Beautiful

By Marley

Let’s reverse the car and go back to the rock Saturday of 13 August. At Blue Moon we had The Narrow, Not My Dog, The Black Cat Bones, Mrs. B and Voetstoots. It was a bit of slow night due some cage fight stories in Nelsparta (seriously why support violence when you got good music?) I was looking forward to this as it’s my 10^th year as a Blue Mooner and my first ever concert was Not My Dog as the head liner all those moons ago.

What memories were brought back by them on stage! At our arrival at the Moon we (Simi and I) nearly jumped Pedro Barbosa of Mrs. B over. I saw the rocker at STRAB last but he looks good, loosing weight and supported a new tattoo on his leg (it’s only rock stars that can get a tattoo the same day they have to perform, respect). After small talk and we walked up those damn stairs! We were greeted by our bosses, Anthony and Pete with Doc in the bar. Most people will want to know what we discuss in a bar between us well anything from porn movies, to music, to hippies, to Ant telling us tails from his past adventures. Of course the main talk was the Picnic in the Garden & the next Up The Creek. Awe! Can’t wait for that one!

In between supporting the bands (love the BCB performance as always) and taking pictures on my phone (posted directly onto Twitter). The bar there was pictures taken by a new events website that is the paparazzi of Nelsparta and area. MpumaLive website was launched and man oh man now you really can’t hide from the Internet anymore. It’s a good thing to have something like this as it makes your relive (and maybe remind you) the party. Well done guys! Looks good! No close ups next time of me please…the camera might buzz out. After the show we all hang out down at the bon fire as per tradition (we haven’t done it much this year) with red wine, beer and guitars. But the bed was calling me and Simi and we left for a stop for a garage pie.

Last week Friday I was invited by Mimi to join her and her sister at Lowveld High School “An African Explosion” concert. Good friend Bongs is the conductor for the school senior choir AND he did a wonderful Hugh Masekela cover. I knew Bongs could sing but man oh man he should do it more often, well done my friend! Mimi's mum is a teacher at the school and the junior choir conductor. Wow these kids was amazing, all dressed in their culture wear whenever it was SiSwati, isiZulu etc it looked amazing on stage. The kids took turns to amaze the crowd and get them on their feet to their song and dance. What an education for this boer’tjie! Mimi translated the songs and sang with and explained a few things to me. The senior choir was very impressive and you could see Bongs have a connection with these young adults on stage. Their version of the Father Prayer still gives me goose flesh! A young solo artist (whose name escapes me now) did a version of Jacky Simpson song “My African Dream” which was the theme of this year concert. The senior choir did a tribute to Youth Day (June 16) it was my turn to tell Mimi what the day stood for. This too was truly amazing, the flash show on the board explains songs, and the introductions to performances were done beautifully. Good job on the sound goes to Goophstar! Yes the man with many, many talents.

Saturday was once again filled with my friend Mimi and the rest of No One’s Arc as they performed at Kokepelli’s in White River. Even though Bongs was not with them due to the Gala evening of the “An African Explosion” event the band did good. Kokepelli’s had a full Mexican theme to launch their restaurant side and the food was great. A nice warm up was the jugs of moijto meets tequila cocktail on the tables. Of course this doesn’t last long but their small but super nice wine tasting had my attention. Friend to many, Roelof Loots, kicked off the show with his Spanish guitar skills which added energy to the theme event. Next up with “youngsters” Stiaan and Michael, once again this young man is going to go places with a bit of hard work and spit. He did a cover of Slide of the Goo Goo Dolls (anyone who knows me I’m a HUGE fan of the Dolls) and had me dancing. Next up, No One’s Arc and it took the crowd a bit to warm up and stand with this craze fan in front and jump around. If you have not seen No One’s Arc very soon these guys are going to hit the road with a tour and of course tour in December again in the Cape.

No One’s Arc is also going to be on Live(5) on the 10^th of September at 17:00. If you live under a rock and have no idea what the hell I’m talking about then listen up. Live(5) is a show hosted by the ever cool tattooed Catherine Grenfell from The Fresh Drive Time. She saw our rockers at Up The Creek earlier this year (I should know this since I made her Titanic’s) and invited them to the show. If you want to be a part of the studio audience then send an email to live5@5fm.co.za with your contact details and reason why you should be there. Be creative and see if you can make it up to Jozi for this awesome opportunity. If you can’t no matter you can just tune in on the 10^th and listen to them on your radio or streaming audio via the 5FM website or as application on your Black Berry. There I gave you the map just follow the path Arc’ers. Of course you can catch them with The Parlotones jamming on the 4^th of September at Nelspruit Botanical Gardens. Tickets for this show is going extremely fast and you can buy them either at Crossings SPAR, Look & Listen in the Riverside Mall or online at Ticketbreak there is also a competition on Facebook where you can win two tickets. Just go to the Blue Moon page, like them (since they like you) and tell them whom you would like to see next year at Picnic in the Garden show.

See ya around!