South Africa – Johannesburg

DAY ONE

Sowetan landmark

Yes, we are taking our name Fly Force literally today as six of our crewmembers just arrived in Johannesburg after a ten hour flight. Wayne, our ‘tourmanager’, came to pick us up and guide us to our guesthouse in Soweto. He told us the guesthouse is just a block away from where Nelson Mandela once lived. And after this good news he told brought us some less good news: he would come and pick us up at 8 a.m. the next day to be at the rehearsal space at 9 a.m. And there went our vacation vibe right out the door.

DAY TWO -- The introduction…

After a well deserved rest and a nice breakfast from Mama Paula, we went on our way to the community center/rehearsal space Ipelegeng in Soweto. We met the group we are going to work with this week: Eddy B, Strokes, Sjonnie, Danny and Cindy. During the introduction conversation everyone was explaining their skills, but nobody was as clear about their skills as Laise. She sang a verse from Amazing Grace and took everyones breath away. Her presence filled up the space instantly and set the tone for the rest of the conversation.

After going through our more than busy schedule for the rest of the week (4 gigs + a handfull of interviews) we decided to check our the rest of the community center. In search of spaces to use we actually found a recordiing studio with an engineer which was very good news for Melodee and Laise, who were hoping to record a track this week.

As we went on our way to the Music Mayday HQ in Johannesburg we drove past some of the venues where we will perform this week, to give us an idea of the locations and to give us some inspiration. After lunch we went on a mission to find some paint to use for a mural and a graffiti workshop. We were in luck to be very close to the hiphop shop… and a [bouwmarkt] and we could get almost everything we needed there. Bo was training with the local crew, as the rest set out to see some of the city. It was pretty obvious we were quite an unusual group. When walking through the city we definately made some heads turn. Wayne told us it was very unusual for white people to be in the city centre, shopping at the market and such.

DAY THREE -- How to build a show in two days…

It’s becoming a routine already: Wake up at 7 -- eat breakfast -- take the taxibus to Ipelegeng -- meet up with the local crew and start working on the show. Kind of makes you think things are not that different here. Ok, the weather is really nice, the buildings are ‘somewhat different’ and the roads a bit crappier but work is still work. And certains things just need to be done.

It’s a good thing our taxidriver always puts on some good music to start the day with.

DAY FOUR -- Heritage Day

Workshops at Heritage celebration in Soweto.

DAY FIVE -- Performance!

Performance!
Today is the day. The first international gig of The Fly Force is going to become reality. We only had two days to prepare the show with five local breakers united in the crew Urban Hood. As we met again at Ipelengeng for the last rehearsals, you could already feel the excitement in the air. Me and K-G left the others to do their thing and went on our own adventure to get the crewshirts printed somewhere between Soweto and Johannesburg. First mission: to get to the screenprinters to get the design on K-G’s screen.

So we found a taxibus that went the right way and got off on the side of the highway in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. After a few minutes walking we came to some buildings and found the screenprinters. As K-G’s screen was damaged, we needed to get it fixed and then have the design put on it. Which was about 3 hours of work, IF it could be done immediately. It was 11:30 when we arrived at the screenprinters and we needed to be at the gig at 15:00. When talking to the boss of the screenprint company, Mr. Keip, he understood we were in a hurry as we told him about the gig, and he helped us where he could. First he put our screen first in line. Then he ordered Vincent (one of his employees) to drive us to the t-shirt shop and wait for us there to return and bring us back. Before we went there he asked what color we were going to use for the prints. And i pointed out a nice color of purple we choose, not nowing what surprise he had in mind. We were already amazed how on much he already helped us. When we retuned to his office with the shirts he told us to unpack the shirts and check out the purple ink he found…. For a moment there I didn’t know what to say. The color was perfect and as we were unpacking the shirts I noticed a screen standing there with our design on it! No way!

Me and K-G just couldn’t believe it. While we were off to the shop, Mr. Keip had our design put on a screen, fixed the ink and we were set to print the shirts. We prepared the screenprint carroussel he had there in his office and Mr. Keip gave us some instructions. After half an hour all the shirts were printed, another half hour later they were all blow dried and ironed and done! And to top that off he didn’t charge us anything. He just said we had a good time printing and that was good enough for him.

When ready we went outside to find a taxibus going in the right direction, and we actually gat the venue half an hour early. The rest of the group had some trouble with transportations though. So we waited a bit and put our freshly printed tshirts on.

Everyone was very excited before the show. As the tunes started Melodee hyped up the crowd and the show was on! The unique mix of MC’ing, singing and breakdancing was well recieved by the crowd. There was so much energy on stage, that when the show was over everyone was still hyped, and hoping for more so we built a party on stage with the very, very last song.

09-27-09