Verity's Blog

Looking ahead...

Yesterday saw me sharing the stage at the Sanlam Innovation Day with some pretty hard hitters in the corporate and social media world! Andy Gilder from the gocashless project, Hannes Van Rensburg the CEO of Fundamo and Justin Spratt from Internet Solutions were my fellow speakers amongst others!

It was quite something to sit on a truly mind expanding conference and get some insight into the speed with which the world is changing and how companies like Sanlam are looking ahead and innovating.

As always I felt incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to share the story of how we funded 'Journey' by pre-selling it and giving 10% to women empowerment and artist upliftment along the way. The lessons the project taught me, mean that I now get to stand on stages like the one yesterday and talk about how innovating and following a crazy idea has transformed my life. It is incredible to consider that I am doing it all over again and that we already have over 100 Future Owners of our next album 'From Africa With Love' from 6 countries around the world!

As I always say in my talks - "it's what you don't know that following a dream holds in store for you, that will really shape and create the experience into what it needs to be. So above all else - just start - just say "I CAN" and trust that life will deliver you all the lessons and support you need to get where you are going!"

I'm looking ahead... are you?

KTV Talent Search Auditions...

Just back from an amazing morning of judging the auditions for the KTV Market Day Talent Search. The finals will take place on Saturday 4th September on the main stage at Canal Walk where I will be MC'ing. It was wonderful to watch act after act get up on stage and have the courage to audition - from 6 years olds to teenagers - I was blown away! Even with the little ones who still have along way to go and didn't make it through, what impressed me was that they showed up and said YES to at least trying! It is not an easy thing to do and to find that kind of chutzpa before you are 16 is impressive!

My fellow judges and I had quite a time deciding on the 22 acts to go through to the finals but by the end of the day I think the best acts made it through. From very promising young singers, to blow your hair back tiny Michael Jackson impersonators, to rock the house hip hop groups - there is some serious talent going through.

Looking forward to MC'ing the big day and seeing who makes it through to the national finals and hopefully even wins the R20,000 prize!

I will be running a workshop with all the young singers next weekend and hope to help them find even more confidence in their voices & performances. Live Your DREAMS Kids!

Thank you 2010!

The world cup treated us very well indeed!After entering the City of Cape Town and PANSA competition to perform at the various Fan Parks we made the finals and were one of the acts selected to perform. It was awesome to be a part of the FIFA madness that swept South Africa and to have time on such amazing stages with fantastic fans to play to!

From getting 500 Brazilians warmed up for their Korea game at the MTN tent, to celebrating with fans at the Swartklip FanPark after the SA win over France, to enjoying two performance as the Grand Parade FanPark and a semi final show at the Khayelitsha FanJol it was mindblowing!

We had an epic month & trust you did too!

  

Put your foot on the gas...

This last weekend I was treated to the unusual opportunity to drive in a rally from Cape Town to Worcestor in a brand new Audi A4 with a blind navigator in order to raise money for the Pioneer School for the Blind. It was one of those out of the ordinary experiences where I somehow found myself thrown together with 40 SA celebs (mainly the cast of Binnelanders & 7de Laan) to try help make a difference. I really felt like the new girl on the block, as the bulk of the 'stars' were flown in from Joburb and everytime I was introduced to someone they had this blank look of 'and you are?'

Once we were buckled in, car 39 set out with yours truly and a fab young navigator Rynhart Kruger to steer me using a braille map that had been set by Sarel Van Der Merwe. I have to say that somehow I completely missed the point of a rally, and happily sped along in our gorgeous A4 promptly missing the first turnoff! This saw us lost in the Pinelands industria and trying to get back to the M5 to make it to the first  check point at Audi Claremont. I think I knew then, that I wasn't going to do very well at the whole rally thing, but Rynhart was brilliant at letting me know where to go despite my inability to stick to the speed limits the schedule required. I mean - dont give a girl an A4 and then ask her to do 50 in a 100 zone!

Needless to say I managed to successfully come 35th out of 40 - announced by MC's Kobus & Toks to the 400 guests at the gala dinner once we all arrived in Worcester! The Rotary club had organised the entire event and it was seamless, including fantastic chaperones - Jannie & Jeanette - who made sure I was ok at all times and drove me to and from my hotel. It really was an incredible event and amazing to see all the 'celebs' partnered with their navigators for the evening having really bonded on the four hour rally together. It was a humbling and inspiring experience to get a little insight into the world of people living with blindness.

The evening ended with an auction of items donated by the various celebs to raise more money for the school, and I was thrilled when my limited edition copy of 'Journey' was bought by Ollie Le Roux for R1500!!!  All in all it was a mindblowing experience and I can't wait for next year now that I know 'put your put on the gas' is the last thing to do in a rally!

Let us warm up your winter this Sunday...

It's time for another Kirstenbosch Winter Concert - one of our favourite shows each year! Roaring fire, red wine, hot steaming bowls of soup and two hours of performing old and new songs. It doesn't get much better for us! This will be our 7th winter concert at the Silvertree Restaurant in Kirstenbosch and I am sure it will be as magic an evening as all the others. There is something very special about that beautiful building and the way every show ends with the entire audience up and dancing - celebrating life, love and our beautiful country. That's when we know we've done our job right!

So, if you haven't worked out how to spend this Sunday 6th June, why not give them a call on 0217629585 to book at table for you and yours and come along and let us get you nicely warmed up for the World Cup kickoff next week! R100 a ticket includes wine & soup, and with a 6.30pm arrival it is a great show for the whole family!

Don't be afraid to come along and be a little careless, breathless & reckless as we raise our voices & shine!

What a weekend!

We had an incredible experience this last weekend when we headed up to Mpumalanga to play a show at the Barnyard Theater in White River. It started with a 4.45am wake up on Friday to catch a 6am flight to Lanseria and then jump in a hired combi and navigate our way to White River. Lots of laughter and a few wrong turns but 5 hours later we got there!

I had spent the week in bed with flu, so was topping up on lemon & honey, gargling salt and praying my voice would meet us at the venue! Our show was kicked off by a dance company from Alexandria who took to the stage with township jives, gumboot dancing and beautiful choral singing. I stood at the back of the theatre with goosebumps and so thrilled to be there.

Saturday was meant to be a lazy day before we headed off to perform at the Hlau Hlau township school in the afternoon, but at 9am I got a call from Paul, the owner of the Barnyard, to say that 15 kids from the local orphanage had arrived at the theater at 7am instead of 7pm the night before! He asked if I could please go and at least give them a little chat to make up for the confusion, and so Nelson and I headed over to the theatre and sang 'Shine' to them.

It resulted with all of them on stage with me singing "I'm gonna shine" over and over and improvising a full dance routine on the spot. I was overwhelmed! After that they treated us to an hour of dancing and singing and they even got me up and learning some dance moves (video to follow...) I spent the morning with tears streaming down my face - what an inspiration to know that there are iniatives out there to help kids who have so little and give them a much brighter future! 

Saturday afternoon saw us heading into the local township and after an hour of getting hopelessly lost we finally arrived and started setting up on the stoep in the quad. There was one plug point to make it all happen - so it was a rather 'unplugged' gig! While we were getting sorted the dancers & singers starting doing their thing and the crowd went mad. It was incredible to feel the spontaneous joy erupting in the fading afternoon light as hundreds of people streamed in to enjoy the show.

We were last on and I got to play the 'I CAN' game with a couple hundred people screaming 'I CAN' to questions like 'who can be the best they can be?'. It was awesome! 'Shine' and 'Take You Back' were all we had time for before night fell, but it still resulted in us being mobbed by hundreds of kids and the guys must have jammed 'Take You Back' for a good 15 minutes. It was MIND BLOWING!!!

So, here we are back in CT and very inspired about this amazing country and the energy that flows here. I am committed to us spending more time in communities that need uplifting as we gained as much as we gave - what a priviledge!

2010 here we come...

It's been an interesting few weeks and things are only going to get better! At the beginning of May we auditioned in a competition to be considered for events being run by PANSA and The City Of Cape Town during June/July. It was quite an experience to walk into an idols style audition as a band and have to rock out to a panel of judges in an empty hall! Tony was in Germany touring with MacStanley so his ridiculously talented brother Frank Paco kindly stepped in to help out - what a legend!

After playing our hearts our with 'Take You Back', the judges informed us we were through the finals - shew! So, on the 8th of May we found ourselves backstage (Idols style yet again) at the Grand Arena, where we had 5 minutes to blow the crowd away and make it through. 'Take You Back' was the song that did it for us once again and it felt amazing to have the whole crowd going nuts! We were over the moon when PANSA called last week to say we are through, so now we wait with baited breath to see which events we will be playing at....

Holding thumbs!

TEDxJohannesburg Talk...

Here is the video of my presentation at TEDxJohannesburg back in November last year. It was an incredible opportunity to be on a TEDx stage and join some pretty inspiring South Africans in the line-up for the day. From the man who started lapdesks in Africa, to a woman documenting taxi hand signs in a book,it was an amazing experience all round! Here is my little bit that I added to the proceedings...

Magic in May...

The last few months of shooting League of Glory has been a fantastic experience! The cast and crew have been a pleasure to work with and it is going to be very sad to say goodbye when we wrap next week. I am looking forward to watching the show when it starts flighting on MNET on Wed 5th May at 7.30pm. From what I have seen on set alone, it is going to be a great story to watch unfold, and should definitely launch some bright new stars on the SA acting scene. Siv Ngesi and Charlie Keegan are the guys I am keen to see on screen - really lovely young actors and sure to take SA by storm. So - that takes care of Wednesdays for the next few months - cant wait!!!

   

Rubbing shoulders with SA's finest...

Tuesday last week was a very very busy day for me - as a speaker, actress & singer. At 9am found myself being welcomed to the second day of the SA Music Exchange where I was invited to be on the panel for 'Keeping It Real - South African Success Stories'. I found myself in the esteemed company of Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse, Neo Muyanga (Blk Sunhine), Andy Mac (Mac Stanley) and Doug Davenport (Evolver One). We all took our seats on the stage and then one by one shared our stories and experiences in the music industry with the audience. It was a forum for everyone gathered to learn more from our respective journeys and also ask questions on how to get around common obstacles facing musicians. Sitting next to Sipho was an incredible honour - even if just to soak up his humble presence and to get how passionate he is about this industry. He kept referring back to my story of pre-funding 'Journey' and saying how the only way for artists to get ahead is to invest in their own dreams. It was a huge vote of confidence!

I left the Exchange very inspired and had to dash to Stellenbosch to spend the rest of the day shooting on the MNET Mini-Series 'League of Glory' that I have a really great role in. It is proving to be a fantastic experience - with a great script, fab cast and crew and a really good challenge for me as an actress, so I cant wait to actually watch it when it starts flighting on April 21st! We wrapped at around 6.30pm and I screeched back into to town to sound check for the Music Exchange Showcase at Mercury Live. The band decided to use our 30 minute slot to let everyone in the industry to get a taste of our new upbeat sound. At 10pm we kicked off with 'One Of These Days' and from there took everyone in the room on a true Verity & The Shades afro-pop/dance/rock journey! We came off stage absolutely drenched from playing our hearts out and exhilirated to have had the crowd calling for more.

The feedback from everyone on our new songs was awesome and best of all was that Sipho 'Hotstix' Mabuse kept saying we had blown him away!!! All in all a very good day after what has been a very difficult start to the year. It felt good to get back to the work I love!

"Verity & The Shades performed one of the best live sets I've ever experienced... The set worked, her  interaction with the audience was magic, her energy on stage with her band ensured pristine delivery that had the people in the crowd  captivated!"  (Tim Hill, Music Exchange Organiser)