The last time the Bellamy Brothers were in South Africa was in 1983, so the crowds could not wait to see them in the flesh on Sunday night. About 3000 people packed into Carnival City to celebrate 40 years of hits, courtesy of Lefra Productions and the brothers from Florida.
We were fortunate enough to interview Howard Bellamy in the
run up to the concert, so I was excited to find out what made this band so
special, that they remained relevant for over 40 years. It is one thing to write
a couple of hits, but its another thing to tour and continue creating new
material.
The evening started with a great performance from local boy,
Jason Bradley. Jason has an incredible
voice and it will be interesting to see how successful he becomes
internationally. He played a mixture of original songs with some amazing cover
versions.
After a 20-minute break, the brothers took to the stage and
started with the hit song “Feelin the Feelin”. From the first note you could
quickly realize why this band has been around for so long. The band played 23
songs and it must have been nigh impossible for them to compile the set list
with so many songs to choose from.
I have been fortunate enough to attend some spectacular
concerts over the last month and this one was no different in terms of the
quality of voice and ease of performance. There were no great visuals, the
lighting was standard and the sound really good, but the genius lay in the fact that the
brothers made it look so simple.
They interacted with the crowd on several occasions but
never preached. It was an evening for many people to relive the past decades or
simply marvel at great performers.
The crowd could not be controlled at the end of the performance
as the brother closed their set with “ If I said you have a beautiful body
would you hold it against me”, “Let your Love Flow” and “Redneck girl”.
The brothers played the two previous evenings in Namibia and
Cape Town, yet the did not miss a beat. Any performer wanting to begin a career
in music would do well to watch Howard and David perform. I was extremely happy
to be in the room with these two legends for one evening.
I mus also compliment the bands crew and drummer. The drummer went out of his way to speak to the crowd afterwards and supply them with the setlist and drumsticks. This is seldom seem these days.
The Bellamy Brothers will be performing on Wednesday again
at the Mosaic Teatro in Roodepoort. Tickets are still available at Computicket.
