It’s the fourth year running that 10 rock ‘n roll icons grace the stage united in order to spread awareness amongst young South Africans regarding cancer and raise money for the Vrede Foundation. This year, like all the previous editions, the super group brought down the house! The Gauteng leg was held at Platteland, a brand-new venue in Centurion.
Garage duo, Hellcats, started the party with their usual sleazy, dirty, beautiful rock. It seemed to be many audience members’ first time seeing Allesandro (drums and vocals) and Warwick (guitar) in action, but a few songs in, the band had everyone eating out of their hands.
The Blood Brothers set kicked off with a bang! Chris van der Walt (from Black Cat Bones) took care of this year’s musical directorship and I can just imagine what a lovely challenge it must have been to select the tunes and put together a show of this magnitude - an entire 3 hours of extravagance! This year’s brothers were alumni members Francois van Coke, Hanu de Jongh, Jason Oosthuizen, Jaco Mans and Chris van der Walt, joint by first timers Hellcats, Laudo Liebenberg, Ard Matthews, Jedd Kossew and the only sister, Adelle Nqeto. So much talent on one stage - aren’t we lucky?!
Photos by Henry Engelbrecht
The show consisted of original tracks from these muso’s (and wow, are there many hits amongst these talented individuals throughout the years!), as well as lekker rock covers. Personal highlights are actually too many to mention! The Narrow’s hit song, “Lonely Lonely” was of course fronted by Hanu and was one of the winners of the night - heaps of energy and a front man extraordinaire! Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” had Hanu and Laudo collaborating vocally in a never-before-heard way. “Fast Car”, made famous by Tracy Chapman, was given a new edge by Ard and Adelle - beautiful! But the ultimate highlight was definitely the whole group performing the Blood Brothers 2018 track, “Always on my Mind”, written by none other than the talented Hunter Kennedy.
There’s a lot to nit-pick on, such as Adelle as part of a rock line-up, Jason behind the drum kit for the entire show, while another drummer, Alessandro, was present, the general unrehearsed vibe one could pick up on, etc. BUT the show was put together for the love of music and for the dedication to a unified, amazing cause. The lighting and art work were of an exquisite quality and the venue’s layout and vibe are incredible!
Well done Blood Brothers - thank you for the music!
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