After the success of our previous gig at SACS school earlier in the year, we were eagerly looking forward to this one and we were not to be disappointed! In short, total and utter carnage!!

With 400 tickets sold out, we knew that this would be a cracking gig and we were not to be let down. The World Cup soccer fancy dress theme certainly added to the festivities. Despite the Stormers loosing the Super 14 final in the afternoon, the revellers arrived in an upbeat mood. The halls at SACS are pretty huge so Mr Brown certainly had his work cut out with the sound and lighting set up. We carry a cable bag to all our gigs, otherwise known as the 'heaviest bag in the world'. For the first time, we managed to use every single cable in the bag and the stage looked mighty impressive. Lasers...check...smoke..check....tunes...check!

The view from the stage was truly amazing with 400 'adults' clearly in the mood to let their hair down. We hit them hard with an unrelenting first set. The first hour was amazing for band and crowd alike and it set the tone for the rest of the evening. We tend to break the performance down into three sets of about an hour in length which, i can assure you, is extremely hard work from our side. At the average gig, we will play about 32 songs. This evening we played 38...thats a hell of a lot of singing!

Even when we took a break and reverted to DJ'ing the dancefloor remained pretty packed, with the crowd applauding each and every song- technically speaking we could have sneaked off home by this point but being the professionals that we are, we remained to the death!

The last set saw some unprecedented scenes on the dance floor, making Glastonbury look like a Chris De Burgh concert at Kirsetnbosch! We have a new closing song in U2's 'One', the perfect end to any gig. We sang, the crowd sang and all left in good spirits. Inevitably we had to field requests for "One more, one more"....we were absolutely drained and had nothing left to give. My theory is to always leave them wanting in any case.

The 'set-down' took us forever and i finally hopped into bed at 3am, tired but happy in the knowledge that we may very well have the best job in the world.

Can't wait for the next SACS call-up!

Daniel, Noordhoek 31st May 2010

We had a feeling that this would be a fairly epic night and we were proven to be correct! Cafe Verdi has just undergone a massive refurb, so when we got the call through from Pete to see if we fancied playing there on Friday nights we were more than keen to oblige.

When we arrived at 7.30, the place was already pumping. Logistically speaking, it wasn't ideal getting into the gig area through the back of the kitchen- hardly a rock 'n' roll scenario but it did allow us to have a spy on the pizza oven and the tasty pizzas emerging from the said dough-rising apparatus. So, we managed to get set and in no time we were ready to roll. Being our first time at Verdi, we didn't quite know how to play it song-wise, so we just set about doing our usual thing, commencing with a few 'chilled' numbers. I'd spent much of the previous week researching new material so we had a couple of cracking new slower songs with which to set the tone of the evening. Bryan Ferry's 'Slave to love' got its first airing and seemed to go down well as did our new version of 'Babylon' by David Gray.

I'd say the crowd was a 30's and early 40's bunch all out for a good time after a long week at work. The drinks were flowing and the vibe was great. Before long, it was time to start firing up the crowd with the usual pleasers (cue 'Human' by the Killers etc etc) and slowly but surely a dance floor area was created- the rest is history as the saying goes.

Inevitably in a post work Friday crowd, you're going to get the obligatory older couple over-reaching themselves on the dance floor- this resulted in a wipe-out of note as one dance move saw the aforementioned revellers propel themselves 5 metres across the floor and into my microphone at the front of the stage. 10/10 for originality there and a really special move!

In all honesty, i can say that this was probbaly one of the best gigs we've ever played. From a musical perspective, we were buzzing and feeding off the crowd. It was great to see that the numbers we've been introducing are going down well (Blister in the Sun, Friday i'm in Love amongst others). The atmosphere was electric. My particular favourite moment was our rendition of "Where the streets have no name" which sent the crowd into delirium.

It looks like we'll be at Verdis' on the 1st, 2nd and 4th Friday of every month- we're at the Toad in the Village in Noordehoek for the entirety of the World Cup but normal service will resume after that so always call ahead to see if we're on!

So, another venue for Me and Mr Brown and we look forward to our next gig there!

Daniel, Noordhoek 31st May 2010

With a set up time of around 6.30pm in Franschhoek, Friday was a very relaxing day. Dogs were walked, movies were watched and the sun was bathed in. Mr Brown probably spent the day NOT completing his wall unit at home. Oh, the joys of being a musician. Whilst friends toil away in their offices, Mr and Mr Brown can be found in the malls of Cape Town, at Virgin Active (well Mr Brown anyway) and generally 'mincing' about the place with limited purpose. Once a week, we get together in my rehearsal studio at home ( a sound proofed double garage) and thrash out some new songs and ideas but essentially, our work takes place between Thursdays and Sundays. This suits us just fine. The downside of this is that if we're not playing, we don't earn money. I take care of all the admin side of things. You'd be surprised how much time is spent responding to enquiries, sending off invoices and exploring/downloading new material. Tony takes care of all the technical aspects of our set including our sound system, guitars etc.  Anyway, i digress...

As i drove over Kaapse Weg to fetch Mr Brown, with the tunes blasting and that INCREDIBLE view out to the Hottentot Hollands in front of me, i couldn't help thinking what a great job we have. To go to beautiful places, play music and entertain great people AND get paid is really quite awesome. This was a particularly beautiful late afternoon and as i pulled into Mr Browns driveway, i felt we were going to play a cracking gig tonight. I forgot to mention one of the downsides of gig day, namely the equipment collection, which involves half an hour of sweat and toil for the unlucky person responsible- this happened to be me today. With that painful memory fading away into the distance, like the view of Muizenberg and the mountain disappaiting into our rearview mirror, we hammered my polo (the Black Panther) out along the coastal road where we eventually hooked up with the R44. 

We meandered up the Helshoegte Pass, up past Tokara and Delaire Estates and then turned into our venue, the stunning Clouds Estate. What a site and what a place to play music. On arrival at the venue, we try and get the set up out of the way within 30 minutes. Tony takes care of the set up and the sound. We also have a system which has fallen perfectly into place whereby i carry anything thats light and he carries anything that's remotely heavy. I always make sure that i have some type of little injury on the day to back this up but, basically, i'm pathetic! The views from Clouds, as you would expect by the name, were astonishing. 

Our brief tonight- a 40th birthday for 80 guests. I always like to walk around the crowd and get a sense of what sort of 'vibe' there is. You can actually tell very early on what type of evening lies ahead. Tonight was also a fancy dress theme, which always helps loosen everyone up a bit. Just on the basis of my 20 minute walk around i could tell that tonight would be a total dog show. My instincts proved to be correct. When we eventually started playing at around 10pm, the crowd were well oiled and in high spirits. This makes our job very easy. I had jotted down a set list for tonight which always helps give you some direction once you get started. These set lists are totally flexible but its nice to have something down on paper to follow. Well, the dance floor was RAMMED from start to finish. We've started doing 'Human' by the Killers early on in the set as its such a great track to get everyone going, not that we needed much assistance tonight. We played a massive range of stuff tonight from Kings of Leon to Van Morrison and they all went down a treat.

We ended with ' Fix You' by Coldplay, a favourite closer of ours as it just seems to be the perfect way to finish the night. And so at 12.30 AM we were done. With the adrenalin still pumping, we loaded the car up in record time (about 20 mins) and we were off with the crowd still buzzing from the music. Me and Mr Brown had left the building. We did our obligatory stop at the Engen on the way home and i think i managed to climb into bed at around 2.30am, not too bad for a work night out in the winelands.

The following day, i received the following sms from our clients- "Thank you so much for last night. You made the party! All were in agreement- best music at a party ever!". Another job well done and hopefully a whole host of new converts to the cause. You gotta love that.

Dan, Noordhoek 16th Jan 2010

It's never ideal arriving at a venue with all your equipment only to realise that the most important piece of the jigsaw, our mixing desk, was left behind in the store room at Cafe Roux. There was no time left to lay the blame game (Daniel's fault btw), only to act decisively and sort out the problem. Car engines were fired up and logistics were organised whereby a driver would be sent over the mountain by Cafe Roux to rendevous with Daniel near Silverhurst Estate at the foot of Kaapse Weg.

I think we realised something was up when, after 45 minutes, there was still no sign of the driver sent by Cafe Roux with the mixing desk in tow. MAJOR PROBLEM! The aforementioned driver was eventually found to be located at the BP garage on main road near Lakeside- not excactly Silverhurst Estate near Steenberg but close enough to salvage the problem. We eventually met the driver, appropriately enough, outside Polsmoor Prison gates. It did not go unnoticed that this is where we may very well have ended up if we had got our hands on the driver in the first place having found him in the wrong location!

So with mixing desk in hand, the 'Black Panther; was hammered back down the M3 towards Newlands (hammered to such an extent that an incident took place whereby we were flagged down at a traffic light and told that there must be something wrong with our suspension). And so, just in the nick of time, the mixing desk arrived for us to entertain the 180 beautiful people of Johnson and Johnson's corporate awards event.

Its quite interesting when you get booked to play 'background music'- its not that we can't do it, its just that people seem to react very well to even our background music, A great atmosphere was created and it looked like the people of Johnson & Johnson were well and truly satisfied with us.

With our evening over at 9pm, we headed back down the M3 towards home and reflected on what was a pretty simple gig. Corporates are the way to go! As i sat down in front of my telly scoffing my lovely take away from the venue whilst simultaneously watching the Africa Cup of Nations, i wondered what the good people of Johnson and Johnson made of us as they drifted off home to their loved ones. Perhaps something along the lines of..." jeez those guys were great but they didnt half look flustered when they arrived".

All's well that ends well.

Dan, 29th Jan 2010 Noordhoek 

It's not often that one gets to live the rock 'n' roll dream and play 'Viva La Vida' in front of a baying crowd of 5,000 people but that's exactly what happened to us last weekend at the Cape Town Tens Rugby Festval. What a gig! I must say that we've both been buzzing since last Saturday evening (6th Feb) and it was definitely a weekend to remember for Me and Mr Brown.

In truth, it was a huge few days down at Hamiton's rugby club next to the new Greenpoint Stadum. Castle breweries had erected a huge beer tent and to top it off, had driven the enormous Castle Gig rig down from Johannesburg. In all honesty, its probably the best sound system i have ever played through and i must admit that when i first arrived at the benue, i called Mr Brown to tell him to bring a spare pair of underwear for the moment when he set eyes on the stage!

I'd like to think that we truly came of age as a band last weekend. I thought that we handled the oversized stage well and i could tell that our sound and song choice really suited the crowds' tastes.  It was a real pleasure playing with UK act The Lightyears and i'd like to think that we helped them enjoy the experience- top lads!

Musical highlights included U2's 'Pride' and an emotive version of ''Fix You, which closed our Saturday night set.

Will write more when we're back to normality!

Daniel, Noordhoek 12th Feb 2010

From the first strains of our opening acoustic number to the euphoria of the inevitable conversion of a hit single to the obligatory "Our SACS is on fire", this was a particularly special evening. My phone has been ringing off the hook since last Friday with enquiries when we totally rocked the Hoffmeyer Hall at SACS school. When you get booked for a rugby fundraiser with the average age of the crowd being around 40, you dont really expect a full on mosh pit of 300 people but, basically, thats what happened........

Scholboy error number one; turning up to a BYO food and booze event with no food or booze. Unfortuantely the gravity of my error came crashing down on me as it was post 7pm and, for some reason in Cape Town, off-licences shut then. What a stupid bloody law! And so, armed with a litre bottle of coke, some crisps and an unidentifiable cold Italian chicken leg vibe from the BP garage, Me and Mr Brown set up on the stage of the fairly sizeable hat SACS school.

We didnt really know what to expect from this one. All we knew was that it was for 500 people and that certain elements of the crowd would be 'up for a party'. The evening began hilariously when at about 6pm the first guests arrived. I'd place these folk in their early 60's. What followed can only be arrived as a 'walk out'. Mystified as to why the organiser had moved the event inside, despite warnings of virtually 100% chances of rain in Newlands that evening, these folks swanned straight out with an air of outrage under their breath. The organiser came straight to me as i was setting up on the stage- "what total c***s". It was probably one of the most hilarious and British style comedy moments i've heard since i've arrived on these shores! The last laugh would be on the organiser though as at about 8pm, the heavens opened.  Boy, did those folks miss a great night!

Pretty much from the off, the crowd were up for it. We commenced with an acoustic set- every song was loudly appreciated and we could tell that this could get lively. After dark, it was time to fire up the smoke machine and turn on our newly aquired lights. Jeez, i think Jean Michelle Jarre should be worried! The next two hours were perhaps up there with the best we've ever played and down at the front there, well, it was total carnage.

The organisers even managed to put together a whip round for us to play an extra 20 mins. We came off the stage drenched in sweat thanks to one of the SACS students' shining two lights on us that must have been taking power directly from the centre of the earth!All in all, a massive success and we're now looking forward to a re-run at another SACS fund raiser at the races on April 17th!

Daniel, Noordhoek 18th Feb