Tomorrow the Zoo Park Amphitheatre will be the venue for the hottest rock show of the year: the Namrock Winter Meltdown featuring 13 Namibian bands with one of South Africa’s most successful bands, Jo Day. “Various sponsors have provided their generous support: the Franco Namibian Cultural Centre, Tafel Lager, Radio Wave 96.7, Kalahari Sands, One Africa Television, Air Namibia, Sector 09 and the DSTV music channel, MK89. The event will be filmed and the footage will, if all goes well, be aired on MK89,” says a statement released by the FNCC. The focus is on rock music, with everything from the very mellow to the very manic, with a few surprises thrown in. “Some of the bands played at Namrock 2006, which was held in January, but the organisers are proud to announce that quite a few new bands have been included in the line-up for this event,” it said. These are the bands: Anonymous Tip is one of the best rock bands of the College of the Arts. They perform original music and won the third prize of the Battle of the Bands of Namibia in 2004. Currently they are recording a new CD. Cardiac Arrest is the last member of the 4-piece band joined in March 2006, just in time to tighten the nuts on a 6 -8 track set of new songs for the band’s premier appearance at the Namrock Winter Meltdown Festival. The music shares properties with a wide range of hard rock and alternative metal styles. A focus on rhythm combinations in the drums, bass guitar department combined with energetic and catchy vocal tracks is starting to earmark the new and still evolving style of the band. Desdemona play originals and covers. Active for the last 2 years, they have been playing at the Horse Shoe, Hogz pub, Kalahari Sands, Moth Club and a lot of private parties. Since 1999 Gasoline has been a well-known Namibian band. The band plays cover songs of Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, Van Halen, Deep Purple and other famous rock bands. Arild Sveum, one of the most talented keyboardists of Norway, will join the band especially for the NAMROCK WINTER MELTDOWN Mojo is a roots-rock group that play everything from traditional blues to jazz, reggae, folk, rock and even funk. Live shows range from pure acoustic to full electric set-ups incorporating a wide range of musical experiences and instrumentation, and sets of original in various genres and even a few re-done classics and traditional standards. Multisonus is a metal band that has been active in Namibia since August 2004. It consists of 6 members (listed above) and has made quite a strong (we hope) impression on the local rock scene. But let’s keep it short (the biography document would crash your email server). Having frequented past Namrock events, as well as played at and won the 2005 battle of the bands, Multisonus played at the IFMXF scooter show in Dec 2004, the Rocked and Loaded show in July 2005, and the DSSW power party in May 2006. They also played a gig at the Roxy Rhythm bar in Mellville Johannesburg whilst recording their first E.P. Multisonus won the award for Best Rock category in the 2005 Sanlam NBC music awards. They hope to continue to play at Namrock and other local gigs and also to make it down to Woodstock 8 at the end of the year. Offshore members are from Walvis Bay and started by playing for a friend’s birthday party a year ago. Ever since then, they have been playing small gigs at birthdays and school functions. They recently played at the Power Party at DSSW. They write all their songs and play some covers. Relic started off with Ex-Trigger drummer Mikey and joined with current Multisonus vocalist Mark to form a project of their own. At a later stage Gerhard, ex-guitarist/vocalist from Cobalt and the newcomer guitarist Franko joined them. This compilation of experienced Musos joined together to form a Nu Metal outfit that falls under the name of Relic. The name came about as an idea when front man Mark considered that all of them came from different musical backrounds revolving around the same genre, and that they have survived throughout every obstacle in their past band experiences. The four-piece metal outfit have been in existence for four and a half months now and are still going strong. They had their first debut appearance at the power party at the DSSW on May 27th this year. Sense Unknown: Andre, Felix and Jean-Pierre have all been playing in numerous other bands for the past few years. Andre played in bands like Swimming Pool Sundae and Quarter Mile, while Jean-Pierre and Felix both came from the band Colony. Jean-Pierre and Andre met beginning of February to start a new kind of band with music that people will actually listen to. Felix and Vida both joined later that month and by end of February Sense Unknown was born. Playing mostly only original songs with the occasional cover song. SubMission was formed in May 2005 by a number of musicians, who have been active in the local and SA scene for many years. The current line-up was completed at the beginning of 2006. The band plays modern rock music, blending melody with power and subtleness with in-your-face energy. Tchitula Brothers was formed by Tony Mingo, i.e. the saxophone player, and had its first performance in September 1999. The name is derived from their mother’s name Antonia Tchitula. The family originated from Angola from where they were displaced to Namibia during the war. Richard Redecker joined the band early 2006. They are all self-taught musicians. The style has various forms. It is a mix between kizomba, zamba, rock, African and improvisational styles. Penilane: Is it a bird? No! Is it a plane? No! It’s PENILANE. Cooler than a large draught on a hot summer’s day, PENILANE is the most original thing to come out of Namibia since, well, ever. With influences ranging from old school rock to more contemporary music, PENILANE’s unique and exciting sound recaptures the spirit of rock, and serves it up with an interesting and refreshing twist. The band touches on serious issues, while at the same time poking fun at society and conventional wisdom. With a current setlist of more than 20 songs and a powerful sound they punch out their brand of rock with vigour and attitude. PENILANE had its debut at an arts festival in a small Namibian town called Karibib in June 2004. From there the band moved from strength to strength, sharing the stage with Namibian stars Snazzy, Ras Sheehama and Gazza, as well as opening for South African headliners such as Johnny Clegg, PJ Powers, The Narrow, Parlotones and Arno Carstens. PENILANE set the tune when they kicked off the Oppikoppi Wired 2005 festival near Northam, South Africa in August last year. Recently PENILANE won the rock category at the Namibian Music Awards 2006. Last Resort plays in Dylan’s most of the time.