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RockIt Scientist
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Comments: 0
Comments: 0
Yes, it’s been a while. Namely a few years. No comments from the peanut gallery.
You might recall that The Rockfest was terminated by 1485am Radio Today’s management, giving us less than three days notice, in February this year. It was a bit of a slap in the face for all the presenters who had given freely of their time, for over three years, and the lack of appreciation and support shown, and the way it was done, left many people feeling pretty embittered and annoyed. For many presenters, whilst being grateful to Radio Today for allowing them the freedom to play the music of their choice, it signalled the end of their short broadcasting “career”.
The Rockfest was basically put on “ice”, with very little chance of it being revived, given the strict playlisted format and programming (not to mention politically correct!) structure of most radio stations in South Africa.
It’s against this background that I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chris Prior, Phil Wright, Benjy Mudie, Melanie Walker, Rafe Lavine, David Blood, Leon Fourie, Robert Laing, Tamara Jeunette, Jurgen Becker, Lesley Chase, Rosemary Royeppen, Greg Tucker, Rui de Sousa, Adelle First, Bojan Andrejevic, Natalie Chapman, Nicole De Gruchy and Mark Vas for having been part of The Rockfest at various stages, and for sharing their music and talent with us.
In the three years and a bit that The Rockfest on 1485am was in existence, it had built up a pretty good reputation as a series of programmes in which all styles of music, from jazz to blues, from country to metal and prog, and from classic rock to folk, could be heard, seven nights a week. We had three Rockfest concerts at venues such as Tempos and The Rustic Theatre, featuring some of the best bands / artists in the country, namely Mel Botes, Ghapi, Clint & Co, Jonathan Martin, Band o’ Gypsies, Strange Brew, Agro, Radiation, Mantis, bassist Kai Horsthemke and his brilliant band, Three Foot Thang, Brad Cunningham, and a host of others, with the main objective being the promotion of South African bands as well as that of The Rockfest, and Radio Today. South African bands / artists were regularly featured and interviewed on The Rockfest, and all the presenters were encouraged to feature good, original South African music on their shows.
To cut a long story short, that all ended towards the end of February 2009. Some presenters, such as Chris Prior, Robert Laing and David Blood, remained with 1485. The rest of us resigned ourselves to the fact that it was great while it lasted, but, as is normally the case with rock shows on radio in South Africa, it was just a matter of time before the plug was pulled (I think it’s an affliction that seems embedded in the minds of the powers that be that anything that features real guitars, drums, keyboards, and that doesn’t feature the words “Yo!”, or “Was happenin??”, or has rap lyrics about some dildo with baggy pants and a backward facing cap letting the dogs out, or some “sounds like everybody else” R & B diva moaning as if she has an ice pick stuck in the back of her head, is a no-no on South African radio, especially if it’s presented by an “ethnically challenged” specimen of the masculine persuasion). Fortunately, Benjy, who had moved on to another radio station, and Barney Simon, one of the most respected and admired presenters in the country, together with Chris, David and Robert, kept the flag flying, so to speak. As did Shiloh Noone in the Cape.
Fast forward to the here and now….
A few weeks ago, I received a message to call Richard Jones. I had never met him before, but I had heard many good things about Richard in the past, mainly that he had a lot of experience in and on radio in this country, having worked on Capitol Radio and Radio 2000, and, more importantly, he was into music. Rock music. A truly rare breed: a station manager, with years of experience, into rock music! How great is that? Turns out that he also has the perfect face for radio. A marriage made in Heaven!
I called him back, and what he told me blew me out of the water: Richard had recently become station manager of 93.8FM Midrand Stereo, a community radio station based, oddly and cunningly enough, in Midrand. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s sort of midway between Joburg and Pretoria, hence the “mid” part….well, you get the drift. Richard wanted to know if I was keen on restarting The Rockfest. On a mandated ROCK station, with an FM signal and a pretty decent range (from some parts in Pretoria, through to the prime business areas of Randburg and Sandton, right through to the other side of the East Rand Mall, as well as to Fourways, Broadcares, etc), with a station manager of Richard’s calibre and reputation, and with total freedom to play any music as long as it has a rock slant / link / connection. Did you get that? I said R O C K, that dreaded word not normally used on South African radio for fear of being tied down on a bed of nails and forced to listen to hours and hours of mindless, nauseating R & B, Pop, Dance, Rap and other juicy bits that seem to make up the staple diet of almost every radio station in the country.
A few immediate questions / thoughts came to mind: Do snakes have hips? Do bears shit in the woods? Does puke always have carrots and peas in it, irrespective of what you’ve been eating? You get the drift, part 2.
Needless to say, a number of frantic phone calls and sms’s followed. I wanted to get as many of the original Rockfest people on board as I could, with the intention of starting immediately. Foreplay was not part of the equation. As you can see on the (almost complete) programming schedule below, quite a few of the original Rockfest people are on board, but there are also quite a few new people, many of whom have never done broadcasting before. Everybody has the same passion: to play the best possible music in the country, on 93.8FM Midrand Stereo. As before, you can hear anything from metal to blues to 70’s disco (listen to classic disco tracks such as “Devil’s Gun” and tell me that hasn’t got serious rock links!). Two weeks into the new Rockfest, and some new kids on the block are already starting to shine!
As before, Brian Currin, who has started a blog for The Rockfest (www.rockfest.co.za), is as supportive and enthusiastic as ever, as are advertisers such as Look & Listen, who did not hesitate to come on board, and I want to say thank you to Howard Lazarus, CEO of Look & Listen, for his unfailing support, help and friendship.
We plan to restart The Rockfest gigs, and it’s our intention to have these at The Rustic Theatre, which is a fantastic indoor / outdoor venue with good food and plenty parking, with our “relaunch” possibly at the end of January / early February.
Each presenter has been encouraged to have their playlist for the week placed on the website / blog (I STILL have no clue what the difference between the two is!), so you will able to get an idea of the kind of music each presenter features on their show.
The station is offering extremely attractive advertising rates, up to the end of January 2010, with great benefits, such as one month FREE advertising, so if you would be keen to advertise on the station (and you would also be helping to keep 93.8FM alive and growing!), please contact either Richard on 0822212201 or station advisor Hanz Stricker on 0825613531. As Angus and the boys said: “You Want Rock? You Got It” – your help in keeping the whole thing alive would be beneficial for everyone.
Well, that’s it, for now. Don’t expect long newsletters every week – some of us work for a living! But you can certainly expect to see the playlists, at least, on the blog / website / whatever! You get the drift. Part 3.
This is for you, for us, for Rock ‘n Roll, for SA music, for non-playlisted radio shows. For the freedom to hear what YOU want to hear on the radio.
Thank you to all the guys and girls who share in the same dream and who will give of their time and energy, and who will share their passion.
Thank the Lord for people like Richard Jones and Hanz Stricker………
This week I was standing in for Linda Sue’s 20H00 to 21H00 show, and I took the opportunity to invite Peter Hanmer of Off The Edge / Clint & Co fame into the studio so that he could talk to us about his current and future plans, and also so that we could hear some of the material from his up and coming new solo album, as well as some new Off The Edge material. He’s a pretty busy chap!
Check out brand new releases from Canada’s Lighthouse (cd / dvd combo – finally – some live in the studio material from this most amazing Canadian outfit!), as well as an awesome track from the new Blindside Blues Band (Mike Onesko) album, “World On Fire”, to be released in the next week.
I want to bring the Blindside Blues Band to South Africa as part of The Rockfest gigs. This is power blues / hard rock of the highest order. Anyone keen to get involved in terms of sponsorship, please get in touch with me ( leon@rock.co.za).
Many people would love to see Ken Hensley perform here too, so c’mon – put your money where your mouth is!
Welcome back to one of the wayward Rockfest presenters! Greg Tucker will be joining The Rockfest ON 93.8FM on Tuesday nights, as from mid January.
Coming up next week: tracks from the new Kansas, new Foreigner, the amazing W.E.T album (no, not the WET WET WET one! We’re talking REAL music here!!), Black Widow, Stud (I’m gonna sue them for using my name!), Transatlantic (a very close contender for top prog album of the year), Magnum, and a whole bunch of other goodies.
The Rockfest on 93.8FM Midrand Stereo brings you the best music in the land, from 8pm til late, seven nights a week!
Please check out the website (www.rockfest.co.za) for presenters, news, playlists, etc, as well as www.midrandstereo.co.za
Special guest – guitarist Peter Hanmer.
The following tracks featured are from Peter’s forthcoming solo album “Off The Record”
01. Crossfade
02. Off The Record
03. Over And Over
04. Speed Freak
05. Race Against Time
06. Dead Ringer
The following tracks featured are from Off The Edge’s forthcoming album “Cast In Stone”
07, Cast In Stone (Part 1)
08. Cast In Stone (Part 2)
09. Grandfather Time
10. Time In Focus
End of the Peter Hanmer guest spot.
11. Ken Hensley – When Evening Comes, from “Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf”. 1973 – Bronze Records
12. Spooky Tooth – Hell Or High Water, from “The Mirror”. 1974 – Island Records
13. Tempest – Stargazer, from “Living In Fear”. 1973 – Bronze Records
14. Uriah Heep – Time To Live, from “Salisbury”. 1971 – Bronze Records
15. Ben Granfeldt Band – Intro Jam, from “The Sum Of Memories”. 2006 – Hypertension
16. Blindstone – Wasted Days, from “Manifesto”. 2008 - Grooveyard Records
17. Scott Finch – Ain’t Goin’ Down, from “Gods And Freaks”. 2003 – Horizons
18. Blindside Blues Band – Bury The Axe, from “World On Fire”. 2009 – Grooveyard Records
19. Pat Travers – Inside Looking Out, from “P.T. Power Trio”. 2003 – Shrapnel Records
20. Trapeze – Turn It On, from “Hot Wire”. 1974 – Warner Brothers Records
21. Black Sabbath – Falling Off The Edge Of The World, from “Mob Rules”. 1981 – Castle Communications
22. Iron Maiden – Nomad, from “Brave New World”. 2000 - EMI
23. Dio – Scream, from “Killing The Dragon”. 2002 – Spitfire Records
24. Lighthouse – Lonely Places / Lonely Hours, from “40 Years Of Sunny Days”. 2009 – Universal
25. Chase – Reflections, from “The Concert Series Volume 2”. 2001 – The Hallmark Chase Group
26. Lydia Pense & Cold Blood – Coming Back, from “Transfusion”. 2005 – Dig Music
27. Blue Cheer – Rollin’ Dem Bones, from “What Doesn’t Kill You….”. 2008 – Rainman
28. The Quill – Grand Canyon, from “Silver Haze”. 2001 (?) – Roxon Records
29. Earthless – Sonic Prayer, from “Earthless”. 2007 – Tee Pee Records
30. Pappo – Longchamps Boogie, from “Blues Local”. 1992 – Belgrano Norte
31. Lance Lopez – Shake Joint, from “Simplify Your Vision”. 2006 – Grooveyard Records
32. Voodoo Roosters – I Wish, from “Heavy Loaded”. 1999 – Full Scale Productions
33. Darryl Way’s Wolf – The Envoy, from “Night Music”. 1974 – Esoteric Recordings
34. Wishbone Ash – Outward Bound, from “New England”. 1976 – MCA Records
35. Kin Ping Meh – Fairy Tales, from “Kin Ping Meh”. 1972 – SPV Revisited
36. Badger – On The Way Home, from “One Live Badger”. 1973 – Atlantic Records
I wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas, and hope that the New Year will be safe, prosperous and successful for us all.
You might recall that The Rockfest was terminated by 1485am Radio Today’s management, giving us less than three days notice, in February this year. It was a bit of a slap in the face for all the presenters who had given freely of their time, for over three years, and the lack of appreciation and support shown, and the way it was done, left many people feeling pretty embittered and annoyed. For many presenters, whilst being grateful to Radio Today for allowing them the freedom to play the music of their choice, it signalled the end of their short broadcasting “career”.
The Rockfest was basically put on “ice”, with very little chance of it being revived, given the strict playlisted format and programming (not to mention politically correct!) structure of most radio stations in South Africa.
It’s against this background that I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chris Prior, Phil Wright, Benjy Mudie, Melanie Walker, Rafe Lavine, David Blood, Leon Fourie, Robert Laing, Tamara Jeunette, Jurgen Becker, Lesley Chase, Rosemary Royeppen, Greg Tucker, Rui de Sousa, Adelle First, Bojan Andrejevic, Natalie Chapman, Nicole De Gruchy and Mark Vas for having been part of The Rockfest at various stages, and for sharing their music and talent with us.
In the three years and a bit that The Rockfest on 1485am was in existence, it had built up a pretty good reputation as a series of programmes in which all styles of music, from jazz to blues, from country to metal and prog, and from classic rock to folk, could be heard, seven nights a week. We had three Rockfest concerts at venues such as Tempos and The Rustic Theatre, featuring some of the best bands / artists in the country, namely Mel Botes, Ghapi, Clint & Co, Jonathan Martin, Band o’ Gypsies, Strange Brew, Agro, Radiation, Mantis, bassist Kai Horsthemke and his brilliant band, Three Foot Thang, Brad Cunningham, and a host of others, with the main objective being the promotion of South African bands as well as that of The Rockfest, and Radio Today. South African bands / artists were regularly featured and interviewed on The Rockfest, and all the presenters were encouraged to feature good, original South African music on their shows.
To cut a long story short, that all ended towards the end of February 2009. Some presenters, such as Chris Prior, Robert Laing and David Blood, remained with 1485. The rest of us resigned ourselves to the fact that it was great while it lasted, but, as is normally the case with rock shows on radio in South Africa, it was just a matter of time before the plug was pulled (I think it’s an affliction that seems embedded in the minds of the powers that be that anything that features real guitars, drums, keyboards, and that doesn’t feature the words “Yo!”, or “Was happenin??”, or has rap lyrics about some dildo with baggy pants and a backward facing cap letting the dogs out, or some “sounds like everybody else” R & B diva moaning as if she has an ice pick stuck in the back of her head, is a no-no on South African radio, especially if it’s presented by an “ethnically challenged” specimen of the masculine persuasion). Fortunately, Benjy, who had moved on to another radio station, and Barney Simon, one of the most respected and admired presenters in the country, together with Chris, David and Robert, kept the flag flying, so to speak. As did Shiloh Noone in the Cape.
Fast forward to the here and now….
A few weeks ago, I received a message to call Richard Jones. I had never met him before, but I had heard many good things about Richard in the past, mainly that he had a lot of experience in and on radio in this country, having worked on Capitol Radio and Radio 2000, and, more importantly, he was into music. Rock music. A truly rare breed: a station manager, with years of experience, into rock music! How great is that? Turns out that he also has the perfect face for radio. A marriage made in Heaven!
I called him back, and what he told me blew me out of the water: Richard had recently become station manager of 93.8FM Midrand Stereo, a community radio station based, oddly and cunningly enough, in Midrand. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s sort of midway between Joburg and Pretoria, hence the “mid” part….well, you get the drift. Richard wanted to know if I was keen on restarting The Rockfest. On a mandated ROCK station, with an FM signal and a pretty decent range (from some parts in Pretoria, through to the prime business areas of Randburg and Sandton, right through to the other side of the East Rand Mall, as well as to Fourways, Broadcares, etc), with a station manager of Richard’s calibre and reputation, and with total freedom to play any music as long as it has a rock slant / link / connection. Did you get that? I said R O C K, that dreaded word not normally used on South African radio for fear of being tied down on a bed of nails and forced to listen to hours and hours of mindless, nauseating R & B, Pop, Dance, Rap and other juicy bits that seem to make up the staple diet of almost every radio station in the country.
A few immediate questions / thoughts came to mind: Do snakes have hips? Do bears shit in the woods? Does puke always have carrots and peas in it, irrespective of what you’ve been eating? You get the drift, part 2.
Needless to say, a number of frantic phone calls and sms’s followed. I wanted to get as many of the original Rockfest people on board as I could, with the intention of starting immediately. Foreplay was not part of the equation. As you can see on the (almost complete) programming schedule below, quite a few of the original Rockfest people are on board, but there are also quite a few new people, many of whom have never done broadcasting before. Everybody has the same passion: to play the best possible music in the country, on 93.8FM Midrand Stereo. As before, you can hear anything from metal to blues to 70’s disco (listen to classic disco tracks such as “Devil’s Gun” and tell me that hasn’t got serious rock links!). Two weeks into the new Rockfest, and some new kids on the block are already starting to shine!
As before, Brian Currin, who has started a blog for The Rockfest (www.rockfest.co.za), is as supportive and enthusiastic as ever, as are advertisers such as Look & Listen, who did not hesitate to come on board, and I want to say thank you to Howard Lazarus, CEO of Look & Listen, for his unfailing support, help and friendship.
We plan to restart The Rockfest gigs, and it’s our intention to have these at The Rustic Theatre, which is a fantastic indoor / outdoor venue with good food and plenty parking, with our “relaunch” possibly at the end of January / early February.
Each presenter has been encouraged to have their playlist for the week placed on the website / blog (I STILL have no clue what the difference between the two is!), so you will able to get an idea of the kind of music each presenter features on their show.
The station is offering extremely attractive advertising rates, up to the end of January 2010, with great benefits, such as one month FREE advertising, so if you would be keen to advertise on the station (and you would also be helping to keep 93.8FM alive and growing!), please contact either Richard on 0822212201 or station advisor Hanz Stricker on 0825613531. As Angus and the boys said: “You Want Rock? You Got It” – your help in keeping the whole thing alive would be beneficial for everyone.
Well, that’s it, for now. Don’t expect long newsletters every week – some of us work for a living! But you can certainly expect to see the playlists, at least, on the blog / website / whatever! You get the drift. Part 3.
This is for you, for us, for Rock ‘n Roll, for SA music, for non-playlisted radio shows. For the freedom to hear what YOU want to hear on the radio.
Thank you to all the guys and girls who share in the same dream and who will give of their time and energy, and who will share their passion.
Thank the Lord for people like Richard Jones and Hanz Stricker………
This week I was standing in for Linda Sue’s 20H00 to 21H00 show, and I took the opportunity to invite Peter Hanmer of Off The Edge / Clint & Co fame into the studio so that he could talk to us about his current and future plans, and also so that we could hear some of the material from his up and coming new solo album, as well as some new Off The Edge material. He’s a pretty busy chap!
Check out brand new releases from Canada’s Lighthouse (cd / dvd combo – finally – some live in the studio material from this most amazing Canadian outfit!), as well as an awesome track from the new Blindside Blues Band (Mike Onesko) album, “World On Fire”, to be released in the next week.
I want to bring the Blindside Blues Band to South Africa as part of The Rockfest gigs. This is power blues / hard rock of the highest order. Anyone keen to get involved in terms of sponsorship, please get in touch with me ( leon@rock.co.za).
Many people would love to see Ken Hensley perform here too, so c’mon – put your money where your mouth is!
Welcome back to one of the wayward Rockfest presenters! Greg Tucker will be joining The Rockfest ON 93.8FM on Tuesday nights, as from mid January.
Coming up next week: tracks from the new Kansas, new Foreigner, the amazing W.E.T album (no, not the WET WET WET one! We’re talking REAL music here!!), Black Widow, Stud (I’m gonna sue them for using my name!), Transatlantic (a very close contender for top prog album of the year), Magnum, and a whole bunch of other goodies.
The Rockfest on 93.8FM Midrand Stereo brings you the best music in the land, from 8pm til late, seven nights a week!
Please check out the website (www.rockfest.co.za) for presenters, news, playlists, etc, as well as www.midrandstereo.co.za
Special guest – guitarist Peter Hanmer.
The following tracks featured are from Peter’s forthcoming solo album “Off The Record”
01. Crossfade
02. Off The Record
03. Over And Over
04. Speed Freak
05. Race Against Time
06. Dead Ringer
The following tracks featured are from Off The Edge’s forthcoming album “Cast In Stone”
07, Cast In Stone (Part 1)
08. Cast In Stone (Part 2)
09. Grandfather Time
10. Time In Focus
End of the Peter Hanmer guest spot.
11. Ken Hensley – When Evening Comes, from “Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf”. 1973 – Bronze Records
12. Spooky Tooth – Hell Or High Water, from “The Mirror”. 1974 – Island Records
13. Tempest – Stargazer, from “Living In Fear”. 1973 – Bronze Records
14. Uriah Heep – Time To Live, from “Salisbury”. 1971 – Bronze Records
15. Ben Granfeldt Band – Intro Jam, from “The Sum Of Memories”. 2006 – Hypertension
16. Blindstone – Wasted Days, from “Manifesto”. 2008 - Grooveyard Records
17. Scott Finch – Ain’t Goin’ Down, from “Gods And Freaks”. 2003 – Horizons
18. Blindside Blues Band – Bury The Axe, from “World On Fire”. 2009 – Grooveyard Records
19. Pat Travers – Inside Looking Out, from “P.T. Power Trio”. 2003 – Shrapnel Records
20. Trapeze – Turn It On, from “Hot Wire”. 1974 – Warner Brothers Records
21. Black Sabbath – Falling Off The Edge Of The World, from “Mob Rules”. 1981 – Castle Communications
22. Iron Maiden – Nomad, from “Brave New World”. 2000 - EMI
23. Dio – Scream, from “Killing The Dragon”. 2002 – Spitfire Records
24. Lighthouse – Lonely Places / Lonely Hours, from “40 Years Of Sunny Days”. 2009 – Universal
25. Chase – Reflections, from “The Concert Series Volume 2”. 2001 – The Hallmark Chase Group
26. Lydia Pense & Cold Blood – Coming Back, from “Transfusion”. 2005 – Dig Music
27. Blue Cheer – Rollin’ Dem Bones, from “What Doesn’t Kill You….”. 2008 – Rainman
28. The Quill – Grand Canyon, from “Silver Haze”. 2001 (?) – Roxon Records
29. Earthless – Sonic Prayer, from “Earthless”. 2007 – Tee Pee Records
30. Pappo – Longchamps Boogie, from “Blues Local”. 1992 – Belgrano Norte
31. Lance Lopez – Shake Joint, from “Simplify Your Vision”. 2006 – Grooveyard Records
32. Voodoo Roosters – I Wish, from “Heavy Loaded”. 1999 – Full Scale Productions
33. Darryl Way’s Wolf – The Envoy, from “Night Music”. 1974 – Esoteric Recordings
34. Wishbone Ash – Outward Bound, from “New England”. 1976 – MCA Records
35. Kin Ping Meh – Fairy Tales, from “Kin Ping Meh”. 1972 – SPV Revisited
36. Badger – On The Way Home, from “One Live Badger”. 1973 – Atlantic Records
I wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas, and hope that the New Year will be safe, prosperous and successful for us all.
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