MarcForrest.com

Category: South African Culture

  • Awesome night out at the U2 concert in Jozi

    So, on Friday afternoon at about 4 o’clock I got a phone call from the guys doing the Highveld Stereo U2 campaign, which I blogged about a couple of days ago. The phone call was pretty brief, with just one simple question, “Can you get to Joburg on Sunday to see a certain band called U2 playing to over 100,000 people ? ” The obvious answer was OF COURSE YES !!!

    Pano of the stadium before the show (Click to enlarge to full size)

    And with that, my weekend plans changed in a matter of seconds. A few quick phone calls to the brother, and I had a plane ticket booked to Jozi for Sunday morning, for what would turn out to be, well, “A beautiful day”
    I had made arrangements with some friends in Durbs to go camping on a dads and kids weekend on Saturday night, so I woke up early on Sunday morning, and got the show on the road. I eventually got to Jozi at around 12pm, and slowly made our way to Park Station to catch a train to the FNB stadium to see U2 in action. The vibe was incredible, and when we eventually got to the stadium there were thousands & thousands of people.

    I would say the biggest disappointment was spending 45 mins in a queue for a beer token and then go to a bar to get a few beers. There should have been more places selling beer tokens.
    Eventually after having a cold beers, we made our way into the stadium to find our seats. I was in absolute awe as to how big the stadium is, and in even bigger awe as to how HUGE MASSIVE the stage was.
    The stage is designed in a 360 degree shape, so the band can move around and the whole stadium can see them. Although, we only saw Bono twice on our side, cause were at the “back” of the stage, but the huge screens and seeing the standing crowds kinda made up for that.

    The production of the concert was unbelievable. I honestly don’t think I have ever seen anything as slick as that, and the huge screens & video production were amazing. I also got the opportunity to (finally) meet Tinus from Fancam, who did a 360 pano shot of the crowd, which I reckon is gonna be amazing.

    All in all a HUGE big thanks to the guys at Highveld Stereo for the tickets, it was well well worth it getting up to see this once in a lifetime opportunity, so glad I did it :)

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  • Red Bull Mobile launches in South Africa

    It seems that CellC are at it again. They really seem to have captured a unique portion of the South African mobile market, and it seems the “social media generation” are loving it. Just a couple of days ago they announced MyTools, which allows you to manage your cellphone contract & network from the web, and this evening they took it to the next level.

    Tonight, Red Bull Mobile was launched in Jozi, at what seemed like an awesome event. The headline act for the evening was Faithless, alongside Goldfish & DJ Ready D. I would have loved to be there !! They also announced their new packages which they will be offering on the CellC network. Originally Red Bull Mobile was speculated to be a MNO in the same fashion as Virgin Mobile, but in fact it looks as if it is simply a diversification of the Cell C brand into a new market.

    The packages they have announced look awesome, and they will be offering Android powered devices on launch. I’m still not 100% convinced about the Android devices though, as I still feel that the full use of them can’t be warranted in South Africa, where you aren’t able to buy apps, only get free apps (another post for another day)

    The 2 packages that they will be offering are very well priced in terms of competitors, and I can  see a huge uptake with this one !

    The 2 custom branded phones they are offering are both made by Huawei and are the Huawei U8150 IDEOS (RMB C) & Huawei U8800 IDEOS X5 (RBM HD). The phones will also come preloaded with a couple of Android apps, including a Fitness app, Red Bull Radio & Red Bull X-Fighters

    The other cool thing is that the new packages will work on the new high-speed CellC network, which will make for some great on-device browsing !
    All in all, another great innovation from Cell C, and I can’t wait to see what they have next on their plate ! Well done :)

  • U2 rocks SA in less than 360 hours

    U2 360 tour stage, before one of the 2 Zagreb ...
    Image via Wikipedia

    I have to admit, one of the biggest downfalls of living in sunny “Durbs-By-The-Sea,” means we don’t always get to see the world-class music acts that often tour our shores. One such act that is missing Durbs this round is the mega band U2. I have to admit, I haven’t always been a huge fan of theirs, but I would give anything to attend one of their concerts, just to say…”i was there”

    The U2 360 Tour kicks off in South Africa in less than 360 hours. That is about 13 days time. The tour starts in Jozi at the FNB stadium, and then moves to Cape Town 5 days later on the 18th. You may ask why such a long break between the 2 shows, and the reason for that is because, believe it or not, it takes 5 full days to set up the stage. The stage design is pretty unique in the sense it is a full 360 degrees. So you have a round stage in the middle of the crowd. Pretty cool I think !!

    The guys at Highveld Stereo in Joburg, who are the main media partners in the tour, have come up with a really cool idea to get some “gees”(circa World Cup 2010) going for the tour. They have put a specially built stage, which they will be dragging around Gauteng over the next 2 weeks, where members of the public can sing their favorite U2 song and win prizes, including tickets to the show. They will be advertising daily on their Twitter account (@947highveld) as well as posting on their Facebook page as to where the stage will be videos will also be posted to Highveld YouTube channel of the crazy peeps trying to get hold of that elusive ticket. If you would like to join in, you can use the hashtag – #U2Highveld in your tweets.

    I am sure that there are going to be loads of people trying to get these tickets, so if you live in Gauteng, I keep on top of Twitter & Facebook to see where the stage will be heading next. Should be a good laugh.

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  • DJ Mix – Sunset by Liam Beeton

    I came across this awesome mix by my mate Liam, who I follow on Twitter. I asked him if we could post it up here so you could take a listen. It’s a great mix of Deep House/House that goes on for just over an hour. Very chilled.

    More info from his Soundcloud page

    A laid back mix of timeless house flavoured sounds served at 124 BPM. The oomph, the shuffled hats, the basslines… that’s all you need in 2011 – Happy New Year!

    1. Flora – Marco Passarani & Sacco
    2. Neighbour Noise (Giom’s Disco Adventure) – Joshua Heath
    3. Big Time (Soul Minority Deep Mix) – Edmund, Sacha Dflame
    4. Shapes – Huxley
    5. I Do It Good (Mic Newman Remix) – Nick Detti
    6. Hypnotizing (Original Mix) – George Horn
    7. Release Yourself (Original Mix) – Evren Ulusoy
    8. NYPD (Nima Gorji Mix) – Floska
    9. Cash The Chord (Audiojack Remix) – H.O.S.H.
    10. Right All Night – Da Sunlounge & Inland Knights
    11. Full of Funk (Tom Special Interest Remix) – Edmund
    12. Step into the Light (Original Funky Remix) – Edmund Feat Mavis Acquah

    Release date: Jan 8, 2011

    You can listen to it using the player below, or download the full track from SoundCloud to listen to later.

    Sunset – Liam Beeton [Continuous DJ Mix] by Liam Beeton

    Leave a comment below to let Liam know what you think of the track. Looking forward to sharing some more in the future.

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  • The Edison Project by Karma from Henry Ate

    A Thursday evening.1998. 2nd year out of school. A dodgy pub somewhere in Hatfield Pretoria. Tassies on the table. Suddenly a voice starts singing. Just. It’s Karma. And it just goes downhill from there.

    There were loads of these back in the day. Henry Ate had a “cult like” following back in the day. We used to go to all her gigs in and around Pretoria, and seemingly never got tired of her voice.
    Henry Ate have been pretty quiet over the last couple of years, after a stint in Los Angeles trying to break the lucrative US market.
    But from what it sounds like Karma hit a luck after meeting a chap called Kevin in a bar called the Edison in downtown LA, and soon “The Edison Project was born”

    Kevin and Karma met in a bar – the Edison in downtown Los Angeles. Karma told Kevin she had a dream – he liked what she had to say. Kevin called his buddy Jeff and told him about Karma’s dream. Jeff liked what Kevin had to say. They all met at Kevin’s house to jam. Adam showed up one evening at band practice, drum kit in tow (it’s not exactly clear how Adam got word of the dream but the band seems happy that he did). Two weeks later EDISON PROJECT (sometimes Get Jeff Laid, sometimes Myles The Dog, sometimes Midas Day) were in the studio recording their debut album with Francis Buckley. The End. – From their Facebook Page

    Take a listen to Guess Again on their FB page. This morning it their debut Album was released on the iTunes Music Store. After listening to a couple of the songs already, I have to admit I’m pretty impressed, and brings back loads of memories with that distinctive Karma voice. Nice one :)