It all started way back in 1994 when bassist, Pete Shout, and a close friend, lead guitarist Pete Krog, were messing about as a two piece.  The duo were having a lot of fun but weren't exactly heading anywhere in particular!  In order to break this festive inertia it was suggested that they expand their number to form a rock group.   Seizing upon the idea, their first call was to acquaintance Eddie Heusdens who was sitting idly by with his drum kit, his last band having disintegrated a few months before. Eddie quickly enlisted. A few weeks later, and almost by coincidence, Charles Piggott, who had kept his musical abilities under pretty tight wraps, revealed that he had an electric guitar - and that he could play it, too! Charles could also sing. And so Bedrock was formed and went public in March 1995 after many months of serious practice.

After nine appearances the first blow was struck in May 1996 when Pete Krog, who is an out-and-out blues fan, declared that he was leaving the band to pursue his full-time career as a airline pilot with Air Mauritius. Pete departed in a good spirit and the hunt began for his replacement - a pretty difficult task in a small village like Oranjemund.

Shortly prior to this some of the band's members had been laying down original material at the home studio of a certain John Rodgers. John knew a few tricks on the old axe and it wasn't long before he stepped into the void created by Pete's departure.   John's "career" with the band was to be extremely short-lived for, after just one public appearance, he announced that he, too, was on his way out of town. Back to square one and, in the absence of a successor to John, the band persevered as a three piece.

After a number of gigs, Ken Malherbe, a classically trained local guitarist, entered the fray on rhythm. Back to four.

September 1997 saw Jennifer, at that time Ken's better half, attend her first practice adding her beautifully smooth voice to the band's vocal talents, complementing those of Charles who, hitherto, had carried the burden of lead vocalist.

It was in October of that year, after attending his first Bedrock function as an onlooker, that Kenny Ramage declared that he, too, was willing and able to join the Bedrock family. Kenny's arrival brought with it a musician of considerable experience and talent, assets that the entire band benefited by. Musically there is no doubt that the band took a major step forward on the wave of Kenny's knowledge, experience, musicality and ability.

Not only is Kenny a skilled musician, but he's a pretty good CAD draughtsman & it wasn't long before his skills were harnessed to develop the band's website. Within days http://www.bedrockband.com was alive and receiving its first "hits". The site has gone from strength- to-strength and, today, is a comprehensive shop window to the band, its products and activities.

1999 witnessed a rash of departures of band members - Charles Piggott to Germany and the Malherbes to Pretoria. These losses were particularly severe as Charles and Jenny were the band's vocalists with none of the remaining members having any pretensions in this regard! After running an advertisement or two a number of persons interested in joining the band were auditioned. Out of that exercise came the selection of Mike Millad as the newest member - at that time! -  

Later that month, just as the band had thought they'd seen the last of Charlie Piggott, who pitched up again for a one-off gig?  None other than the said Charlie Piggott!  Charles had decided pay his first holiday to Bedrock's desert oasis and wasted no time in lining up with the band again for a quick performance.  The Oranjemund Hockey Club's never been the same since!

On the 16 June, 2000, the band launched their first album, entitled "La Cantina", the name of a popular drinking venue in Oranjemund.  It was here that the band had established an almost permanent presence and the venue had become known as the town's premier rocking joint, especially on Saturday afternoons when the band would let rip.  It was here that the band honed its skills and built up a following.  The album was a selection of some of the band's best covers but, technically, was not a masterpiece.  It was the band's first effort at recording and producing

More importantly, the recording of this album saw the establishment of the band's own recording studio - Dining Room Studios - and record label, Criminal Records!!  (You can have have plenty more laughs if you surf the band's STUDIO web page!!). 

The latter part of 2000, as well as the early months of 2001, saw the band tackle their most ambitious project to date - a full album of original compositions under the name of 'Recovery".  It was a vastly improved effort, technically, over "La Cantina" with some clever, and humorous, touches here and there.    It was the days of major disputes between some of the World's biggest bands and their recording companies, over the issue of mp3 music and unauthorised downloading (Napster and all that).  In alluding to this state of affairs,  the album's opening sounds are those of none other than a personal computer dialling up to a network, a sound typically heard in homes throughout the world.  Quite a smart idea which, as it transpired, was unfortunately lost on many people who thought they had acquired a defective recording!!  For this reason the intended "cleverness" of this move wasn't exactly an unmitigated success!  The quality of the songs, however, were and the Kenny Ramage penned opening track, "Rock and Roll Man" received accolades far and wide.  These included the music press and the track was made available on the South African mp3 site where it charted in the Top 20 on two separate occasions.  It also was featured on the Bruce Millar radio show of that time and became a popular favourite with many people for its nostalgic content.

Apart from "Rock 'n Roll Man" the album included a number of others songs which became very popular in their "live" gigs, including the Pete Shout penned (Na Na Na Na Na) Take A Look and the Kenny Ramage compositions, "Babbelas Blues", "Saturday Night", "The Loser" and "Freedom", the latter song being the first original composed by Kenny for the band.   Mike Millard also chipped in with a couple of solid contributions, including "Vision".

August 2002 saw the band collect an important accolade when they were placed second overall at a South African Breweries sponsored "Battle Of The Bands" competition at Keetmanshoop.  This effectively made them the highest placed Namibian band as the victors were, apart from one member, a group of visiting South African professional musicians.  Unavoidably Mike Millard was not available for this gig so the band, in their usual style, took it on as a trio. 

Fired up by the success of their second album, the band immediately started writing and planning their next release which later earned the title of "So, Where's The Party?".  This album was deliberately planned to be a solid, loud, driving, rock album with BIG guitars and plenty of tracks to boogie to.  Striving to take another step up in the quality of their product, the band engaged the services of professional sound engineer, Neil Thain.  With Neil's assistance the album came to fruition and was recorded as "big" as was intended.  Two of the album's tracks were released as mp3 tracks -  a Kenny Ramage composition called "Crowd Invasion" and a Pete Shout one entitled "What Crap Is That?".  "Crowd Invasion" duly marched into the mp3 Top 20 charts, following on the earlier success of "Rock 'n Roll Man".

The album was released at Oranjemund's "La Cantina" pub on the night of 31 January, 2003.  Ironically, it was to be MIke Millard's final gig with the band as he, too, had decided to take his leave of the community and move to greener climes in the Fairest Cape.

The search for a new band member resulted in a well known local musician, Dave MacMillan, coming into the ranks.  On this occasion Dave wasn't with the band for long, before departing the ranks and reducing the line-up to a trio once again!  Nevertheless, the band determined to soldier on.  The first milestone they achieved was at their very first gig after Dave's departure when the band celebrated their 100th gig!  This was no mean achievement in a  small town such as Oranjemund with the constant shifting of people and was fair testimony to their tenacity.

It was around about this time that the band were invited to participate in the Windhoek Rock Festival to be staged, fore the first time, as part of the Windhoek Arts Festival week.  The trio immediately accepted the invite and went into weeks of serious practice having decided to eight songs, seven of which would be Bedrock originals.  On the night of Saturday, 1st November, 2003, the band had one of their finest hours - and played one of their best performances - on the Festival's stage.  They came very much as an unknown quantity to many of those present but quickly won the crowd over with their rocking sounds.  It only took eight songs to transform themselves from something to an "unknown quantity" to something of a "revelation" on the local music scene.

It was at the beginning of 2004 that Kenny Ramage informed the band that he would be leaving the band, Company and community for a move to Cape Town.  And so it was that Kenny's huge contribution to the band came to an end, closing yet another chapter of the band's history.  (Happily, his association with the and was to continue through a number of activities related to the website, as well as on-going technical support and advice on all manner of things).  Apart from founder members, Pete and Eddie, he had played more gigs than any other member of the band at any time, had contributed significantly to their three album releases and had shared many of the band's finest moments.  Kenny's "official" farewell gig was played at the "Place Of Happiness" in Oranjemund on the 13 March, 2004.  He did, however, return for one last night when the band honoured an earlier commitment to play at the 50th birthday celebration of their favourite General Manager!, within the hallowed "hall" of the Oranjemund Power Station! 

And, so, the quest for yet another new band member commenced and culminated in Rozanne Fichardt joining the band in June, 2004.  Rozanne was a novice in terms of rock music, her previous music "history" being one of church activities.  Nevertheless, her personality and enthusiasm offset these potential shortcomings and her outstanding keyboard skills were soon contributing to a whole new feel within the band.  The band was still at three piece at that time when drummer, Eddie, suggested that his spouse, Solange, also join the line-up on percussion and vocals.  This idea was accepted and so the band, for the first time in its history, had equal representation of the sexes - two young and youthful ladies and two old men!!

On the 26 November, 2004, the band made its debut with the revised line-up at - you guessed it! - "La Cantina".  Whilst their new, keyboard-based sound came as something of a surprise, many people found it a breath of fresh air and there was much enthusiasm.  The band no longer possessed a strong guitarist such as Kenny, Mike or Pete Krog so looked to the "ivories" to compensate.  Pete alternated between bass and electric acoustic and Solange added her weight to percussion and backing vocals.  Just when things were looking up again, everything went down once more!  The reason for this was that Rozanne had decided that she had other priorities to pursue and, respecting her views, she, too, left amicably at the end of 2004.  Having said that, in her short tenure with the band Rozanne had been a part of another Bedrock "first" when they played a Corporate function at the Oranjemund Little Theatre!

Just when Eddie, Pete and Solange were wondering what they had to do to find musicians who would stick around for a while former member, Dave MacMillan, contacted the band to offer his services.  This led to his return to the fold with the promise of a long hoped for period of stability for the band. 

"Recovery" and "So, Where's The Party?" are available through the band's website or at the One World music cyber store at www.cd.co.za   So, if you want to get what you pay for, pop along to a Bedrock "gig" for a good, old fashioned party.  And, if you live far, far, away just buy yourself one of our ultra cheap CD releases.