How the Story Go's

I'd heard through the grapevine that Polla Pretorius could play a bit of guitar. I was on the look out for a group of guys willing to take a chance and form a band. Paul Alexander had been interested in doing something like this for years, to such an extent that he was willing to teach himself how to play the guitar. He had all but perfected 'House of the Rising Sun' and was rearing to play it to anybody who would listen. Brad Pelton was a natural showman who loved to get near a microphone and give it all he had. He had 'frontman' written all over. Things were vaguely starting to fall into place.

One night at a party where Bedrock were performing, I broached the subject of starting a band, with Polla. He seemed keen on the idea and I was sure that we would get together and do something. But as with most alcohol soaked ideas, this one faded.

I was later asked to join a band by the name of The DEBS. An acoustic type band that had decided to experiment by bringing in a drummer. The band was made up of Dawn Jones, Elize Hatting, Brad Pelton and Seymour Randall. This was basically my first taste of playing in front of a live audience. After a while, Brad left to go and study in Cape Town and the band basically stopped performing. Seymour Randall also left town, not long after......

It was a bit later that my Brother-in-law Riaan du Plooy showed a big interest in playing drums for a rock band, we started talking and decided that a double-drummer band would be something different.
One fine day Polla contacted me out of the blue and told me that he had purchased an amplifier, a guitar, a microphone and a bunch of other equipment, and he wanted to know how serious we were about this band thing. That was when things really got started. Along the way Riaan bought himself an electronic drum kit, Paul bought himself a guitar and myself and Polla bought a bass guitar.
We made a noise for about a year or two after that.  

A number of people popped in and out of the band during that time, the likes of Jamie Meyer, Darryl Weidemann and various others.
One day I was having a conversion with Jakes Snyman and he showed an interest in joining the band as a vocalist. Jakes is an extrovert with a love for showmanship, another definite frontman. After that we pulled Wicus du Plessis in as a Bassist. He had never played bass before but showed great aptitude for it. And anyway he looked like he should be playing bass.

That became the band line-up for a while and we started making some headway in terms of music.
Later on Edward 'E-string' Jones joined for a jamming session or two and that was when our musical competence rose a few notches. He eventually decided stay on.
And finally, Polla brought in his brother-in-law, David Long, as a second vocalist. David was made for rock 'n Roll; he came in as a pre-packaged Rock star. His image intact and with a voice to match.

What followed was an enormous amount of work, a reasonably large quantity of beer and ten songs that we could introduce to the public without making complete fools of ourselves.

This story will continue, as we continue on the ever-changing adventure of playing in a rock cover-band.

Now go back to the heading that says Part 2.

Ok, so now it is my turn to tell the tale of SnoBlind and the further happenings.

Everything seemed to be going the way it should have been when you finally start playing live gigs and all. But alas our fame as an 8 piece band slowly came to a bitter end. After a string of ever successful gigs, Paul decided that he needed a little bit more substance in life and enrolled at UCT to further his studies. At his age being mistaken for a lecturer is surely a common thing, but we won't go into that story just yet. Like Ed shaving his head things in SnoBlind changed often from then onwards.

Ok so we played a few gigs and made a pretty penny, which financed all the spiffy equipment that now lies in the pondock today. Then Ed got a job in good old Cape Town and decided to take flight, Wicus moved to Windhoek and it seemed SnoBlind was doomed to failure. Luckily for us it was not so. Riaan decided that he would pick up the guitar and give it a whirl; Polla decided that bass was his more suited instrument. Low and behold a year and a half later and we where back in the pondock.

Things really started flowing after that, everyone really got into the swing of things. We may have only been half the band we originally were but we had doubled with enthusiasm and talent.

Ok..... so thats where the story ends for now, gonna try and keep you posted on the happenings of the band in a little diary on the site (On a seperate page). Will have everyone's input in it. So keep checking out for the further misadventures of SnoBlind