A while ago, in July 2007, we decided to fly up to Durban for our first official Captain Stu tour – we stayed there for about a week, had 6 crazy shows and met more awesome people than we knew what to do with. Scratch that. The people we met were so awesome that they made our home town look like a den of spiteful rapists and it wasn’t long before our hearts were pining over the glory of the 031, Stone City. We’ve since had to make many a return trip to quell our fiery thirst for all that Durban has to offer.

In July 2011, almost exactly 4 years later, we decided to make the latest of such pilgrimages, leaving Cape Town on Friday afternoon for one hell of a weekend. First off, we did a DJ set at a new place called Vibe Bar, which was pretty cool – especially after they gave us a bottle of Jonny Walker, a few beers and a little green stuff for our troubles. Our troubles (for Friday night at least) didn’t end with the DJ set, of course. Once we’d finished up, half the band headed to a City Bowl Mizers show while the other half headed to The Pub (The Winston, for the uninitiated) to continue an epic, epic, epic party. We left the Winston at around 6 and carried on partying at Sweet Lu’s place till around 10. Those at the City Bowl gig didn’t fare much better, apparently Ryan spent the night/morning passed out under a tree in the middle of a field… but nevermind that.

Saturday afternoon saw us doing a short rehearsal at the Smelly Orange studio (thanks Steve and Skeg!), rocking a massive steak braai and then heading to Unit 11 to do soundcheck for our show. And what a show it was. We had 3 absolutely CLASS acts opening for us (Bad Murphy, Black Math and of course, Fruits and Veggies) who slapped the crowd around good and proper before we had a chance to pick up an instrument! By the time we got on stage, there was drool and sweat pretty much all over the dancefloor – and we did our best to add to the mess with a long and tiring set including one or two new songs we’ve been working on. Once we were done, we headed BACK to the Winston to go through the official lockdown afterparty which ended at around 9:30 the next morning. I wish the story ended here, of course, but it didn’t. The rest of Sunday was filled with more beer, a few arrests for “Breach of the Peach” and “Swimming in a restricted area” (pronounce in Afrikaans and Indian accent respectively) a few bunny chows, another City Bowl Mizers show, this time with our friends from Good Luck and, to cap it all off in proper style, a night at Madame Zingara’s (Thanks Olivia!) followed by a skate competition on the beachfront which started just after midnight and ended at around 3. By the time we got to the airport at 6:30 Monday morning, we were worn and tired, but happier than we’ve been in a long time. Thanks to everyone who made this weekend such a bad-ass extravaganza: Taryn, Marty, Meaty 1, Lu, Matt, Steve, Skeg, Olivia, Purity, Gay Ray, Loopy, Bali Mike – the list is endless, so if we left you out… DEAL WITH IT!

The last few weeks have kept us very busy in the rehearsal room, writing new music to feed the ever increasing demand of hungry ears which has been yapping at our ankles lately. This process has been going smoothly and we’re hoping to be finished with at least one or two tracks by the time we play next – Durban. Unit 11. July 30^th – it’s just going to be a matter of doing more rehearsals than is healthy, but we did sign up for this jol, so why not give it horns once in a while.

The real reason for this post is the exciting and wondrous fact that we have just begun work on a music video for another track from our Free Music! EP The track decided on was Siamese Twin and we shot our part of the video at the House of Pain on Sunday, teaming up with Jade Mulvany and Frances Kroon who conceived of, wrote the script for, directed and shot the video. All we had to do, really, was show up and do our thing… over and over again till sunset at which point we plonked our arses down hard on a few couches and caught a little rest. We’d like to send a shout out to Jade Mulvany and Frances Kroon for the hard work, the shots are looking great and we’re looking forward to the finished product. We’re also looking forward to our upcoming show at Unit 11 in Durban. If you live up there in eThekwini or Stone city or 031 or whatever you call it, be sure to pull in to Unit 11 – Fruits and Veggies and Black Math will be sharing the stage – it’s gonna be a massive mess!

Till next time!

JOZI

Last Thursday we took a break from our normal weekly routine, hopped onto a plane and flew up to Johannesburg to do a show at the Bo with Cortina Whiplash… you know them… that Rock n Roll girl band that melted your face the minute their highly charged groove crunched and churned its way through the crowd the last time you partied in Jozi. Not ringing any bells? Well you were obviously at the wrong party.

We’d played with Cortina Whiplash once before in Potch but, even so, we were caught unprepared for the sheer electricity that leapt the space between band and crowd as soon as they started playing. Fan-fucking-testicle. Not to be missed. Throat-ripping, groin-kicking, wench-tickling good times which we hope to repeat/emulate in the nearest of futures. Despite the odious fact that we hadn’t consumed anywhere near our beer quota by the time we got on stage (we had a big day ahead of us unfortunately) we were having good fun and managed to kick out a jamming set for what remained of the crowd. Our night was to end abruptly though as we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We left the Bo pretty much as soon as we walked off stage, raced back to the pad to catch as much shuteye as possible before wakey wakey time at 6AM.

THE KEYS TO MOZAMBIQUE

Waking up tired and hungover after a gig is never much fun. It actually becomes painful when you have to squeeze into a car for a ten hour ride to another country on top of all of your usual troubles. This, however, has become part and parcel for us and we took it on the chin like the hardened lumberjacks we are. The drive was relatively uneventful as usual, the most exciting bit being running the “Stop and Go” gauntlet that has become the South African national road. We thought we’d driven on shit roads before but nothing quite as shit as this. We had to speed as fast as possible to get to the border before it closed at 5 while at the same time dodging a network of monster pot holes that made the road look more like the thin strands of a spider web than a nice reliable flat surface. We’re not ones to complain but holy shit, somebody needs to write a letter to somebody… them roads are in kak condition.

We got to the border a full 5 minutes late. Customs was shut, the gates were closed and we were told that we’d just passed a man driving in the opposite direction in a white bakkie a few kilometers down the road who had “the keys to Mozambique” on him and we would just have to wait until tomorrow for him to bring them back. Huge Bummer. Luckily we had contact details of a lodge a few kilometers away, so we piled back into the car, took a left into the deep dark bush somewhere and eventually found ourselves at a wonderfully quaint lodge with wooden walkways, an outside bar, pool and bonfire area and a cosy room for all of us to rest our wary heads. We drank up a storm, of course, instead of resting said heads, but it’d been a long day – we felt we’d earned it.

Saturday morning arrived in a glorious flood of sunlight, warmth, funny little animal noises – all the things we’ve been missing in rainy old Cape Town and we were now quite ready to enter Mozambique, get to this Strab festival we’d heard so much about and get our party on. The border was a breeze, surprisingly, once it was actually open and the roads from the border to the festival were actually worse than any we’d yet driven on but we made it to Strab in one piece at around 11AM on Saturday morning. No sooner had we arrived, we met up with the peeps from No One’s Arc (a band we’ve been dying to play with for some time) and we began a long process of drinking, laughing and dancing that would last pretty much the rest of our short stay in Mozambique. The festival was quite something – it’s held in a holiday resort about 14 kilometers from the border and is, unfortunately, almost exclusively South African despite being held in Mozambique. All the bands are from SA and, it seems, so are all the festival goers, but this doesn’t detract from the good times at all, and before long we had watched a fair amount of awesome bands and musicians. All that remained to do was to get up on stage and do what we came here for. The show went brilliantly, We had amazing bands on before and after us, and we took it upon ourselves to keep the dancefloor moving and the bar open for as long as possible before, one by one, collapsing into our tents in exhaustion. At the end of it all we spent a grand total of 23 hours in Mozambique, made an estimated total of about 15 new friends and “really enjoyed” the artful flavor of some local beer I can’t remember the name of. “2M” if my memory serves me. Anyways, what a rad experience. We’re definitely looking forward to doing it again next year.

The last day of tour was an incredibly tiring one as it usually is. We woke up in
Johannesburg, packed our shit into the car and started the drive to Kimberley. Six hours
or so later we’d arrived at The Halfway house, where we would be performing, partying
and sleeping for the night. And what a pleasant surprise the Halfway House turned out
to be. The stage was set up inside a large courtyard filled with marble topped tables and
surrounded by the accommodation areas, there were several bars to choose from and
the beer prices weren’t as outlandish as one would expect from such a well set up place.
Once we’d met the manager and Mojo Filter (the band we’d be performing with) we set
up our gear, did soundcheck and then checked into two of the 4 star rooms they had set
aside for us. In the room next to ours the boys from Holiday Murray (and the boys and
girl from La Vi) had decided to spend the night on their way home from tour, so we got
to party with a few Cape Town friends which was fun. The relief at not having to spend
our last tour night on some floor put a huge smile on our faces, so as soon as the Rugby
was over, we got our beer on and began grooving to the smooth sounds of Mojo Filter –
a great funk/soul/reggae sound which set the mood and got everybody warmed up nicely.
By the time we took to the stage, however, one of the monitors wasn’t working, making
it quite a bit harder for any of us to hear anything we were playing, but nonetheless we
did what we had to and the crowd seemed to love it. The usual dancing, shouting and
laughing ensued – our first show in Kimberley was a big success. Following this, more
beer, a few T-shirts sold and several Free Music EPs handed out and we were more than
ready to hit the sack. It’d been a long and eventful tour and none of us were looking
forward to the drive home. See all you kids from up North sometime soon. Thanks for a
great vibe.

Johannesburg! We’ve been looking forward to playing in Jozi for quite some time now, we usually have a good one at gigs here and we’d be damned if this show was going to be any different. We started off the day with a mildly “Epic Mealtime” style breakfast involving large amounts of bacon and a few eggs and then headed out to the city to do our first ever official Captain Stu interview on 5FM with DJ Fresh. The interview went really well, Fresh seemed to like us and seemed to like our music too. He’s also about the size of about two of us, so we weren’t gonna try any funny stuff as is usual when we find ourselves live on air. After a few callers and a little bit of promo for the gig, we headed to The Kitchener to set up and soundcheck. The Kitchener is the oldest pub in Johannesburg and is situated right in the middle of town. We had heard it was a small little vibe but weren’t expecting it to be exactly as small as it turned out to be. All it needed, however, was a little TLC and after buying some batteries for the disco ball and a few candles to set the mood, we were ready to party. And party we most certainly did. The place packed out with regulars, fans and friends and in no time we were jamming to the sweet sounds of the Graeme Watkins Project. Graeme himself actually went to school with us, so it was nice to keep it in the family for once. Our set was a mad affair. The crowd was pumped and wanting some loving and we delivered as best we could with one of the best performances of the tour. After we’d finished we had to keep the party alive by getting DJ Ryan to whip out his laptop and start pumping some tjoons bru. In return for this we would get to keep the door open till the club closed at four, which meant a) we’d have to take turns manning the door and b) we’d have to drink large volumes of booze to keep us on our feet. Definitely a crazy crazy party. We’d like to thank everyone for the rad vibe. Next time we’re in Jozi we’ll make the party bigger and better. Guaranteed.

After a cold ass night in Bloem, warmed only by the smiles of loved ones and the bacon-stripped-goodness of Black Label and First Watch whisky, we woke up at Stefaans’s place at around noon thinking we had a nice short ride down to Potch and would easily make it by soundcheck. Wrong. The road from Bloemfontein to Potchefstroom has about as many pits, potholes and pockmarks as your eager teenage face had just after you sprouted your first pube. Seriously, it’s a shit road and the drive took us at least an hour or two longer than we’d planned for as we had to dodge big ass moon craters every 2 minutes. Potchefstroom, when we finally got there, was rad as usual. We played at Memphis Rock, which was Pablo’s last time we’d played there, but this time with a bigger and better stage, bar, vibe etc. Also, as is well known on this side of the world, Potch has the cheapest drinks prices in the whole of South Africa. R12 draughts all night, R9 during happy hour -  What more could we possibly ask for? We kicked off the night watching Them Frog, a band we’ve played with in Potch and Jozi a couple of times and they gave the crowd a serious kicking with their dark and stoned yet strangely energetic bluesy rock. As soon as they were done, they bought us a few tequilas and we got on stage to give the crowd another good kicking. The set went well, we got an encore and a few more free drinks from a few people who thought we’d earned them and then we headed home to Fourways in Joburg. Very nice night. Thanks Potchefstroom – you da best dawg.

On Wednesday we woke up at a semi reasonable hour with the delicious sounds of The Frank Freeman Project and Tidal Waves still floating around in our heads. Tonight was Bloem, and we were amped as usual.

We clocked the drive down with relative ease, got our soundcheck done, and then moved over to see one of our favourite people in the world at one of our favourite places – Stefaans Gerber at the Apeklap House (now known as the Gerber residence).

We ate some food, made a fire, drank some beer and got to catching up. It was at this point that some people pulled in to join the party, and that usual party mood struck. It was going to be a good night tonight!

Later we headed over to the venue, and although it was as cold as an Eskimo’s nutsack, there was a buzz at the Boer.

Collen Street did a good job of opening the night with some mellow pop rock vibes. We’d never gigged with them before, so big thanks must go to them for lending us some top-notch backline.

At about 11:15  we took to the stage and did what we did best. the crowd took a while to shake of the ice that was beginning to form around the edges of their clothing, but soon we were all in full swing, and the night was a success!

After the show we adjourned back to Chateau Gerber for a damn good party, the contents of which we will not disclose on this blog, cause you know, we’re gentlemen like that.

Bloem, thanks for another cracker!!

After a much needed rest in actual real live beds, we woke up looking forward to our Pretoria gig, expected to be a special one for two reasons. Firstly it was Jon’s birthday so we were thinking of having a few two many drinkie-poos to celebrate with him and secondly, we were playing with the Tidal Waves for the first time in ages. It’s always an honour to play with this band – they’ve just returned from their first tour of the USA which apparently went really well. We arrived at the venue around 5 and began a very long wait for some drum stands which took till 9 to arrive – typical of a lot of gigs we’ve been to but pretty fracking annoying nonetheless. The gig went relatively well despite the bad turnout: The Frank Freeman Band opened up the night with some rad bluesy vibes, Tidal Waves followed them and blew our minds once again as if it weren’t no thang and then we got up to play to what was left of the crowd and did what we do best. After the gig we caught some more south african rock musicians following in Arno’s steps (see tour diary day1) and stealing a cheeky glance at, and even trying to bite, James’ balls – the naughty sods! The drive home was uneventful but we managed it in good time – we’re all pretty stoked to see the Tidal Waves when they come down to Cape Town in a week or two… if you haven’t yet seen them play, do yourself a favour.

Splashy Fen! What words could we possibly find to express sufficiently our wondrous love for this beautiful phenomenon? There are no words. We can’t find them. So we’ll just repeat the name and hope that you understand what we mean. Splashy Fen! Getting the picture? Ok, let’s try a short summary of the unfolding of events, perhaps this will get the job done a little better. Saturday morning we wake up early – like 6AM early, pack our bags and get into the car for a nice 10 hour drive. More Ricky Gervais (or should we say Karl Pilkington) podcasts and the nervous twitching of excitement begins to escalate dramatically as we arrive at Kokstad to purchase a few litres of whiskey to take off that edge, some bread and peanut butter for sustenance and a bag of peeled carrots for night vision. We arrive at the festival just behind a van carrying The Rudimentals who are evidently as excitable as we are. Later that night we will fall around in a fevered and wild eyed spasm to their infectious rhythms, but before we do this we have to meet up with our various partners in crime and play an immense game of catch-up, the immensity of which becomes steadily more apparent as it dawns on us that these demons have considerably more than 2 days of straight drinking on us. By the time we’ve said hello to everybody, we’re more than thoroughly pissed and thus our celebration begins in earnest. We loved so many bands, but one of the definite highlights was a monster dance-dance revolution involving Fruit and Veggies followed by CarBoot Vendors on the Splashy Fen stage. Again, words fail us. All we have are smiles. We awoke on Sunday to some serious hangovers, one tent filled with puke and a long day of trying not to party too hard before we had to play at 11 that night. And we made it! Despite an enormous wrestling match in the beertent, a delirious joy ride in Sweet Lu’s truck, more dancing and drinking and sweating to a relentless stream of great bands and, of course, more than enough polite conversation – we made it backstage in time and in relatively good shape and played a super rad show to a large crowd of teeming young padawans, one of whom even dislocated his knee in time to the beat. We were the last band to play Splashy Fen 2011 (if you don’t count the sweet reggae band that played the unofficial Hippie-Village stage at around 2 or 3 that morning) and we were now ready, in accordance with the old adage, to party hardy. Monday morning arrived, as always, with the usual sense of gratitude and regret – we said our goodbyes and hugged as many loved ones as possible before piling into the car for a 4 hour drive (which turned into a 7 hour drive) to Johannesburg, where we ended off the night at Emperors Palace, eating gourmet pizza and drinking large tall glasses of the cold stuff. If fate fortunes us at all, she’ll allow us to do more of the same next year. Thanks to everyone who knows who they are. You guys put us to shame and make us proud at the same time.

We awoke in Knysna feeling somewhat the worse for wear but amped at what had been a pretty rad first show in Knysna. We tried to get an early start as we had an interview with a Rhodes University newspaper at Grahamstown’s Rat and Parrot at 3pm and we had to book into our backpackers there before that, so we hit the road just after sunrise and got on with some more driving. Arriving in Grahamstown got us pretty excited seeing as our last visitation had involved an epic queen mother of a party and we were expecting something similar at the very least. After signing and settling in at the backpackers, we headed down to the Rat to meet up with Dumi, answer a few questions and drink a tower of beer (recommended). Following this we got hold of some food and then headed back to our room to have a short rest before the show. And what a show it was: Slipstream was packed almost to capacity, people were drinking and sweating and screaming and dancing like wild beasts with nothing but animal lust in their flashing white eyes; we thought it went rather well. After we were through with that madness we headed outside to the roof/balcony thing to hand out some free EP’s, sell some T-shirts and make several attempts at relieving young girls of their brassieres. We could not, unfortunately, continue along this vein and move the party to the next phase as we had done last time, because we had an even earlier morning to look forward to along with a 10 hour drive to Splashy Fen and we wanted to get to Splashy before dark and ESPECIALLY before Fruit and Veggies set at 19:00. So Grahamstown, we’re sorry we had to cut such a brilliant night short in such a lame fashion. Next time, no doubt, we’ll make it up to you!