The engine room of music is the rhythm section and these two are the soul of the Jack Hammer band: Paul ‘The Duke’ Van de Waal & Tertius ‘Bean’ du Plessis.

Tertius

Tertius first saw Jack Hammer at Cherry Too? in the late 80’s “het geskeem dis heavy cool…” A few years later he met Piet Botha when he was working at Mainline Music (Wildebeest Records) and his band opened for Jack Hammer and the rest is history…

“Volgende bel Piet my, Ons het ‘n nuwe bass player nodig, wil jy jol?”Ek sal kom vir ‘n audition, sê ek toe.”Wil jy jol of nie? Ek het jou mos klaar hoor speel…” tune Hammer toe.”

Tertius du Plessis

So daar klap Bean nou al 20 odd jaar diksnaar saam met Jack Hammer.

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Paul

Paul van de Waal had just moved into a new house and was painting the inside of the lounge on a Saturday afternoon, sometime in 1995. He met Andy, who was playing for Jack Hammer a few weeks earlier and they had exchanged numbers.

“He gave me a call on that Saturday because he was double booked and was supposed to play for Jack Hammer and a blues band in JHB that evening. Andy asked if I would do one of the gigs for him and because I had played for the blues band before, he asked me if I wanted to take that gig. When I heard that the other band was Jack Hammer I decided to take that one instead, even though I had never even been to a Jack Hammer gig before.”

Paul van der Waal

The gig was at Crossroads blues bar in the Tramshed Centre in Pretoria where Paul had played for a few years with the blues band Jo Blu & Risky Business. He met Piet, Lanie and the Deacon (Lowell Jeffery) for the first time on stage while they were setting up for the gig.

“The gig went unbelievably well and it felt like we had been playing together for years.”

Paul van der Waal

They played to a packed crowd into the early hours of the morning. Piet asked him to join the band that night and the 20 year journey began.

“Looking back, I could never have predicted how things have turned out and I’m grateful that Piet asked me to join the band and to be part of the musical family of the Jack Hammer band.”

Paul van der Waal

Limited ticket left online at Quicket – https://qkt.io/RS1OWH

#APietBothaTribute #TheDaisyJones