ZEN ARCADE

Formed in early 1999 from the remnants of Gringolene, JP having quit Jo'burg for Cape Town's moviemaking allure.

The name Zen Arcade, agreed upon only after much deliberation, was taken from the awesome album of the same name by Husker Du. 
Ian McKenzie, ex-vocalist for Durban based Nevermore added his fine set of tonsils to the noisy accompaniment of myself, James and Andy. The problem of finding a reliable and competent bass player was eventually solved - well, one out of two ain't bad - by slinging the bass around my neck, leaving James to handle all the guitar work.

After very infrequent practising (initially, missing out months at a time), the band began taking itself seriously in mid-1999. The first gig was on Friday 31/01/00 at Abelarde Sanction in Brixton where we shared the billing with the rather self absorbed (but lyrically great) Damn the Icebergs. Despite not being able to hear the bass onstage for the first two songs (our onstage sound remained crap throughout), the sound offstage was much better and we got an excellent response, even factoring in that almost half of the respondents were our own rent-a-crowd. Most of the set was captured on video, which actually looks better than the real thing, although the sound is as dodgy as can be expected from a single, small microphone.

For more info, gigs etc. click below to check out the official Zen Arcade web site.