MUSIC VIDEO: Nathan Zeno
LIKE Tom Waits on ecstasy, they unfold on to the stage, horns blaring. Smiling and nervous, a matric dance band with one size too big trousers: The Honeymoon Suites. They showed us who they were last weekend by playing two gigs with several of Cape Town’s top rock acts.
At the River Club they had to contend with the fans of Dorp, the kind that sit on the floor and who are generally rude to other bands. Still, the crowd loved The Honeymoon Suites, even though their usual tight, cosy lounge sound seemed languid, floppy and out of place in front of a big rock’n’roll crowd.
In the Cape Town rock scene everything is connected. That much is certain. The guitarist in The Honeymoon Suites used to be the drummer in the Magnetics. The Magnetics used to dress up, as The Honeymoons do, and play at a venue called The Magnet frequently, as the Honeymoons do. It’s a small town. The Honeymoon Suites have made a music video, or rather film- maker Tim Green has made a music video. The Magnet is Tim Green’s local bar. Tim Green made a beautiful short film called Corner Caffie that not enough people have seen. Not enough people will see this video.
Another regular at The Magnet is Roger Young; he made a music video for the Springbok Nude Girls that no one saw. Tim Green also made a video for the Zap Dragons. Not enough people saw that one either. What will happen to white rock in this country? How will it market itself without airplay?
I have other, deeper, theories, but look at it this way: it’s a small country. White rock just isn’t visible; it doesn’t shift enough units (no, not even the Springbok Nude Girls) to justify spending tens of thousands on a decent music video. But it’s fun and A&R men want to meet young white chicks so they sign and tour young white bands.
But it’s late and I’m tired and I just came back from a gig where The Honeymoon Suites played in a small, compact venue. On the big screen video machine we saw their new – and I mean their first music video – made by Green, just because he wanted to, and it’s as stylish and witty as the band itself. Plus it would seem The Honeymoons are not suited to large crowds.
It’s almost as if they need to be packed in so they can explode. I only know this because I’ve seen them play often, because let’s face it there’s not enough variety and the Honeymoons are about as good as it gets. Which is probably why they won’t get anywhere.
So we are left with two questions: One: Is having a music video made by an asprant film-maker for free a sign of certain death? And two: Is the drummer a fugitive from somewhere else?
The answer to one is yes and no. The answer to two is yes.
Or, on the other hand, the answer to one is you would not believe how many aspirant film-makers there are out there who, in desperation, make low-budget music videos for bands just to finally shoot something. But these videos are seldom finished to broadcast quality formats and, even if they are, the bands don’t have resourceful enough marketers to get them screened. Or they don’t belong to the SABC’s chosen union. Or the SABC banned them last year.
The answer to might also be that the drummer is in fact Lee Majors and is hiding out in Cape Town from a messy divorce settlement.