Awesome 4SOME comes to Old Grey in PE

Fans of the legendary bands U2, Metallica, ACDC and Led Zeppelin will be transported to guitar heaven as Centrestage brings their tribute to The Awesome 4SOME to Old Grey on 30 May – 1 June.

Front-man and spectacular rock singing sensation and guitarist Deon Du Toit will be flown in from Cape Town especially for the performance, along with long-time Centrestage bassist Mike McAuley, who also now resides in the mother city.

Deon’s ridiculously high vocal range and the uncanny way in which he is able to reproduce the vocal stylings of ACDC frontman Brian Johnson and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, singing in the original keys, makes him a rare talent on the South African rock scene.

Coming all the way from Germany where he fronted one of Europe’s premiere ACDC tribute bands as Angus Young is Jens Koudele, who emulates both the reckless onstage craziness and the guitar riffs of the influential rocker to a T, including the way he runs around the stage and performs from within the audience!

They are joined by Sherid Van Rooyen, whose impressive guitar pedigree stretches back to bands such as the Hendrix tribute band Shrinking Railroad and the popular 80s and 90’s band B-World, who enjoyed some chart success at the time and which he fronted as main songwriter and lead guitarist.

Sherid copies the signature effect driven guitar sound of U2’s The Edge to perfection, as well as reproducing Metallica’s Kirk Hammet’s much loved solo’s wah-wah driven sound.

Gino Fabbri is on drums and musical director and vocalist Wayne Kallis fronts many of the segments too, including searing performances as U2’s Bono and admirably fronting the Metallica section in the big shoes of James Hetfield.

With Metallica’s recent SA tour having just taken place with Kallis and Du Toit themselves in the front row of the audience – and similarly U2 having toured SA not long ago, enthusiasm has never been higher in the band, who are all personal fans of the kickass guitar genre:

Says Kallis “It's awesome to play songs from all 4 of these bands because not only are each and every one of them influential across a whole range of genres, but the songs are all brilliant in their own right.”
“The music we're playing in this show is the kind of music you don't often get to play to an appreciative audience, much less with a band made of musicians of this calibre. Each of these bands has been a huge influence on almost every member of this group of musicians in one way or another, so I'm looking forward to pulling together and feeding off the incredible vibe that I'm certain is going to define this show. “

Gino Fabbri adds “I cant wait to wrap my sticks around the ACDC segment – this being my favourite band of all time!”

“The Metallica section has been the most work for me as I know the others will moan and groan if I get anything wrong! Lars Ulrich is one of the greats and I love his energy behind the kit, he is a jackrabbit!”

“My Led Zeppelin journey started whilst listening to my uncles old albums at age 9… I heard the opening riff of Whole lotta love and my life changed right there!! Electric guitar was pumping through my veins!!!”

Metallica fans can look forward to the likes of Enter Sandman, Sad but True, Master of Puppets, Nothing Else matters and One, U2 fans will love Beautiful day, Bullet the Blue sky, Pride, Desire and New Year's day, to name a few.

ACDC fans can look out for Thunderstruck, Shoot to thrill, Whole Lotta Rosie, Back in Black and Highway to Hell amongst others – and for supporters of the Godfathers of Rock, Led Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Dazed and confused, Rock n Roll and Stairway to Heaven are just some of the songs which will be performed on the evening.

Tickets for the Awesome 4SOME can be purchased through Computicket at R120 each (or 8 at R100 each). Thursday and Friday performances start at 19h30 and Saturday’s performance start at 20h00.

The Awesome Sextet are L to R : Deon Du Toit, Wayne Kallis, Jens Koudele, Gino Fabbri, Sherid Van Rooyen and Mike McAuley