Centrestage - Entertainment Port Elizabeth

The Vagabonds of Rock n Roll
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The Vagabonds of Rock n Roll will be sweeping into town as Centrestage presents their brand new tongue in cheek tribute to the iconic front-men of rock who we love to love and loathe, rogues and rascals, scoundrels and scallywags - the characters who colour our musical world with drama and personality.

The Dirty Dozen include a venerable who’s-who of larger-than-life musical reprobates, including Meatloaf, the Doors’ Jim Morrison, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Jon Bon Jovi, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogarty, Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler, Chuck Berry and Mick Jagger, to name a few.



The Centrestage All-Star band (CASB) have called in the services of Cape-Town based vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire, Toxic Shame’s musical guru Deon Du Toit, to help pay tribute to the bad boys of rock. Du Toit is one of the few vocalists around who can perform ACDC’s Thunderstruck in its ear-piercingly high original key.

The individual members of the CASB will swap instruments as they swap characters, with Derick Badenhorst occasionally standing in for Gino Fabbri on drums when the popular comedian steps forward in the guise of Culture Club’s Boy George or Robert Palmer and when he takes a whole new look at the Rolling Stone’s Mick Jagger.

Musical director Donovan Hattingh does a turn as the nicotine-stained Tom Waits, the over-the-top Frank Zappa and the brooding Jim Morrison, while Wayne Kallis gives his all to the vocally challenging roles of an over-intense Meatloaf, the searing Jon Bon Jovi, the legendary Freddie Mercury and the sing-along John Forgarty.

Keyboard player Khanya Matomela brings his vibrant and infectious personality to bear as he has fun with Chuck Berry, while Du Toit plays Ozzie Osbourne, David Bowie, Steve Tyler and ACDC’s Brian Johnson to a T.



The Vagabonds song-book is filled with well-known, fun songs, including Meatloaf’s I Would Do Anything for Love and You Took the Words Right Out of my Mouth, The Door’s Light My Fire and Roadhouse Blues, Robert Palmers’s Simply Irresistible and Addicted to Love, Boy George’s Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Starman, Bon Jovi’s Bed of Roses and Living on a Prayer, Chuck Berry’s No Particular Place to Go and Johnny Be Good, Aerosmith’s I Dont Want to Miss a Thing, Freddie Mercury’s I Want to Break Free, We Will Rock You and Tie Your Mother Down and Forgarty’s Looking Out My Back Door and Rocking All Over the World, to name just a few.

“The Vagabonds of Rock n Roll opens up an entirely different approach from Centrestage. In this show, we move the the focus from the bands themselves onto the dynamic and exciting front-men. This opens up the opportunity for the personalities of the band members themselves to come through strongly and for the performers to interact directly with the audience throughout, which I believe is one of the strengths of the band as individual performers”, says Centrestage owner Gary Hemmings.