From Cape Town’s Afrikaans suburb Bellville, punk-rock band Fokofpolisiekar is Francois Van Coke, Hunter Kennedy, Johnny De Ridder, Wynand Myburgh and Jaco ”SNAKEHEAD” Venter.

Fokofpolisiekar kicked off 2010 with a high-energy show in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, the second time they played the Gardens after their by-now legendary performance there in 2005. This show seems to have set the pace for a jam-packed year, which will keep the band in the local music spotlight as much as ever before.

In 2010, the band will be working on new material in order to release a fourth full-length album in 2011. In the meantime, “die bende” will continue to play gigs and festivals around the country in order to keep up with the demand from their legions of fans.

The Fokofpolisiekar documentary, ‘Forgive Them For They Know Not What They Do’ (produced by Fly On The Wall and released in July 2009) was enthusiastically received by both fans and critics and won the Encounters Film Festival’s Best South African Documentary Award as well as the Audience Award, with sold-out shows across the country.

The “fokumentary” was announced as one of SPINearth.tv’s Best of 2009: Top 10 Music Documentaries. A soundtrack to the film containing 18 of Fokofpolisiekar’s biggest hits entitled ‘Forgive Them For They Know Not What They Do’ was also released. The documentary is available on DVD.

A music video for the song “Tussen Die Krake” from the Antibiotika EP (produced by Fly On The Wall) has been shot and will soon be airing on local music channel MK.  Other news is that Fokofpolisiekar’s music video for the song “Antibiotika” (directed by Sean Metelerkamp) was nominated for a 2010 MK award in the Best Music Video category in February. Fokofpolisiekar was also featured in a BBC Radio 2 World Cup Feature broadcast in April, which focused on South African culture.

The latest endeavour by cult SA band Fokofpolisiekar is their open invitation to any local band to be considered to open for them at their 3 July gig at The Assembly, Cape Town during the 2010 World Cup Soccer Tournament.

The three winning bands have now been selected and they are Wake To Wonder, The Runs and Baarmoedergevoel. Said Fokofpolisiekar bassist Wynand Myburgh: “We had an overwhelming 65 entries from bands wanting to play with us. I was astonished to see how many upcoming bands there are in our country, the SA music scene is definitely happening. It was a tough choice. There were many JHB bands that were great, but in the end we focused on local bands, with one of the winning bands from Vanderbijlpark. Our sincere thanks to everyone who has supported us over the years, and all the bands who applied to open for us.” The music video of Fokofpolisiekar’s latest single, “Tussen Die Krake” (produced by Fly On The Wall) will also be screened at the 3 July gig at Assembly for the first time ever.

Support the guys who have changed the face of South African rock and join their facebook group http://www.facebook.com/Fokofpoliskiekar, and check out their site www.fokofpolisiekar.co.za . Big thanks goes to Rhythm Records for the press release info and header image, and to Jacques Van Zyl for the rest of the photos!!




Tags: , , , , , ,