A night out in Jozi– Dinner, Show & a Shooting
“It’s not even Christmas yet” my friend said to me, as we listen to more bad news… Now you know Editorista resists all negative submissions, especially whingers who send in complaints about crime etc. This story was written by Heather as a dedication to a mutual friend Justin Brown, who was horrifically murdered a few weeks ago defending his family – I publish this story because it’s a documentation of the crazy goldrush wild west we find ourselves living in in Jozi, these are the days of our lives:
O.K. so first I have to admit I went to see Air Supply. I didn’t tell a soul about it, I mean how naff right? But my man and I are soppy romantics at heart and remember listing to “All out of Love” and “Making Love out of Nothing at All” in our pre-teens (yes that long ago – it is their 30th anniversary of being Air Supply, afterall).
This being a child-free weekend for me (the little man safely off with his dad), we decided to make an evening of it. My auditor love has not gambled before (using real money as opposed to a roulette boardgame!) so I was determined to introduce him to the thrill of the game.
It has been awhile since I’ve been to see an international act since I always get a bit freaked out by large crowds, but braved it anyway. The opening act was Alter and Irving – Cindy Alter from Clout and Stewart Irving from Ballyhoo. They were great, playing classics from their respective band’s hey days including “Substitute” and “Superstar”. I knew we were old when we remembered the words and could sing along! Cindy and Stewart also did a fab version of Patti Smythe’s “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough”.
When Air Supply arrived on stage, after a sparkling intro by MC, the Springs Boy – Tom London, I gasped as I saw how they had aged. I had seen the posters and seen some pics from the interviews, but somehow on stage, it seemed a little strange. I wondered how time had affected their voices…..
And then they started to sing…. time has not affected their voices. All the memories came flooding back and I got all soft and marshmallowy inside as they took us back to classics like Lost in Love, Here I am and Two Less Lonely People. Their connection with the audience was fantastic– especially those of the middle-aged, female variety! But what I thought was amazing was the fact that they actually came down and walked through the audience- shaking hands, kissing and hugging audience members. It built up a most electrifying buzz from the fans climaxing in their most well known numbers “Making Love out of Nothing at All” and “All out Love”.
After the show we were promised CD signings so for R100 a pop, we decided to buy the special of the CD / DVD combo, but took one look at the queue for the signings and decided dinner was more of a priority. We had great steaks at Squires and then decided to head towards the Roulette Table… we took a look at the signing queue and it seemed to have subsided substantially (this being about 1 and a half hours later!) and we had our CD signed by the whole band, who after an hour performing and an hour and a half signing were still charming!
Then we headed towards the roulette table…
Being the conservative players we are we traded R100 for roulette chips and played with one here and one there, while high rollers played over R1000 at a time.
As I was down to my last chip and we were ready to call it a night, one of the earlier high rollers walked past and said, with a wry smile on his face “They’re robbing the Casino, hey”. I thought he was making a joke about our tentative play on the table, but then we heard the gunshots and saw everyone around us climbing under the tables.
We dashed under the table with our faces averted so as not to make eye-contact. I think I read somewhere that is one of the things to do. I heard more gunshots and our croupier began to hyperventilate. The seriousness of the situation sunk in. I have been going to meditation classes for over two years now and I am so grateful that in that moment I went into that altered state that I had been trying to attain. There were more gunshots, screams and people running. I heard what must have been a security supervisor saying in a firm, trained voice “Stay down, just keep down, Stay down.” That we did, even after other people had begun to get up. Then more gunshots and everyone took cover again. After what seemed like hours, the atmosphere changed and it seemed like the robbers had left the building.
Staff were hysterical and there was a sense of damage control happening somewhere, but not around us. We slowly and shakily walked out to our car and drove home, silently.
We sit here on Sunday, writing this as we listen to the Acoustic “Air Supply” cd and all the usual thoughts run through our heads about crime in this country and the impact on everyone, local, international and the future. The harmonious voices of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock are lovely and I wonder if they were exposed to this, and what will they say back home?
This piece is dedicated to the memory of Justin Brown.
