South African Tour 2007: Max Roach Park

The stage was set , Yngvil would arrive in Durban from Alaska via New York and Jo berg 3 days after I got in from London. Planning the trip I spoke to my Dad, he came to Durban in 1942. He sailed from Scotland on The Durban Castle. They arrived from a war torn London with its blackouts, rationing and nightly bombing raids. They thought they had come to paradise. At the centre of that particular rose was a thorn however, apartheid. He told me how shocked the sailors were at the signs saying whites only.

Spin on 65 years and I wander down to the Durban beach to see the surfers on spectacular waves. I see guys selling rickshaw rides like I saw in my Dads photos, I ring my him from the beach and describe how Durban looks today.

First up we play a house party in the Kloof, with the Indian Ocean directly below us. As we played, beautiful fire dancers performed to our music. It was a great way to start the tour. I meet so many welcoming and warm people.

Our second gig at Lounge Kloof is cancelled but some good friends of Dan turn up and suggest we go back to their house for an impromptu session and a some fine wine. I think why not? I'll probably just sit in the corner and play bongos or something. We arrive at their house and loads of people start turning up so we do a couple of full sets. One thing that I've noticed in South Africa is that audiences really listen when you're playing. At the university of Kwa Zulu Natal we are joined by a local pianist Thor, who also plays with us at the Phansi museum. Both gigs go down really well

We do the Richard Haslop show on SA FM., which is a really enjoyable experience. Richard is a hugely knowledgeable person. He definitely has us sussed musically and he plays music that has greatly influenced the CD. Another highlight was meeting with the journalist Giselle Turner who showed us great hospitality and a great insight into what we are bout. We also get to meet some great guys at Tuks FM .

We see the other side of South Africa too, Yngvil our trumpet player and Anne who is making a film about our tour are robbed at knifepoint by a gang in broad daylight in a market in Durban. They are not physically harmed but lost all their stuff and are badly shaken up.

Our tour of South Africa is totally self-financed so losing a load of stuff is really bad news. We have a meeting to decide about how we will handle going to Jo Berg in terms of cost and getting about safely etc. A couple of friends of Dans come to the rescue. They let us stay with them at their house in Jo berg whilst we play the record store and mall gigs in the city. In return we play a gig at their party. We hook up in Jo Berg with Paul Seele form Musketeer records. Paul set up the gigs and helps us out on the day to day stuff too. It was great to finally meet Paul, he also set up the distribution of Max Roach Park in SA.

In between all the this we travel back up to the Drakensberg where we stay miles from anywhere. Someone told me that it's where Tolkein styed just before he wrote Lord of The Rings, I can see how someone could be incredibly inspired by such a magnificent landscape. One night as a blood red sunset sank over the giants castle I could see Mordor right there. We use our time there to rehearse and to work on some new material.