Wow, three days of festival goodness have flown by and we are def into the Paleo groove. IGGY AND THE STOOGES Were ABOLUTELY CRAZY (THE DUDE IS A NUT CASE) BUT VERY ENTERTAINING. We got some great backstage action and footage with N*E*R*D and my favourite international act on Tues night was def Two Door Cinema Club, watch out for these dudes, the ginger ninja is on the charge… 340ml were fantastic as always and it was great catching up with them backstage for a chat over a few beeries!
Day two has been my favourite so far, Olivia Ruiz opened on the main stage and she was absolutely amazing!! The fact that she is probably one of the hottest women on the planet made the show that much more memorable…
The Mahotella Queens represented South Africa on the Village du Monde (world stage) and were out of this world. Three ladies, all over seventy years of age, performed with the energy and enthusiasm of eighteen year olds. If you ever get the chance to see them you will definitely have a great time.
The main act on Wednesday evening was a guy called M. He is a sensitive French guitarist with an exceptional touch and is know in France and Switzerland as Mister Mystere ( Mr Mystery). This has got to be one of the most entertaining shows I have ever been to in my life, changing his outfit about four times! His lead guitarist came on stage in a superman outfit, took off all his clothes and ripped out the sickest guitar solo I have ever heard in only his jocks, socks and superman cape. He finished off his guitar solo by smashing out a huge drum solo…pretty sensational, crowd was going mental, I was screaming like a 17 year old girl who had just been made Prom Queen!!
Day three saw the arrival of Alain and Celeste on the scene (Alain being our Rocking the Gardens Production Manager), just in time for the festival gates opening at 4pm. Man was there a shocked look on their faces at the enormity of the production. We scrambled into the accreditation area and then watched him assemble his tent in shame. I don’t think he saw the word dwarf when buying his 2″dwarf” tent. The first interview of the day was well after he had gotten into the Paleo groove and im not so sure how we managed. Hugh Masekela was amazing. Sitting in the backstage of the World Dome tent, Hugh gave an amazing summary of music in South Africa and had us begging for photo ops later on in the evening. At over 70 years old and with 54 years of music behind him, the little Maestro gave an electric performance. Half poetry, half instrumentation he had the tent heaving and poor Richard (our camera man) couldn’t even get in to film the show while all the South Africans tried their utmost to squeeze into the tent.
Feeling the groove in so many ways, we snuck in a quick beerie backstage and then rolled on to the Dizu Plaatjies interview. When a group of super cool black South Africans rolled into the interview room, we knew we were in for a treat. The interview was awesome and after 7 takes to get them to say the ending of “Play Hard, Tread Lightly”, we were all in stitches with the band laughing their way out of the interview. We felt like a bit of a break from the African renaissance and went across to see Crosby Stills and Nash. After their performance I will never again judge a book by its cover. These dudes know how to play music and smashed it hard on stage, coming back for an encore to a crowd begging for more.
We then headed on back to the World Stage for the Dizu Plaatijies show. They played every African instrument imaginable in their hour set, wearing African skirts and painted faces, the lead guitarist did a rock star floor solo like Slash with his guitar behind his head and his eyes closed tighter than the front gate of fort knox! And then to top it all off the legendary Johnny Clegg himself came on and was a show not to be missed! The white Zulu played to 60 000 adoring fans and seeing so many foreigners singing along word for word from the backstage area was serious Goosebump material. The show was amazing, with him saving all the best for last. A quick break to tease the audience who were screaming for more, more, more saw ‘The Legend’ race back on to steal the night with 5 more hits before bowing out. It was such an honour to be on stage with this amazing ambassador of our country. We then headed over to the Electro Tent and watched one of the sickest progressive Techno sets I have seen in a long time. Vitalic is his name and he kicked some serious ass!! After that we hit the “late party” and that, my friends, is another story for another day!
Jamiroquai later this eve…also got a TV interview with the Swiss news at 20h00, so pretty amped and rearing to go!!!
Arivore for now…
