the farm by an old friend. Splashy legend Tony Cox makes his guitar sing and I have to remind myself that this is one dude with one guitar. There is a reason everyone at the Fen loves and respects him so. The man is a genius. With his chilled stage presence and guitar mastery, all he needs is a cold beer and he’d be cooler than Christmas. Miles Sievwright impresses with his singer/songwriter stuff, as he did last year.
Tony Cox
The memorial to Syd Kitchen was what tugged at my heart strings. This man became an institution at Splashy Fen, having played every year since its inception. One of my memories of Syd was him sitting on the rocks with a cuppa (of what, I have no idea) and chatting to some friends. I said: “Hi Syd.” He said: “Not yet, love!”
The folk music continues through the afternoon and brings on the orange-purple-gold sunset and welcomes in the clear night sky. It’s almost surreal. Streaks of clouds encircling the tips of the mountains. Mist framing everything. The smell of burning wood clinging to everything you touch and the moon beaming boyishly upon the festivities. The stars are so clear, it’s as if they pierce your every glance. You can almost see the man on the moon. It’s cold. It’s exhilarating.
Catlike Thieves
Getting high on caffeine, we prepare for the onslaught of a manic line-up. Sheep Down, Catlike Thieves, The La Els and City Bowl Mizers command our feet like puppeteers. The energy, the sweat, the screaming girls and the front men being cocky little shits on stage make for the festival’s turn into a platform for the young guns. I am danced out.
The La Els
The City Bowl Mizers
But there is a campfire to go to. I clench my teeth and my beer and make my way down to the campsite, to be welcomed by a warm fire, more cold beer, awful white wine and friends.
This is the life.
Some beautiful things require no words to describe just how beautiful they are. U2’s 360° Tour was one of those things. Bigger than PopMart, larger than life, Johannesburg was shaken up on Sunday 13 February and shown what showtime really means.
A little different to usual shows, the 360° Tour was not tied to an album. It was shear spectacle. The set – a massive claw over Soccer City 50 metres high, and a circular stage – enveloped the audience into U2’s world and from then on, we were in Bono’s clutches.
From day...
She’s quirky and fun. With a name like Imogen, it’s hardly surprising. I expected an eccentric mix of showmanship, design and beauty beyond compare.
I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, Imogen Heap exceeded my expectations last Saturday, when I watched her show at Emperor’s Palace.
Fairy Acacia
Johannesburg experienced RAMfest for the first time last year, and man, what an experience it was. This year, the Cape Town-originated festival will be back but this time at the Riversands Farm in Fourways on 12 March.
The Gearhouse stage will host a slew of talent including Van Coke Kartel, Zebra and Giraffe, Pestroy, Isochronous, Knave, Desmond and the Tutus, The Shadowclub and many more. There is also a dance stage featuring the likes of Tasha Baxter, Ambush and Bittereinder to name a few.
Aaaaand, there will be two international acts this year, namely Alkaline Trio from the US and Funeral for a Friend!
Audiences are in for a treat this year so don’t hesitate. Get your tickets from Ticketbreak at R250 and R300 at the gate.
BIG Concerts and Live Nation announced today that a limited number of tickets at Cape Town Stadium will be made available starting Monday, November 29th at 09:00am.
With the Cape Town performance selling out just a couple of days after going on sale, the promoters by arrangement with the stadium and local authorities have secured a limited number of temporary seats on the upper tier of Cape Town stadium, which will be priced at R749.
With a cylindrical video system of interlocking LED panels, and a steel structure rising 150 feet from the floor over a massive stage with rotating bridges, the band has truly created an intimate 360º experience for concertgoers. Long-time U2 Show Director Willie Williams has worked again with architect Mark Fisher (ZooTV, PopMart, Elevation and Vertigo), to create an innovative 360 design, which affords an unobstructed view for the audience.
“To have an in-the-round transportable stadium production is something that the touring industry has been trying to figure out for some time. The extra capacity U2 360° gives us means that there are a large number, several thousand in fact, of low priced tickets at every show”, said U2 tour producer/promoter Arthur Fogel, CEO of Live Nation Global Touring. “With its unique staging configuration, U2 360° has excellent sight-lines”.
The new block of tickets for the Cape Town performance on Friday, Feb. 18th will go on sale at 09:00am on Monday, November 29th through Computicket (www.computicket.com or the 083915800).
The South African dates are produced by Live Nation Global Touring in association with Big Concerts (a Live Nation partner). The tour media partners are 94.7 Highveld Stereo, 94.5 KFM and MNET.
Jared had them wrapped around his, erm, finger
The last time I saw 30 Seconds to Mars was in 2008 at My Coke Fest. They were good. I mean, the music was good. The band, I wasn’t so impressed with. The fact that they were more about the gimmicks than the music pissed me off a bit and lead singer Jared Leto wasted half the set calling the crowd he claimed to love so much “motherfuckers”. I am very torn on this band but one thing is certain, which I will point out later.
However, their This Is War tour, which hit South Africa on Friday at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg on Friday, showed an entirely different band.
Yes, Jared Leto is a diva. Yes, their theatrics are still there and are still somewhat fake and annoying. Yes, they did use backing tracks on some songs and badly so. But man, what a show!
Local drumming circle in on the act
Now, in 2008 I had the privilege of being a My Coke Fest ‘superfan’, with which I managed to meet the band, and chat to lead guitarist Tomo for quite a while. Being able to get behind the scenes views of the concert, I noticed Leto 1 (Jared) watching and gauging a drum circle behind the stage at Newmarket Race Course. Then, I wondered why.
On Friday, I saw it. They opened spectacularly with an energetic drum circle going, and incorporated that little piece of Africa into their highly dynamic set. Two years later, Leto 1 kept to his initial idea.
Leto 1 does tend to go on a bit about how South Africa has inspired songs like A Beautiful Lie and most recently, the chorus of Kings and Queens. And as much as I expected the whole Michael Jackson “I love you” vibe, it wasn’t there. It was more understated this time and I couldn’t help but think that the band has actually grown up.
Leto #2
For one, Leto 2 (drummer Shannon) is far better than he was in 2008. Secondly, the band is far more mature and is less dependent on crowd-talk. That element is still there and Leto 1 would not live up to his actor image if it weren’t for that, but it’s far less intrusive. And finally, the man has become a puppet master.
On Friday, the thousands-strong crowd was put on strings and commanded by Jared Leto, this great puppeteer. He controlled them like I have never seen anyone control a crowd before. Granted, this is a crowd of adolescent girls touting Toxic Candy clothing and sneakers wanting to lick Jared Leto’s toes, if nothing else, so it may not have been that hard.
Yeah, rocknroll for the younger generation
I really did enjoy the acoustic interlude on the mixing desk. It showed more of a musician side to Leto. It didn’t last long.
The most prevalent thing about the show was that when Leto 1 said ‘jump’ the crowd didn’t even ask ‘how high’. They just jumped. And the chanting…it was as if god himself had spoken. Light bathing the audience, and hands in the air, thousands chanting along to Kings and Queens will remain in my memory for years to come.
Very flash
Impressive, yes. Spectacular, yes. Genius? …
No.
30 Seconds to Mars is a forgettable band, bar one or two great songs. In 20 years time, I will still be playing Pink Floyd to my kids, as my father did for me. Leto and co, sorry dudes. Aside from the showmanship… I’m afraid you don’t make the cut. This is purely because the music is overshadowed by the theatrics. Play for goodness’ sake. Don’t floss. Play.
Nikita
Having good looking and sexy band members has never hurt a rock group before, and judging by the number of teens and tweens at the launch of Dead Alphabet’s EP The Kill, it certainly wont hurt this bands popularity either. Skinny jeans, messy hair and soulful stares had the female portion of the crowd going crazy, while hardcore rocknroll had the male portion jamming like it was Hendrix on stage.
Judging by the titles of their tracks, one would assume Dead alphabet is a gothic band who are obsessed with the occult. Tracks like “The Kill”, “Eat You Alive” and “Morning Cannibal Dance” give the impression of an emo, gothic or death metal band. However, this could not be further from the truth. Dead Alphabet is a complex and talented band whose grungy garage-style rock really rocks a listener from the get-go.
Dead Alphabet are certainly not rookies on the music scene having played three Oppi Koppis, Joburg burning, and supported international acts, Voicst and Balthazar. They are interesting to watch live, which is an aspect in which many South African bands fail. Front-man, Edwards, on lead vocal and rhythm guitar has a deep and soulful voice which comes from a surprisingly skinny body, but the texture and depth which defines his vocal talent absorbs listeners and draws the audience hypnotically into his performance. On the performance side, Edwards is somewhat like an elastic band, bending, stretching and snapping he is 100% committed to his performance, and while it took a few songs for him to get warmed up, once he was warmed up, he was hot! Klawansky, who is a self taught guitarist shows off his ridiculous talent in a humble way, playing his part with quiet and unobtrusive ease, while Justin Gents drumming can be described in one word, tight. Replacing the original bassist, who has gone soul searching in Brazil, Hugh Hunt keeps up with the band, anchoring their rhythmical grungy style.
The first single off the EP “Eat You Alive” has great popular appeal, and the band had the crowd singing along to the chorus within a minute of starting the performance. The song is upbeat, different and edgy and includes a great guitar solo by Klawansky who is probably the most talented member of the band, but is definitely the most unassuming. I see this song becoming a favourite on radio stations and MK alike.
As has become a popular format for album launches, the video for the first single was also premiered at the launch. As noted by Edwards, “everything about this band and this album is an in-house job”. Klawansky’s cousin mixed and produced the album, while Edwards directed, produced and edited the video which has surprisingly good production quality. The lighting contributes to the darkness which define the lyrics of “Eat You Alive” and all their other songs. The curious animal graphics which were superimposed on the band members at random times throughout the video were the only part of the video which were questionable. On the whole, the video is awesome, it has all the appeal of an 80’s porn movie with smoke machines and careful lighting and all the suspense of a early 90’s horror movie with scary effects and a waiting-for-the-killer build-up.
Dead Alphabet has edge a la early Kings of Leon. Let’s hope they won’t succumb to commercial pressure and become pop whores a la late Kings of Leon. SOMEBODY SIGN THIS BAND ALREADY!
The Jen
As you may have heard, British super group Duran Duran is hitting our shores, and is being accompanied by South Africa’s Arno Carstens.
Original band members – Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor will be here this December for a five-date tour, kicking off at the ICC in Durban on the 7th, before heading to The Big Top at Carnival City in Johannesburg on the 8th and 9th, and finally the Grand Arena at Grand West in Cape Town on 11th and 12th December.
This outing marks the band’s first in this part of the world in 17 years and the start of an enormous global campaign around the release of their next studio album, All You Need Is Now, which they have been working on for the past 18 months with producer, Mark Ronson.
“We haven’t played in South Africa for way too long,” said lead-singer, Simon Le Bon, from their studio in London on Tuesday, “so we are really looking forward to coming down there.
“We have spent the last year sequestered away, working on new music and now have an album ready for release early in the New Year – so we can’t wait to get back out on the road again and do some shows. We have actually never played in South Africa before as the original line-up – so this will be a first for us performing there with Roger in the band!”
With a string of hits including Planet Earth, Rio, Hungry Like the Wolf, Save a Prayer, Wild Boys, A View to a Kill, and Ordinary World.
Having marked the 80s and 90s with these hits and millions of fans, having sold in excess of 85 million globally, the band has also been honoured with numerous lifetime achievement awards, Grammys, Ivor Novello and MTV awards amongst others, and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Arno Carstens, South Africa’s favourite rock solo artist, will perform at all the concerts as a special guest. During his career as the lead singer of The Springbok Nude Girls, and subsequently as a solo artist, Arno has released seven studio albums and had 18 top 10 singles.
He has won five South African Music Awards and shared the stage with legends of the music world. His recently released UK debut album Wonderful Wild was written, recorded and mixed in London and Spain with co-songwriting contributions from Giles Martin, James Walsh, Jim Duguid and Youth.
The highly anticipated album was produced by legendary British producer Youth (The Verve’s Urban Hymns) and Jim Duguid (Paulo Nutini’s These Streets) and the final mix on the album was done by Tim Bran (The Verve’s recent UK number one album).
“Duran Duran is one of top ten bands of all time and it is an honour to be sharing a stage with them in my home country. They are unrivalled in their capability of writing incredible pop songs that have undeniably defined a time or moment in all our lives,” says Arno.
Expect a spectacle. They don’t make music like this any more.
Nikita
