Episode 12 of Season 3 of The Story of Rock and Roll was fraught with trouble right out of the blocks. It took place on a cold, wet, rainy night on 5 November 2020 and my microphone didn’t work for the first hour. It was the devil’s job to figure this thing out and check and recheck all the sound settings. In the end, there was no other option than to go off air and shut the whole system down, and start again. Luckily the damned thing worked as it should after the reboot. What we have here is a show that starts with 50 minutes of non-stop Rock and then like a phoenix rising from the ashes begins to take the form of a radio show after the re-boot. I have edited out all the long silences where the mic wasn’t working so in theory you may even go “What is he moaning about?”…… well now you’ve got the back story.
The purely musical first third of the show featured amongst others, Judas Priest, Kadavar, Ted Nugent, The Rolling Stones and then a chilled Tom Petty doing ‘Turn This Car Around’. Arapaho’s ‘Dump Truck‘ marks the point where the system is rebooted and after that, I have a microphone and can talk my usual kak. Highlights of the second part of the show for me were Jo’burg Metal Masters Sunken State featuring the drumming of one Pete Pistorius ex of The Uninvited with a track called ‘Merchants of Time’. Another highlight was a Joe Cockers version of Leonard Cohen’s wonderful ‘First We Take Manhattan’.
All in all, it was an extremely difficult show to deal with but, which turned out OK in the end. South Africa was represented by Fokofpolisiekar, Aking, Sunken State, Arapaho & Dan Patlansky, Aussie by ACDC, and The Lazy’s who are fast becoming a TSORR staple, Metal by Sunken State, Kreator and Slayer and the old guard by Alice Cooper and the Rolling Stones. Anyway job done, catch you next week.
Artists featured: The Rolling Stones, Fokofpolisiekar, Megadeth, Kadavar, Joe Cocker, Hell Fire, Rush, Santana, Kid Rock, My Chemical Romance, Stiff Little Fingers, ACDC, Dave Hause, Tom Petty, Sunken State, Last In Line, Thunder, Arapaho, Judas Priest, The Gaslight Anthem, Rory Gallagher, Black Veil Brides, Tin Machine, The Pretty Reckless, Ted Nugent, Hinder, Tesla, Halestorm, Pop Evil, Accept, Twisted Sister, Dan Patlansky, Slayer, Godsmack, Journey, Kreator, Therapy?, Aking and The Lazy’s.