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Balzac Straat


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Location: 
Gauteng
Country: 
South Africa
PERFORMANCE INFO
Genre: 
Alternative Rock
Maximum Performance Time: 
4 hours

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History of the band...

 

In 2006, brothers
Anton and Martin Roos (who where a two-piece “cover-band” called
ROOSTERBROOD),
decided to showcase their original songs in a full-band outfit side
project with the Butler brothers Sydney (who also played lead for
Sonsteek) and Quintin. The band was to be called
4
HERTZ
. But Anton quickly lost interest
and withdrew. Subsequently,
4 HERTZ never
felt the warmth of the stage lights.

 

Martin, Sydney and
Quintin “jammed” in the rehearsal room for kicks, but soon
realized they had something going for them. With no bassist, Quintin
who was in the
Campus For Performing Arts
(
COPA),
rounded up one of his classmates, Albert, to play bass guitar in the
band. That was in
November 2006.

 

Several band names
were suggested, but none of them had that special “ring” to it.
Then, one day, Martin saw a street name in Vanderbijlpark namely
BALZAC STR.,
and decides to take a picture of the street sign because he found it
amusing. He then suggested to name the band
BALZAC
STR.
But before the proposal was
excepted by the members, a
Google search
was initiated to determine whether there was connections to any
obscenity regarding the name. There they saw that there was a famous
18
th
century French writer called
Honore De
Balzac
whose written work and outlook on
life and society matched theirs, and there and then decided that the
name would be
BALZAC STRAAT.

 

In February
2007
they record their promotional EP at
B Sharp Studios
in Boksburg, and gave out copies at their shows to lay a supporters
foundation for the release of their full length album at a later
stage. Martin quits
ROOSTERBROOD
that same month.

 

A year later, they shoot the
music video of their song “Nuwe Wêreld” in Potchefstroom.

 

In February 2009
Sydney quit BALZAC STRAAT to further his psychology studies, and is
replaced by Machiel van Niekerk (who also studied at
COPA
and plays lead guitar for the rocking band,
Erebus)

 

Their debut album
"Haat jou Kultuur" was
recorded at
B Sharp Studios in
April 2009 and mastered by
Lapdust Studios
in Randburg, and is available at shows.

 

Shows of note...

 

Thabazimbi
Wildlife and Tourism Expo – Thabazimbi - 2007

The
“3 Decades of Rock” show - Carnival City's Mardi Grass theater -
2007

Hoërskool
Die Anker's “Afri-weekend” - Brakpan – 2007

World
Song Contest – Carnival City's Big Top Arena – 2007

Aardklop
– Potchefstroom – 2007

Aardklop
– Potchefstroom - 2008

Aardklop –
Potchefstroom - 2009

 

Achievements...

 

Nuwe
Wêreld gets airplay on
PUK FM and
reaches
#9 on
the
SA TOP 20 and
stays there for six weeks - 2007

At
the
COPA Music Awards
the were awarded the following...

 

Songwriter
of the year 2007

1st
place – Song of the year 2007 for “Doem-o-krasie” - Judges
choice

2nd
place – Song of the year 2007 for “Nuwe Wêreld” - Judges
choice

3rd
place - Song of the year 2007 for “Nuwe Wêreld” - Audience
choice

 

BALZAC
STRAAT
reach the TOP
30
mark in the Semi
finals
of the World
Song Contest -
Africa
leg - 2007

They
were approached by the
ATKV to
participate in the
“Klipspinnekop”
battle of the bands, and won the
competition – 2008

Another
battle of the bands that they were competing in is the
“Open
Mic Night”
where they played the finals
on the 11 of October 2008 at
Back2Basics
in Westdene, Johannesburg, where they came in on
third
place and Sydney won the “Best lead Guitarist” prize.

They
also ended up in the
Top 10
of the
SABC RBF Emerging Sounds
Compitition.

Ended
sixth in the
Klipdrift Ultimate Battle.

 

Location

Brakpan





This bands is a refreshing

This bands is a refreshing new rock sound that does not sound anything like the current famous afrikaans alternative rock bands

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