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The BeginningIt all started way back in 1994 when bassist, Pete Shout, and a close friend, lead guitarist Pete Krog, were messing about as a two piece. The duo were having a lot of fun but weren't exactly heading anywhere in particular! In order to break this festive inertia it was suggested that they expand their number to form a rock group. Seizing upon the idea, their first call was to acquaintance Eddie Heusdens who was sitting idly by with his drum kit, his last band having disintegrated a few months before. Eddie quickly enlisted. A few weeks later, and almost by coincidence, Charles Piggott, who had kept his musical abilities under pretty tight wraps, revealed that he had an electric guitar - and that he could play it, too! Charles could also sing. And so Bedrock was formed and went public in March 1995 after many months of serious practice.
Shortly prior to this some of
the band's members had been laying down
September 1997 saw Jennifer, at that time Ken's better half, attend her first practice adding her beautifully smooth voice to the band's vocal talents, complementing those of Charles who, hitherto, had carried the burden of lead vocalist. It was in October of that year, after attending his first Bedrock function as an onlooker, that Kenny Ramage declared that he, too, was willing and able to join the Bedrock family. Kenny's arrival brought with it a musician of considerable experience and talent, assets that the entire band benefited by. Musically there is no doubt that the band took a major step forward on the wave of Kenny's knowledge, experience, musicality and ability.
Not only is Kenny a skilled musician, but he's a pretty good CAD draughtsman & it wasn't long before his skills were harnessed to develop the band's website. Within days http://www.bedrockband.com was alive and receiving its first "hits". The site has gone from strength- to-strength and, today, is a comprehensive shop window to the band, its products and activities. 1999 witnessed a rash of
departures of band members - Charles Piggott to
Germany and the
Later that month, just as the band had
thought they'd seen the last of Charlie Piggott, who On the 16 June, 2000, the band launched their
first album, entitled "La Cantina", the name of a popular drinking
venue in Oranjemund. It was here that the band had established an
almost permanent presence and the venue had become known as the town's
premier rocking joint,
especially on Saturday afternoons when the band would let rip. It was
here that the band honed its skills and built
More importantly, the recording of this album saw the establishment of the band's own recording studio - Dining Room Studios - and record label, Criminal Records!! (You can have have plenty more laughs if you surf the band's STUDIO web page!!). The latter part of 2000, as well as the
early months of 2001, saw the band tackle their most ambitious project to
date - a full album of original compositions under the name of
'Recovery". It was a vastly improved effort, technically, over
"La Cantina" with some clever, and humorous, touches here and
there. It was the days of major disputes between some of
the World's biggest bands and their recording companies, over the issue of
mp3 music and unauthorised downloading (Napster and all that). In
alluding to this state of affairs, Apart from "Rock 'n Roll Man" the album included a number of others songs which became very popular in their "live" gigs, including the Pete Shout penned (Na Na Na Na Na) Take A Look and the Kenny Ramage compositions, "Babbelas Blues", "Saturday Night", "The Loser" and "Freedom", the latter song being the first original composed by Kenny for the band. Mike Millard also chipped in with a couple of solid contributions, including "Vision". August 2002 saw the band collect an important accolade when they were placed second overall at a South African Breweries sponsored "Battle Of The Bands" competition at Keetmanshoop. This effectively made them the highest placed Namibian band as the victors were, apart from one member, a group of visiting South African professional musicians. Unavoidably Mike Millard was not available for this gig so the band, in their usual style, took it on as a trio. Fired up by the success of their second
album, the band immediately started writing and planning their next
release which later earned the title of "So, Where's The
Party?". This
The album was released at Oranjemund's "La Cantina" pub on the night of 31 January, 2003. Ironically, it was to be MIke Millard's final gig with the band as he, too, had decided to take his leave of the community and move to greener climes in the Fairest Cape. The search for a new band member resulted in a well known local musician, Dave MacMillan, coming into the ranks. On this occasion Dave wasn't with the band for long, before departing the ranks and reducing the line-up to a trio once again! Nevertheless, the band determined to soldier on. The first milestone they achieved was at their very first gig after Dave's departure when the band celebrated their 100th gig! This was no mean achievement in a small town such as Oranjemund with the constant shifting of people and was fair testimony to their tenacity. It was around about this time that the band were invited to participate in the Windhoek Rock Festival to be staged, fore the first time, as part of the Windhoek Arts Festival week. The trio immediately accepted the invite and went into weeks of serious practice having decided to eight songs, seven of which would be Bedrock originals. On the night of Saturday, 1st November, 2003, the band had one of their finest hours - and played one of their best performances - on the Festival's stage. They came very much as an unknown quantity to many of those present but quickly won the crowd over with their rocking sounds. It only took eight songs to transform themselves from something to an "unknown quantity" to something of a "revelation" on the local music scene.
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