Wednesday, April 25, 2007
SNG in Port Elizabeth!
The Springbok Nude Girls will be hitting Port Elizabeth is tomorrow night, at Tapas Al Sol, launching their newest album Peace Breaker, at The Union! I am jealous, I must admit! Cape Town was such a cool party, and I’ve heard that Durban was also a hit, so prepare yourself!I am sure that the windy city will need Freedom Day to recover from the hurricane that is about to hit them!
I have been playing Peace Breaker in the car when I fetch my boys from school, and am proud to say that Jasper (six-and-a-half) has full understanding of Rock ‘n Roll now.
It’s quite something when one considers all the traditional music he has been soaking in since birth - I was quite surprised when he said,"So Papa, rock is like ‘Weee will, weee will, Rock you’!"
'Yes boykie – that’s Rock n Roll!"
The wisdom of babe.
So folks – get out there tomorrow night, and have a rocking good time!
16h45 UPDATE: I'm sorry people... I wasn't aware that Grahmastown was cancelled. But we have just found out - Arno's mom-in-law, Arlene just confirmed it for me... Sorry about that!
Labels: Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, sng arno carstens peacebreaker
Sunday, April 15, 2007
SNG rocks Cape Town!
The Springbok Nude Girls rocked Cape Town on Friday night. Long live the Springbok Nude Girls!I was there, I sweated, I jumped up & down, I sang along even when I didn’t know the words, and came out feeling very much like the rocker I never was!
The atmosphere was already sweaty after Throatball got the launch going with some hard rock that almost gave me hair on my head! I have to admit that there was much growling that I didn’t understand, but by the end of the set the Nude fans were filling the venue and getting psych’ed up for the main act!
The man, Arno, Arno Blumer, Adriaan Brand (left - we realised not family), Francois Kruger and of course the famous Theo Crous had been out amongst us mere mortals, greeting, back-slapping and pressing the necessary flesh up until just before they got on stage – making it so personal!But the party really started the moment Arno stepped out onto the smoky hot stage. There is no denying that he is a pro at what he does. His personality, natural & passionate; you can see it in his eyes that every song is sung for the music; from the moment that microphone feels his grip! He dances his own dance. He lives every track.
They started out with Gang Gang, Theo electrifying the air on lead-guitar & Francois setting the beat on drums, thumping the adrenaline straight away, Arno strumming that bass guitar in the back, & Adriaan kitted out in a keyboard cockpit, and launching the concert skyward!Peace Breaker was appreciated.
The audience of old & new Nude fans got tracks like Looking for Master, Illuminate, with Adriaan’s trumpet sailing through the air – I really want to live forever - Supergirl, I love you, Kill Them For The Country, 1 More Time, and the album namesake Peace Breaker, which just soared upward with such a full sound, it was really amazing. Sweat pouring from the band at the end of 90 minutes, Cape Town knew the Nudies were back!
The VIP room had a mixture of journo’s and sponsors, music people and a few stars, such as Chris Chameleon who had just won a SAMA that night & and was there to celebrate with the Nudies! Arno also invited Atillo, a wheelchair bound disabled SNG fan for many years. He was introduced to the whole band, they signed his copy of Peace Breaker, kitted him out in a t-shirt, and stuck him right in front of the stage during the show – man, was he beaming!
Lenny and I had surrounded ourselves with an awesome team to take care of the launch, with Peak'ers Denise & Angie, being joined by Wendy in VIP, and Francoise (my sis!) at the door. Security really impressed me with Gadiga from Core Security even keeping the moshers from inflicting too much damage! High energy music gets the system pumping, so its good to keep close control on high emotions!The sound& lighting on the night was from Hellfire, and we had a VJ mixing images onto 2 screens from Little Big Productions. We had a marquee outside from In Tent Productions, with Nice Toilets, and sponsorship from Puma, Nando’s, Red Bull & Smirnoff, Vodacom & 5FM.
Here’s a little teaser, thanks to Sony BMG Music Entertainment’ s Paul Thackwray, of some Nudies energy on stage. See it, feel it, and love it – there’s not much more to add…
Labels: sng arno carstens peacebreaker, Springbok N*de Girls
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Recovering...
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Kurt Darren & DJ Sbu showdown!
The day before a major launch like we have planned for tomorrow night, things get pretty hectic in the office! Sponsors calling to try and get extra tickets, interviews being planned (Arno will be on Maties FM from 16h30 – 17h00 & on UCT Radio from 19h30 – 20h00) and juggled around last minute rehearsals and just a general pandemonium – which is exactly what you need for it all to fall into place on the day.I spent the morning yesterday filming many of our artists who were part of a circus show currently being hosted at Bayside Centre in Table View. Aerial acts, clowns that juggle, acrobats, an escape show, uni-cyclists, knife-throwing, etc – if your kids have nothing to do this Saturday, go and check it out – it is really cool.
I was standing high up on the staircase, to be able to film from above, and had a few teenagers standing near me; the ones that are still in a pretty geeky stage of their lives, when they aren’t sure is they are coming or going, and they don’t really find anything cool – these guys were hosing themselves at all the slapstick and subtle jokes that go over the kids heads… So I feel it was mission accomplished.Musically, we are all preparing ourselves for the South African Music Awards that are happening on Saturday. It is really the highlight of the year; when musicians get official recognition for all the hard slog that they have put into their creations…
And competition for the top-spot is getting tight! Song of the year… will it go to Bok van Blerk’s Afrikaaner heart-wrenching De la Rey? And what about the very mellow What he means from Just Jinjer? Or the ‘balle tussen jou bene’ Leeuloop by Robbie Wessels? I can’t answer. But I know that Kurt Darren (Lekker Lekker) and DJ Sbu (Remember when it rained) took things to the streets the other day in a bitch-slapping-testosterone-fueled challenge… check it out…
Hope your day is just great!
Labels: circus, SAMA, sng arno carstens peacebreaker
