Splashy Fen Tour Diary

Easter, as it does every year – snuck up on us, bowling everyone over with its splurge of public holidays and a cesation of deadlines and productivity.
Our April schedule had been manic and with our second appearance at South Africa’s most established Music Festival, we were struggling to find time to fit everything in… production meetings, rehearsals, equipment overhauls, booking flights and sourcing rental cars in Durban on the long Easter Weekend (which let me tell you, is about as difficult as getting a rich man through the eye of a needle)
Friday night found us raising the roof at Cape Town’s Knoxville – quite literally as one friend of ours put it; “I like your music but I don’t like it when the building shakes!” so with our ears ringing we kicked off Easter Weekend with a bang.  I mentioned before the difficulty of finding a car to rent – difficulty assumes there was a positive outcome… there wasn’t. Not a single car was to be found across all the rental companies in Durban, not even a rickshaw.
As Luck would have it (hahaha) SMG Durban and our long standing friend Peter Calley  – who handles Mini in KZN came to our rescue with a stunning Mini Clubman – which if you know cars; is the larger version of the Cooper. A tight squeeze fitting 4 people (we had our engineer in tow), and all our equipment into the car for the 2 and a half hour journey to the Underberg. It’s a testament to the design how much you can squash into a Mini!

Arriving at dusk to a jam-packed tent city, we negotiated our way along the rutted dirt road to the Grant Erskine Stage. Capacity; 10 000.

View of Splashy Fen

Bitterly cold and travel weary we sought shelter in the band backstage area and managed to bump into Vusi Mahlesela who we were sharing the stage with – such an awesome, humble man who makes the most incredible music! Quite an honour!

GoodLuck with legendary Vusi Mahlasela

Having touched base with Festival founder and organiser Pedro Carlo, we treked back to our log cabin over looking the “Fen” to relax around a roaring log fire and wait for midnight.

Goodluck Splashy crowd

Walking onto stage having just watched BOO! (Awesome band ft Chris Chameleon) was a goose-bump moment for all of us…  Splashy Fen welcomed us with open arms!

Check out this video of London Sixteen66 (Wes Clarke Remix):

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150176983746681

Goodluck KDAY Experience 2011

The K-Day Weekend Report:

Under Pressure plays in the background as the band steam rolls through final album touch ups, remix reviews, video preproduction and a weekend with 7 gigs in a row…

Flying in from Jozi on Saturday morning – having notched up Gig 1 the night before, Ben, Jules and Raiven sped through baggage collection and down the N1 into the searing heat of the Paarl valley.  Tuning into 94.5 fm the DJ announces ticket sales have exceeded 10500… there’s a noticable change in the speed Ben’s driving and conversation dries up as the bushes slow from a blur to a rush. This will be GoodLuck’s biggest performance to date.

The schedule for the weekend looks like something out of a presidential campaign tour… Johannesburg and Cape Town are getting the royal treatment this long weekend as GoodLuck juggle Kfm’s infamous Kday and Jozi’s Top Gear festivities… there’s a lot of flying ahead of us!

Finally entering the Val de Vie Estate and the temperature is soaring, its 11am and already in the high 30’s… the grounds are festooned with multicoloured umbrellas and seething with over 10000 Capetonians all here to listen to some of South Africa’s best musical talent; Art Matthews, Prime Circle, Goldfish, Liquid Deep and Freshly Ground to name a few.

Ushered backstage and into the cool of our airconditioned trailor, we take a few minutes to prepare for the show ahead. In what feels like a blink of an eye – knocking on our door calls us to stage to setup our equiptment and be on stand by… things are very professional at K-Day – we’re more used to; “oh are you ready to play now?” – in a flurry of stage hands we’re whisked onstage and into the scorching sun. The temperature is now in the 40’s and its pouring “gear melting” heat down onto us; Ben’s drum bubbles up as the rubber expands and Raiven’s keyboard loses its LED screen! The stage painted black blisters the soles of bare feet and radiates heat like a furnace.

Its hot. Like an oven door’s been opened.

A sea of umbrellas and glistening, sweating people spread out on the Polo field roar in aproval as the band drops into London Sixteen66. Jules soon has the audience, shockingly – on their feet grinding to the beat and chanting LaLaaLalaLaa with her as she sings out the chorus! Fast forward to the song the crowd has been waiting for and Matthew Moolman graces the stage to sing the duet with Jules on Taking it Easy… Val de Vie rocks to the sound of 10 000 people singing “we’re taking it eeeaasssyyy”! The performance speeds by in blur of sweat and melting instruments and all too soon the band are recovering in the shade of backstage before dashing off to sign autographs to the queing fans.

K-Day has rocked, burnt and melted its audience and GoodLuck are blown away by the response to their performance. “You’d think people would just sit there and watch!” gasps Jules mid signing of a sweaty T-shirt, “I can’t believe they danced the whole show!”

Hundreds of photographs, hugs and signatures later and the band are bundled back into their car, AC pumping at full capacity – its now 44’ in the sun, and the journey continues; off to Jozi!

Taking It Easy video

GoodLuck, SA Live Electro-Swing Act

A STROKE OF LUCK:

It’s funny really, that a band with so much talent would be called Good Luck. Because it’s not really luck that’s got these three musos to where they are – igniting South African night skies with their jazzing beats- it’s more like a blend of serious sums of talent, plenty of  groove and a helluva lot of passion.  And their next plan? Taking over the dance floors of the world!

GoodLuck Sign to top SA Indie label – Just Music

Having recorded and produced their self titled debut album, GoodLuck have launched into their biggest partnership to date; releasing this much anticipated record through South Africa’s top independent record label Just Music.

“Its an incredibly exciting time for us,” says Ben Peters – the acts producer, “to work with Just Music is a dream come true – we share the same vision for this album and working together on promoting it and getting it into the hands of our fans is proving to be a really rewarding experience!”

The album features 12 tracks written by the group and will be available in stores in April. “Recording this album has been such a fantastic journey for us and building on the success of our first single “Taking it Easy” is something we can’t wait to achieve!” says lead singer and songwriter Juliet Harding, “The response we’ve had to the song on radio has been mind blowing – we’re still quite in awe of how much people seem to love our music!”

With a string of achievements across the country – from opening for international super acts like Basement Jaxx and Paul Oakenfold, to performing alongside South African heavyweights Goldfish, Locnville, Zebra and Giraffe, Liquid Deep and Flash Republic to name a few, GoodLuck seem unstoppable!

“To see our album in stores is going to be an amazing achievement for us and to be working with a team as dedicated and passionate about our music as the guys at Just Music are – well that’s just the icing on the cake!” Peters says ecstatically.

Expect big things from this new development on the local music front – we could well be seeing the makings of another great SA global export!

GoodLuck to open for BASEMENT JAXX CPT and JHB Shows!

GoodLuck have just been announced as one of the opening acts for world famous electronic act Basement Jaxx! The Basement Jaxx DJ Tour tour will kick-off at The Waterfront Lookout located at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, on Friday 3rd September and continue to the 4th of September in Johannesburg at the SkyRaiders Hanger near Rand Airport.

About Basement Jaxx:
The production duo of Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton released several of Britain’s most respected and enjoyable progressive house anthems of the ’90s from their base in South London. Before they met (at a Thames riverboat party organized by Buxton), Ratcliffe grooved to the deep Latin funk of War and George Duke while Buxton was turned on to Chicago house. The pair formed Atlantic Jaxx Records in 1994, and were undoubtedly honored to count among fans of their first release none other than DJ legend and Basement Jaxx influence Tony Humphries, who played “Da Underground” from the EP on his New York mixshow consistently during 1994-95. For their second release, Ratcliffe and Buxton recruited vocalist Corrina Josephs, who later became practically a member of the team herself. The 1995 single “Samba Magic” was picked up for distribution by Virgin, and in time, Basement Jaxx was drawing praise as one of the top house production units, from all corners of the American and British house community. Since then they have had numerous smash world chart hits including ‘GoodLuck’, ‘Romeo’ and many many more!

This is one you dont want to miss! For tickets or more information visit http://www.nuwave.co.za/

Tickets from Computicket: http://www.computicket.com/web/event/basement_jaxx/203137423/0/16173693

CAPE TOWN LINE-UP:

HouseHold Funk
5FM’s Euphonik
5FM’s Roger Goode
Basement Jaxx
Goodluck

GoodLuck, Liquid Deep, Zama Jobe and Teargas mix n blend on the Hennessy Artistry 2010 Campaign

GoodLuck have been selected to be one of the four acts collaborating on the Hennessy Artistry Global Campaign.

Blending the distinctive sounds of four musical genres and showcasing South Africa’s top homegrown music talent, Hennessy Cognac brings the world an exclusive, star-studded concert and track featuring SAMA award winning hip-hop superstars Teargas, melodic deep house duo Liquideep, Afro-funk songstress Zamajobe and energetic jazzy groove-injected dance act GoodLuck.

The Hennessy Artistry South Africa finale concert takes place on Saturday 11 September 2010, situated in the vibrant and exclusive Melrose Arch precinct in Johannesburg. Hennessy Artistry will see these four diverse performing artists all share one stage as they create a new, uniquely South African sound – a local expression of The Art of Blending.

This prestigious finale event forms part of the global Hennessy artistry campaign, culminating in an ultra exclusive VIP concert on 14 October 2010 in New York City. This year’s concert is headlined by Grammy Award winning hip-hop band, The Roots and legendary Grammy nominated hip-hop artist, Q-Tip.

During the months of August and September 2010, 7 build up events will take place around the country, featuring a live performance by one of Hennessy Artistry’s four local collaborating artists.

For more information about Hennessy Artistry including event dates, ticket sales, local and international artists, or how to win an all expenses paid trip for you and a friend to New York to see Q-Tip and The Roots live at the global Hennessy Artistry concert, visit www.hennessy.com or hennessysa.mobi.