Archive for December, 2009

Just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

This is the 100th post or centenary post if you may on PharSide since it became a full blown blog, and I just want to thank you all once again for the outstanding support! Nothing makes me happier than bumping into people when I'm out with them saying they love what do! Its unreal and it really keeps the motivational juices flowing like you wont believe!

So here's hoping you have an awesome Christmas and hope you get super spoilt by Christmas Father enjoyed with family and friends!

Have an awesome day!

Here's a little something for you guys and girls… enjoy

- Marky Mark

Still deciding what to do for New Years Eve in London? There's a massive jol going on at Marky Mark's bar of choice, Bar Sia are bringing you Glitz & Glamour, hosted by the Fernando Brothers and guests bouncing the club downstairs with Funky House, Electro and Breakbeats.

The night looks like its gonna be a massive one, advanced tickets are on sale at Bar Sia for £10 a pop which is £10 cheaper than most places (£15 on the door on the night) and there's gonna be complimentary champagne for each person, plus with it being Wimbledon, it means most of us wont have to mission around in cabs etc. which is a huge bonus and its going to be open til late.

This is where I'm going to be welcoming in 2010! So come and join me for a biggie and be a part of it!

- Marky Mark

Pamela Anderson and Vivienne Westwood were out on the razzle in Wimbledon on Monday night and lucky for them they got to meet yours truely

You may remember in one of my previous posts on Pammy, I did mention that one of my Christmas wishes was to get a photo of her and I, well, let me just tell you that wishes do come true, especially if its to do with a "genie" and not only did I get to have a pic with Pammy but I got a double whammy as I got to have one with Vivienne Westwood too, at the same time Lets just say I pretty much fulfilled many a 20 something year old boy's dream.. YAY!

It all started when I popped into Bar Sia for a drink, I was standing outside having a smoke and thought, let me pop around the corner and see if I can get a glimpse of Pammy as she was exiting the backstage door, along with a few other fans. I stood infront of the black Range Rover that was obviously waiting there for her. The next minute Pammy comes through the door and instead of getting into the car she starts walking in my direction around to the front. She said " where are we going?" I was just a little stunned at this to say the least and said, "huh, aren't you getting into the car?" to which the dude who was helping her along said they wanna get to the pub across the road called The Wibbas Down Inn ie. Weatherspoons, so I walked with them and as we got to the door I shook her hand and said its an absolute pleasure to meet you, to which she replied it was lovely to meet me too haha yeah I can imagine we went inside and she sat down at the table, her mates sat down aswell I stood behind her at the bar getting a drink when the cordoned off the area with a velvet rope… with me inside, I thought geez this is pretty damn schweet! In the end I managed to get in a bit of chit chat discussing what vultures the paparrazzi were, as you could see them all lining up at the window desperately trying to get a shot. One seemed to get a bit upset with me cause every time I saw him try take a shot, I'd do a bit of a Gene Simmons KISS face obviously screwing up the pic haha

As they were getting ready to leave I said to Pammy and Vivienne that I didn't mean to be a bother but I would really appreciate it if I could get a pic with them, so I gave the camera to Pammy's manager and this was the result…

I'm sorry but I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am hahahhahaa

Both Pammy and Vivienne Westwood come across as really nice people, you would think that someone in Pammy's shoes would come across a bit bitchy due to being hassled all the time, well in my experience, not in the slightest, she really had time for anyone that spoke to her. Vivienne Westwood seems like such a nice down to earth person, she's awesome

This is right up there with the time I managed to sneak myself backstage at a Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert in 2006, got to meet the guys, had a long chat with Ulf from Ace of Base who then took me along to the Chilli Peppers after party at Movida in the west end… in a pair of baggies, sneakers and a T-shirt!

Geez I Love My Life

- Marky Mark

Love it!

- Marky Mark

If you've ever wondered just why celebs hate the paparazzi so much, well here's a little taster… this is Pamela Anderson leaving Studio Valbonne in London where she made an appearance on Saturday 19th December 2009…

Absolute vultures, down there with the Parking Ticket Wardens

- Marky Mark

On Friday night myself and Huncle cruised over to the new Joe Cools in Fulham, London for their opening night, the place rocked however it did have a few teething problems which can be put down to opening night woes.

We rocked up at about 8:30pm and the place was already heaving with a decent portion of the saffa population in South West London, as there were familiar faces everywhere I looked. Instantly I knew this was going to be one hellova night. The bars were pretty crowded but managed to organise a drink from a mate who was just about to get served, so we decided to have a little snoop around. Now obviously with it being the venue of the old Zulu's the layout was kinda familiar, well sort of in the sense of the rooms themselves, the stair cases and bathrooms which would obviously be there since they didn't tear down the building down and build a new one. The main entrance has now changed to the other room where Zulu's had a bar which is now on the opposite side, that led into the dance floor area with the stage. The ground floor dancefloor is still there due to the size of the room with a DJ box where the stage was. The old main area is still a main bar area however instead of having the bar along the wall it is now a huge round bar in the middle of the room. Going down stairs you enter another bar area which has also changed the bar along the back wall into a square shaped bar against the same wall. Walking on through, the old main dance floor is still there but has had a major face lift which some nice black and white tiles put down, and the old DJ box is now a shooter bar with the new DJ box on the opposite wall. I had to laugh when I saw the two poles in the middle of the dance floor because those two poles have probably seen more of women's inner thighs and cleavage than most guys I know Moving on into the other bar area where they used to have the bar in the corner, this has now moved to the other side of the room also in a square shaped bar.

The decor itself is very well done out, you can see alot of bucks was spent into getting it to look like it does. Alot of carpeting on the floors and walls downstairs give it a softer classier feel. If you've been to a few of the owner, Guy Van Der Post's clubs in SA, you'll know what I mean, he tends to use a similiar decor style which always looks great. If you liked what he did with the Grand when they revamped it, then you'll love this, similar but effective.

The vibe was awesome, its always good to see multitudesof familiar faces when a new place opens because not only does it increase the likeliness of having a banger of an evening, but it also sets your crowd standard and likeliness of going back because you know its a good decent crowd. My only complaint throughout the evening which also seemed to be common feedback that I got from a number of people was the difficulty getting drinks from some of the new bar staff, although you could see the more experienced staff were on the ball. I had my own episode down in the bottom back bar where I was left standing for 35mins waiting to get a drink where the bar lady would get to the guy next to me on my left, then skip me and serve a person a few people down to the right, once was ok, the second time agitating, the third time I was starting to get annoyed, during the forth time just as she was skipping me I waved both arms out and called to which I got the reply, "I have to serve them first" I thought, really? how does that work if you are serving people from left to right in a sequence, I looked for a mirror to see if I had "Don't serve me" written across my fore head or a massive leaking chorb on my face that she couldn't stand to look at. Now those who know me will know me as an extremely patient person reinforced with the fact that I know what its like working behind an extremely busy bar, I've been there, some will remember PharSide's Pigs Nights back in the day… ja, nuff said but for the first time in my life I completely lost it and went absolutely nuts at the bar lady and the barman when they stood infront of me pouring drinks, to which he replied sorry they were really busy, so I said fine but how many times is she gonna skip me before I get served? its not like I was hidden behind any beer taps or anything like that. At the time this was happening, a friend who was helping behind the bar that night heard me venting my frustrations, ran across from the other side of the bar and in record time, got me the two drinks I'd been so patiently waiting for. Now given it was opening night, new tills, mostly new staff who may be inexperienced in a high demand bar, its not uncommon that something like this could happen so I'll put it down to a teething issue, coupled with the fact that I know that the management are more than well aware of the problem so I have every faith that after Friday night, we'll see a massive improvement next time round no doubt.

The door staff seem like a good bunch of guys to the extent that I actually felt quite welcomed when I walked through the door which is quite rare but always a good thing when it happens, I reckon this may have something to do with the head doorman coming across as seriously decent oke when we were handing our tickets in at the door.

The music is pretty much exactly what most saffa's will enjoy from a commercial point of view, which is a main catalyst for an awesome night as it caters for virtually all tastes. I even found myself squeaking a takkie downstairs at one stage

The jol closes at 1am which is obviously down to licensing laws governing the area as this was the same for Zulu's, however it does give you enough time to catch a few dops in Wimbledon for an hour or two before heading home or the location of where your walk of shame will commence in the morning

All in all, it is an excellent jol which is definately going to be a massive hit here in London, good music, good vibe, seriouisly good jol!

Well done guys! It Rocks!

- Marky Mark

Rage Against The Machine – Killing in the name is currently sitting at Number 1 this week beating X Factor's Joe McElderry in the charts, and well on its way to becoming The Christmas Number 1

Check this video out, better watch it quick before it gets pulled from YouTube again

Two words…

Sheer Brilliance!

Awesomeness!

And if you liked that… you're gonna love this

- Marky Mark

Pamela Anderson performs as the Genie in Aladdin at Wimbledon Theatre which turns out to be an awesome show and I got to see it… YAY!

Myself, The Phreak and Waine took a stroll a few doors down to Wimbledon Theatre last night to watch Aladdin, featuring special guest star Pamela Anderson as the genie and I must say, all three of us, thoroughly enjoyed it. The show is around 2.5hrs long which flies through and the gorgeous Pammy floats down from above the stage 50mins into the show. The show really keeps you going all the way with constant local humour and getting the audience very involved in true panto fashion, also not to mention in my case, my heart flat lining every time Pammy made an appearance onstage.

Pammy really is just insanely gorgeous, at 42 she is just as hot as she was 20 years ago when she first appeared on the cover of Playboy, its actually hard to come to terms that she is that age because I tell you what, if The Jen wasn’t around, I think Pammy may just have a chance with me

Despite what I read in a newspaper by some boring pompous dumbass critic who thinks he knows something about acting, I'm a normal person just like everyone else in the audience and I thought her performance was brilliant, she did really well, no complaints whatsoever. She cracks a few jokes which stem from her life of fame which gets a good chuckle from the crowd. Did I mention her outfit is damn fine too she doesn’t have a leading role as such so her performance is understandably short but that’s the way the story goes and that’s how it was written.

Her stint lasts for two weeks and I heard she had a pint at Weatherspoons (Wibbas Inn) opposite the theatre the other night, so I’m hoping she pops around the corner to Bar Sia next door to the theatre for “A Can of the Best” one night before she leaves, as other guest celebrities in productions at the theatre do.

If you are able to get tickets for the performance I’d definitely recommend that you make a plan and go see it as it’s definitely one of the better shows I’ve seen, with constant laughs all the way through.

Hopefully one of my Christmas wishes will come true and I can get a photo of me and Pammy haha

- Marky Mark

FaceBook is going wild at the moment with Saffas in London updating their statuses announcing the first bit of snow starting to fall this Christmas

Will we have a white Christmas this year?… I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The Jen has just informed me that its a mild 30 degrees in Durban while they enjoy their public holiday… nice

Good for some like Mr. Melly, Snow today, tan on Saturday… the lucky bugger is getting on a plane to SA soon.

The pic below was taken a few mins ago from my office window in Canary Wharf 
not much but if it carries on into this evening we may see an inch or two

- Marky Mark

In just two more days, the much anticipated Joe Cools London opens its doors on Friday 18th December 2009. Due to the ridiculous response, the opening night is now becoming the opening weekend which alone is bound to even put New Years Eve to shame!

Yes, so its finally happening, Joe Cools is finally opening right here in London. You may remember back in September there was mention of it opening in early December, however after a short delay the time is now upon us. Many Durban locals and Gauteng vakansie goers will understand the hype surrounding the legendary club at its original location right on Durbans North Beach, and now our main man Guy Van Der Post, owner of Joe's in Durban and many other clubs in South Africa, has given us our very own one right here on our doorsteps, well just about.

Joe Cools London is situation at 4 Fulham High Street in Fulham, in easier terms for us saffas, the venue formerly known as Zulu's, which in itself has seen its fair share of prime South African jolling… trust me I should know

The club boasts 2 dance floors, 5 bars, a sun deck (which should be awesome in summer) and can pack in 900 jolling Saffas, so it sounds like its gonna be wild. If the decor of Joe Cools Durban is anything to go by, then you know that its gonna look absolutely amazing. If you were like me and lucky enough to get complimentary tickets for opening night on Friday, best you get your party shoes and disco pants on because oh dear, its gonna be insane.

Unfortunately there are no more comps available for Friday due to the incredibly high response, however if you send your details via their website at http://www.joecoolslondon.com you can still get for Saturday night. They will be letting in people without tickets on Friday night after 21:30pm, however this will depend on the amount of people in the club at the time, however I'd say its worth a shot as you're bound to have some early birds bailing early.

If you're new to London and weren't fortunate enough to experience Zulu's in its prime, here's directions from Wimbledon…

By Train: District Line to Putney Bridge, come out the station, walk up to the main road where all the buses are coming from (Fulham High Street), turn right, walk passed the robots and on another 100m and its on your left just before the roundabout (trust me you can't miss it)

By Bus: Take the 93 from Wimbledon Station, get off where it terminates at Putney Bridge Station, walk up to the main road where all the buses are coming from before you turned into the station (Fulham High Street), turn right, walk passed the robots and on another 100m and its on your left just before the roundabout (trust me you can't miss it)

Don't ask me to explain how to get back to the station from Joe's because I rarely managed to achieve this in a memorable state when I used to frequent the venue, so I'll leave that up to you

There are a couple of Bar Staff positions going, so if you're hot, funky, got the vibe and believe you've got the mustard, send your CV and a pic over to, workjoes@gmail.com and tjoon them you're a PharSider

See ya'll this weekend for one MASSIVE jol!

- Marky Mark

Check out the new commercial by Micheal Bay for Victoria's Secret Christmas Collection featuring our very own Candice Swanepoel

One word…. EISH!

Thank goodness YouTube doesn't have auto-repeat because I would be permanently hypnotized staring at the screen until the end of time… or until someone finally came over looking for me and managed to pull me away from the screen

The commercial premiered at the recent Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on 2 December 2009

Guys you will see what I mean and be left in a psychotic state of forever wishing… girls, enjoy what you could have this Christmas… if you play your cards right ofcourse

- Marky Mark

Over the past few weeks theres been alot of talk about the FaceBook Group, 'RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO.1!' that seems to have ruffled X-Factor's Simon Cowell's feathers a bit. The time has come to see if this campaign is going to work.. and so far, it is… take a look

The group was created a few weeks ago by Tracy and Jon Morter who like many, seem to be a little bit more than fed up with the winner of the X-Factor sailing through to the UK Christmas number 1 slot, which it pretty much has done for the past few years. The last non X-Factor Christmas number 1 was back in 2004 where the Band Aid 20 released "Let Them Know It's Christmas" ever since then its been X-Factor winners such as Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson and Alexandra Burke respectively, and since this evenings X-Factor final won by Joe McElderry, many would already expect that the Christmas Number 1 spot is going to go to the X-Factor winner with his, as many would put it, "Glorified Karoke Cover", The Climb originally recently released by Miley Cirus. It's not surprising that many people are getting just a little hacked off that each year the X-Factor is timed to end on the Sunday of the Christmas Number 1 chart run up which has blatantly turned the whole thing into a manufactured money making racket blocking the way of more respected artists, which is basically the reason for the Facebook Group.

The group now has over 700 000 members and urges its members to purchase Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name which was released back in 1992, from a list of download sites such as iTunes for around £1 from December 13th. If you listen the lyrics of the song you'll probably realise why they chose it to be the front runner.

Its actually not the first time this has happened, last year Alexandra Burke released "Hallelujah" originally written by Leonard Cohen, however the masses responded by purchasing copies of the late Jeff Buckley's version of the song, which in my opinion is even better than Leonard Cohen's. Its actually one of my all time favorites. In the end Alexandra Burke hit Number 1 and Jeff Buckley sat at number 2 marking a first in chart history that the same song has claimed the top two spots similtaneously.

Simon Cowell recently commented on the Facebook group as it being a direct attack at himself however if that was the case, then I think they wouldn't be using the "X-Factor" but rather Simon Cowell's name specifically in their campaign.

I've got nothing against X-Factor, its pretty cool that people get the oppitunity to display their talents and make something of themselves, but what I don't agree with is that they never seem to have hits of their own (mind you Leona Lewis' cover of Snow Patrol's Run was very rare awesomeness and I don't care what anyone says about it) and the timing just before Christmas is blatant exploitation but good luck to the dude, I just hope he realises he is basically a music industry pop exploit at the moment, time will tell if he lasts in the long run.

Now check this out, as of 12am this morning, I've just taken a look at the iTunes Top 10… and would you believe it… people aren't wasting time, take a look for yourself…

Apparently within minutes, Killing in the Name sky rocketed to Number 1 before Joe McElderry could even make a dent on the charts with his teeny bopper cover.

Lets wait and see if it holds out against X-Factor, its gonna be an interesting couple of weeks. I've always been a huge RATM fan so I hope it does, although it is kinda for the wrong reasons as one thing I don't think was really thought through correctly, is that Rage Against The Machine are signed to Epic which is a subsidary of Sony BMG, so either way Simon Cowell's pockets are going to get full. I think if they wanted to do something like this, I reckon they should have got some dude and his guitar who is completely unknown, to take the honours.

I would really like to hear what Zack De La Rocha; Tom Morello and the boys have to say about it although I haven't found anything so far.

If you're keen on joining the fun, join the group at  http://bit.ly/inthename and get all the details you need to purchase the single and if you like donate a buck to charity which is a pretty cool thing to do

- Marky Mark

For a little while now I've seen Jack Parow and his song "Cooler as ekke" popping up all the time. So I decided to find out a bit about this dude and his seriously catchy tune that is now playing over and over in my head.

I first noticed Jack on 2OceansVibe a little while ago where he did "Cooler as ekke" in the back of a taxi for Taxi Jam (awesome idea btw, check it out) and my initial thoughts were, its rap, its afrikaans and its relative, how the hell did this oke get this mix right and make it sound frickin good at the same time? It's brilliant and if you actually listen to his hilarious lyrics you'll find yourself smiling the whole way through the song because we can all relate to everything he says

Jack from Belleville near Cape Town, got his name when he was a little tipsy one night, as most people are when they come up with highly enlightening thoughts, he was watching Pirates of the Caribbean and just somer tjooned, " fuck Jack Sparrow the pirate of the Caribbean, I’m Jack Parow the pirate of the caravan park". Apparently he was pretty stoked that he remembered it the next day because as you now know, the name stuck.

He started messing around rapping in 2000 just for shits and giggles but rapped in english up until 2004. One day he rapped about getting mugged, but did it in afrikaans which made him realise it actually sounded pretty schweet and he couldn't understand why he'd never done it before, so it was from then that he started rapping in afrikaans. He's influenced a lot by boozed people because of the shit they come up with and thinks that drunken conversations are the best thing ever. (don't worry Jack, me too) I reckon it would be pretty schweet to interview Jack Parow over a few bottles of Klippies, I'd just have to remember to take a tape recorder though cause EISH!

This oke seriously has a good thing going here, especially with the release of Cooler as Ekke which like I said, after a few listens you'll find it popping up in your head all the time, even if you don't understand a word of Afrikaans… so you'll even find all the Durban North locals will be busting to it in their heads

Rumour has it that Parys Potgieter is his number 1 fan

Check out the video for Cooler as Ekke below

"Jy's die ou met die new fresh look, ek's die ou met die Pep stores broek!" Love it! haha

One thing that seriously made me laugh in the video was, check at 1:45, my ma used to have an ornament dog exactly like that in our lounge

Jack, ek schmaak it bra! dis Poes lekker!

Check out his MySpace here

- Marky Mark

At around 11am this morning an Airlink passenger plane had a bit of a tumble when it missed the runway at George Airport in the Western Cape, it went crashing through a security fence and then onto a major road where it came to standstill.

Its not entirely known what exactly happened and I'm no pilot but from the pic below it looked pretty misty, although saying that, pilots are able to land massive jumbos at Heathrow airport in very poor visibilty conditions, so I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

Apparently the pilot was trapped in the cockpit for nearly an hour before he could be rescued but it wasn't clear whether he was injured or not, however it looks like he would have got the biggest of the bump as the plane came down the bank slamming the nose onto the ground. Hopefully he's not gonna be in too much of a kakpit after this one.

George Traffic Chief, Kenny Africa said that all 35 passengers had been evacuated from the plane with only minor injuries.

Looks like some people have had a bit of a kak start to the week. Hopefully the passengers didn't forget to pack a spare pair of jocks in their bags because I'm sure I would have literally kaked myself EISH!

[source]

- Marky Mark

The highs and lows of ZA News last week focusing mainly on the World Cup Draw

- Marky Mark