(The Band In The Sand)

- Disturbing The Peace Since 1994! -

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www.bedrockband.com
bedrock@bedrockband.com
sandmaster@ananzi.co.za
PO Box 1225 Oranjemund Namibia

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No 2/2003 24 February 2003

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HEADLINERS

· The Times They Are A-Changin’ – A New Face In BEDROCK’s line-up

· BEDROCK Founder In Near-Death Experience

· “So, Where’s The Party?” Captures The Imagination

· BEDROCK Get A Mention in SA Rock Digest & Bruce Millar Show (again!)

· The Times They Are A-Changin’ - Hello Dave!!

Once again the vagaries of working for a mining company in the far-flung and remoter corners of the world has meant another change in the band’s line-up. For once, however, the timing has been fortuitous as a ready-made replacement was on hand to immediately fill the void created by Mike Millad’s departure. Mike’s decision to leave the band was prompted by the fact that he and Georgia will be wed on the 8th March and a transfer from Oranjemund is imminent thereafter. Mike had been with the band since April, 2000, and played 33 gigs until the time of his departure. A quiet, unobtrusive musician, (unlike Ramage & Heusdens!), Mike will be especially remembered for the ballads he composed and sang on the band’s RECOVERY and “SO, WHERE’S THE PARTY?” albums. This included “Vision” and “This Place”. He did, however, also produce a couple of strong rockers in “Nobody There” and “Cliché”. Anyway, our best wishes go to Mike and Georgia in their life ahead of them. Thank You both for the contribution you made during the time you were fully-fledged Bedrockers and, hey, KEEP DOIN’ IT!!

As was said earlier, for once a competent musician was awaiting in the wings to compensate for the loss of Mike – enter another icon of the geriatric rock age in Dave MacMillan. Dave and his wife, Wendy, arrived in Oranjemund in January, 2003, and their arrival immediately stirred interest within Bedrock’s ranks due to Dave’s reputation as a musician preceding him. Dave, a product of Potchefstroom High School in the late 60’s, has an extremely long, and impressive, history as a muso. After dabbling with various high school and air force bands during his National Service, Dave turned full-time professional in 1974 as a bass player with a band called LOGIC. The band appeared regularly at Hillbrow’s SKYLINE and Dave, at that stage, never dreamt of having to work!

During this years Dave was working towards obtaining a pilot’s licence, so determined was he to get as high as he could in life. The inevitable conflict arose and culminated in Dave finally believing that he’d found a job less demanding and stressful than being a muso – flying! He then joined the Anglo American stable and “took the foot” off his musical aspirations for a short while before joining Johanny & Marie Gibson’s country music show. He performed some time with the Gibsons and played bass on at least two of their well known country music recordings, “Lonely Liza” and “One Way At A Time Sweet Jesus”.

In later years Dave was transferred to Kimberley where he made a name for himself on the local pub and entertainment circuit as a member of the LAGER LUGGERS, with Dave Frylinck. Together they powered many a party at such well known Kimberley watering holes as “The Star Of The West” and “The Half”.

After the demise of the LAGER LUGGERS, Dave teamed up with Martin Edwards and continued to gig extensively in the Kimberley area. They eventually landed a very lucrative, and financially rewarding, contract with the Tusk Hotel group. Apart from his activities as a musician Dave is also well known as the proprietor of Kimberley’s largest, and best, musical instruments retailers, THE MUSIC BOX.

No doubt you will all join us in welcoming Dave to this crazy outfit that we call BEDROCK and in wishing him well for his time with us. Dave will be making his “live” debut with the band at The Don on the night of Friday, 28 February, 2003, when we set about taking the place apart again.

Dave is the 11th musician to have joined the band since its inception.

· BEDROCK Founder In Near-Death Experience

We were all most alarmed to learn of Pete & Di’s recent escape from death by electrocution. For those of you who don’t know, Pete founded BEDROCK with the other Pete – Shout – but was faced with a employer change shortly after starting the band. This was a “No Contest” because who could turn down a job (let’s get real here!) with Air Mauritius for corporate flying with Anglo American? Anyway, Pete moved on but has always remained close, and loyal, to BEDROCK. In fact, one of his compositions – COLD T – features on our RECOVERY CD.

Be that as it may, Pete was recently preparing for the onset of a cyclone and was checking out there home’s generator. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but the next thing was that Pete was “hooked up” on a “live” extension. (He explained to us that, unlike South Africa, things are pretty Third World over there and one doesn’t have DB boards and trip switches in one’s house as a matter of standard).

Whilst Pete was thrashing about with this current surging through his body his Good Lady, Di, arrived on the scene and, unthinkingly, grabbed him. She, naturally, suffered the same fate and within milli-seconds they were both on the floor with this current flowing through their bodies.

Nobody knows where she got the presence of mind, of strength, from, but Di managed to disengage ands cut the mains power. She, thankfully, is unscarred and, other than the shock of the whole thing, “unblemished”. Pete, however, hasn’t been that lucky – he has third degree burns on one of his hands and require skin grafts to put things to rights. The initial “worst case” scenario was that he would face the partial – if not, total – removal of an index finger.

Since then, however, Pete has continued with his medical treatment and the Doctor (unlike Pete!) is happy with what he’s seeing. Pete still have no feeling in his finger tip (and might I and, this was probably the fastest “pinkie” in South Africa!) but the prognosis is that all will be well in 4 – 6 weeks time. (Pete is presently trying to set fire to his other hand to score another 6 weeks off work!).

In all seriousness, though, this has been a major scare for us all and we’re just grateful that Pete & Di have survived the experience. We are sure that you will join us in wishing them well and praying for a speedy recovery.

If you’d like to chat to them yourselves, please direct your e-mails to:

pkrog@intnet.mu

· “So, Where’s The Party?” Really Takes Off

Sales of our most recent CD, “So, Where’s The Party?”, have been really encouraging with widespread interest being expressed in the album. One of the choice tracks off the album, the Ramage-penned “Crowd Invasion” is available as an mp3 download at www.samp3.co.za so, please, all dash along there and download a “hit” for us!! There’s a short write-up in the SA Rock Digest Amuzine published on 17 February so look to following our fortunes in that fine publication as well. Thanks, again, to Sugar from SA Rock Digest for the mention on SAFM’s Bruce Millar Show.

The album is also available through the South African cyber music store, One World, at www.cd.co.za so, if you know anyone anywhere in the world who would like to purchase a copy, please direct them, either, to our website (www.bedrockband.com) or One World.

Other “advances” have been the fact that Paul Joubert Music, Namibia’s primary distributor of music, have agreed to take Bedrock’s albums on for distribution so we hope that the necessary support from the music retail business will follow.

Apart from that, we are pleased to advise that the American cyber music store, CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com) have also agreed to carry stock of our recordings so we hope to increase our share of USA customers. Although they’re only a handful at the moment, we are confident that we can grow our market over there through initiatives such as these. (Despite the corny name, CD Baby achieve significant sales through their websites and cannot be ignored as an serious avenue for sales).

SA Rock Digest & Bruce Millar Show

We’d, finally, like to ask you all to lend an ear to the Bruce Millar Show on Safm (104 – 107 khz) on Monday nights to keep up with the news on your hottest local acts, including The Band In The Sand!

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BedRock - The Band in the Sand

http://www.bedrockband.com

mailto:bedrock@bedrockband.com

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