“JACK HAMMER JAMBOREE”

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS ON THE ROCK ‘N ROLL HIGHWAY @ CAFÉ BARCELONA

SATURDAY 18TH JULY 2009

FROM 15h00 TILL LATE

The year 2009 sees Jack Hammer, one of the country’s finest and longest serving rock bands, celebrate 25 years pounding the Rock ‘n Roll ‘Highway’ in South Africa. The “JACK HAMMER JAMBOREE” is a music festival to take place at Cafe Barcelona in Elardus Park on Saturday 18th July 2009 to celebrate ‘a quarter of a century’ for this incredible outfit!

All the artists performing at the “JACK HAMMER JAMBOREE” have at some or other stage played in the Jack Hammer band over the past 25 years. Spearheaded over these years, by SA music legend Piet Botha, Jack Hammer has made a huge impact and a phenomenal contribution to promote South African music and these musicians have supported and assisted many local artists to ‘kick start’ their careers in the local industry.

Jack Hammer’s music over these years has truly touched and enriched the lives of all of those it has reached.

JACK HAMMER

Botha started his long and illustrious career back in 1972, when as a Tuks-student; he played as a solo artist at some of his hometown venues in Pretoria. A true Rock ‘n Roller at heart, Botha is probably one of the finest guitarists this country has ever produced. His early influences and inspiration was found from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and many of the rock legends of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Originally Botha stuck to his rock ‘n roll guns and produced some of the most incredible rock music with bands such as Raven, Catherine Wheel and Wildebeest, already then acclaiming some very prestigious awards when Raven was nominated as runners up to the SABC TV’s Battle of the Bands competition in 1979 and when the Bushrock 1 album, by Wildebeest, was nominated as best local rock album of the year in 1981.

In 1984 Botha formed the rock outfit Jack Hammer and has kept the name ever since. Jack Hammer has seen many members come and go in it’s 25 year history, but it’s founder, the ‘Hammer’, is still rocking steady to this day. Much of Botha’s and Jack Hammer’s magic has been captured on albums such as Jack of All Trades, Ghosts on the Wind, Death of a Gypsy, Anthology, The Pilgrim and their latest release Highway 13. In 1997 Botha was persuaded by associates to migrate his musical talent to the Afrikaans music arena. His first Afrikaans CD, Suitcase Vol Winter, was testimony to his creative abilities and was acclaimed by SA Rock Digest as one of the finest musical works ever produced on our shores. Other great Afrikaans albums followed suit and Botha, together with Jack Hammer, produced Jan Skopgraaf, Die Hits and Die Mamba, which was acclaimed local album of the year in 2004.

A down to earth and humble character, Botha has during this exciting journey in his musical career, rubbed shoulders with other greats of our local music scene such as Trevor Rabin (Rabbit / Yes), Rupert Mellor (McCully Workshop) Mike Faure, Julian Laxton, Colin Pratley, the late Ken E Henson (Freedoms Children), Dave Tarr (Silver Creek Mountain Band / Wildebeest), Vusi Mahlasela, the late Gito Baloi, Ray Phiri and numerous others. Botha with Jack Hammer has also shared the stage with some world class acts such as ZZ Top, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep.

In 2005 Botha was honoured with a SAMA Lifetime Achievement for his contribution made to South African music during his incredible career.

Line-up JACK HAMMER JAMBOREE – 18 July 2009

Jack Hammer

Piet Botha – guitar, harmonica, vocals

Paul van der Waal – drums, percussion

Tertius du Plessis – bass guitar

Johnathan Martin – guitar, vocals

Guest Artists

Boet Faber – Lead guitar

Eric Birkenstock – Bass guitar

Jan Maloney – Drums

Cesera Cesarino – Bass guitar

Findlay Malherbe – Drums

Lowell Jeffrey – Bass guitar

Lani van der Walt – Bass guitar

Toni van der Walt – Lead guitar

Schalk van der Merwe – Bass guitar

Jorik Pienaar – Drums, percussion

Paul Barnard – Bass guitar

Andy Stephenson – Drums

Dave Codling – Guitar

Leon van Zweel – Saxophone

Karlien van Niekerk – Vocals

Deon Maree – Guitar

Mervyn Davis – Violin, mandolin

Stean van der Walt – Guitar, vocals

Chris van der Walt – Lead guitar

Heinie van der Walt – Lead guitar

Master of Ceremony / Narrator

Dirk Jordaan – Beeld

www.jackhammer.co.za

CAFÉ BARCELONA

Café Barcelona is a live music venue located in the Elardus Park shopping centre, south east of Pretoria started by Jose and Chrisna Pesquito in 1996. For their very first live gig none other than Piet Botha and Johnathan Martin performed “unplugged” on the night and this started the wonderful journey for Café Barcelona. It has been adopted as ‘home base’ in Pretoria, for many of the country’s best local talent. The venue is one of Pretoria’s prime music spots which is extremely popular with both musicians and music fans alike. Jose’ and Chrisna’s passion for local talent is deep rooted and they have supported local talent through thick and thin over the years.

This venue is undoubtedly one of the best live music venues in Pretoria. Open 6 days a week Monday to Saturday, with live music from Tuesdays to Saturdays. The cuisine and service is great and the food on offer from their Ala Carte menu is excellent.

Production Team

The Production team for JACK HAMMER JAMBOREE comprises of the following members:

Piet Botha	Production Manager	072 215 8455
Vernon (Moonshine) Lee	Event Manager	083 464 3281
Jose Pesquito	Proprietor Café Barcelona	084 900 3811
Laurie Grobler	Stage Manager	079 495 9363
Dirk Jordaan	MC & Narrator	082 776 6856

Post-script

The retrospective CD ‘Road Works 1984-2009‘ was launched at this event.