Over the last seventy years London’s iconic 100 Club has played host to a multitude of artists and genres, and has maintained its status as the longest running popular music venue in the world. On 22 June 2012 Converse launched Converse Presents: Get Out of the Garage in pursuit of South Africa's finest unsigned talent from a variety of music genres. The winning band will perform on stage at the legendary 100 Club.
Converse Presents: Get Out of the Garage saw 138 acts submitting diverse music offerings from punk rock to deep house. Judges Zulu Boy, Jon Savage and Garrick Williams were blown away by the awesome local talent and have now narrowed down all these hopefuls to an official Top 10.
The top 10 bands hail from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria and represent diverse music genres – rock, folk, indie, electric, metal, blues, electronic, kwaito and reggae. The finalists are: Goodnight Wembley (CT, Rock), IScream and the Chocolate Stix (CT, Rock), Matthew Mole (CT, Folk & Electric), Nakhane Toure (JHB, Folk & Rock), North of Winter (PTA, Rock), Savage Lucy (JHB, Metal, Rock & Blues), Shotgun Tori (JHB, Indie & Folk), Skin2Soul (JHB, Afro, Kwaito & Reggae), Swart (JHB, Afrikaans Rock) and The Kiffness (CT, Electronic).
And now it’s over to the public. From today, 19 July, music fans will have the chance to check out the finalists and vote for their favourite band at http://on.fb.me/getoutofthegarage. One lucky voter and friend will join the winning unsigned SA band VIP style for the gig in London.
The winning band will be announced on 6 August, 2012.