The Legend of the Greatest Band That Never Was!
God’s Zoo 1995- 1998
‘This monkey’s gone to heaven…’ Pixies
Before the monkey went to heaven he had to endure hell.
I believe, at birth, there is a struggle assigned to all of creation and I believe the mammals, with a greater capacity for understanding suffer the most. These mammals try and define the borders of their existence by probing and tearing at the restraints that hold them down. These mammals hurt themselves to test reality and convince themselves that all that surrounds, is real. These mammals scream in defiance to make their plight known and transcending despair they storm the gates of hell until they bleed…
These mammals were inmates in God’s Zoo…
Warning: Don’t be fooled kids, Careers Kill Bands!
Genesis
‘Step into my fountain, rush into my tide….that’s burning!’ God’s Zoo
The Best-Band-That-Never-Was was started in a garage with a broken drum set and 4 angry mammals. The need to scream and tear at the fabric of our existence with guitars and drums, the very act of attacking the atmosphere with shock waves, experienced as sound, to deliver angry messages through the air to the ears and beings of others is tolerated and even celebrated in western culture. The electric guitar, driven to a squealing and snarling overdrive, is the voice of many young mammals on the fringes, providing the pseudo-sexual anthems for the masses confronted with existentialist angst… We listen to the tormented screams of our peers because it strikes a chord in us.
For the first time in more than 10 years, the Lost Recordings of God’s Zoo are available to an audience that will appreciate the madness, the message and the music of mammals in a cage. Click here to listen to the tracks and buy your own piece of Rock History!
It was this and the raw but controlled chaos produced by the Pixies that made the four mammals believe that they too could voice their anger. And so they did.
Anton O., Jakobus C., Elmer B., Michael R., and were a sub group of gutter crawlers that abused substances when they didn’t binge drink in the bleak industrial backdrop of the East Rand of Jo’burg in the mid nineties. Kurt Cobain was dead, the Pixies had split up, Kim Deal was in prison, Andrew Eldridge was too much of a celebrity, Ian Ashbury had picked up weight, Justin Sullivan lost all his ‘teeth’ and music was going soft and agreeable again after an angry grunge phase.
Soft and agreeable music does not strike a chord with raging mammals so they decided to retaliate. Anyway everybody knows that being in a band was the best way for the average Joe to get chicks especially if the average Joe tended to be wasted most of the time …
A band is built around instruments. Michael, an angry mammal with a penchant for revolution, had inherited a small amount of money and a small dilapidated house in a working class neighbourhood. He decided to use the money to fund a revolution and the revolution against the urban mind cage he had been planning would be driven by a rock and roll band.
A fast and meaningless lifestyle had just claimed another victim in Anton, who had had one too many bad trips after a childhood he spent dodging anger and fists. A breakdown forced him to quit his job and he moved into the inherited and newly claimed band house from where sorties where organized by Elmer, Jakobus and Michael to procure musical instruments.
No one really knew anything about music except Jakobus who had played the trumpet in a marching band at school.
The guys didn’t hold it against him.
Buying instruments with cash burning their pockets turned out to be a dangerous affair where everyone they met, saw them coming and sold them low quality, broken or outdated instruments at a premium price. The only one that got a fair deal was Elmer who bought his acoustic guitar from a hippy in the drug haven of Rockey Street in Jo’burg before it went Nigerian.
A punk band living in a hovel sold them a broken drum set to fund their pilgrimage to England, the land of Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols. An old churchy lady sold them a very, very old keyboard, a rich kid sold them a bent ‘Fendel Stratokastor’ that couldn’t be tuned and the local pawn shop let them have a bass guitar with a missing A string. The scruffy owner said they didn’t need it, so they didn’t use an A string on base to write the first two songs they recorded.
When all they had were a drum set, Elmer, Jacobus and Michael were in the garage volunteering for stardom or something close. No one had worked out how to wield the drum sticks and the base drum together yet, but they were trying. Jacobus was on the pedal of the base drum and Elmer was patting on the hi-hats while Michael was trying to fit expletives into the rhythm. Anton came hobbling out like a modern Quasimodo, all hunched and vulnerable with one eye shut to guard his drug injured brain against the too bright South African sunlight and started suggesting names for the band. A big discussion later, a working name had been decided upon: They chose the name Lovecraft, as in HP Lovecraft. It wouldn’t stick.
Soon roles and responsibilities had been assigned and abandoned and reassigned. No one could master the drums except Jakobus and it was decided that he would do drums as well as keyboards when the band would go into studio. Elmer got proficient with the acoustic guitar very quickly and was assigned the role of rhythm guitarist. Anton didn’t take to any instruments at first and provided half the lyrics while developing into a vocalist. Michael was unable to do drums, guitar or keyboards (even after he wrote the individual notes on the keys with a permanent marker) and had to settle for writing the other half of the lyrics and playing base even though that was a stretch as well. Here too he made marks on the top of the fret board to guide him where to press when Jacobus shouted notes and instructions like ‘EEEE, AAAA’ while drumming. At one stage the constant depression and anxiety forced Anton to stay in his room and miss rehearsals. The guys wouldn’t be discouraged and used insulation tape to tape a microphone to Michael’s chin so that they could get much needed practice.(When you see a band with a lead singer not playing an instrument it is likely that the band started out without a microphone stand.) It was quite the sight and when Anton came out to see why the demons were screaming outside his room, he was surprised to find the band jamming on a gothic anthem with Michael mouthing madness into the microphone taped to his chin, looking like an S&M cyborg. Anton decided that he would not miss any sessions anymore as the alternative would make him even more anxious.
It was sad at first but it got better after much practicing. They were still missing a lead guitarist though.
Also, it was difficult to practice when the bottle called and at the local pub it soon became news that they had a band and soon they were drinking even more to keep up rock and roll appearances. Anton never came to the pub as he was in quite a bad state and the other would come home wasted at two in the morning and wake him up and jump on his mattress in the corner of the dirty room and tell him of the near arrests and the madness of youth, intoxicated. They must have seemed like demons to him that added to his torment night after night. It served as inspiration and helped him to write and soon his lyrics were a cathartic tool for him. ( See Sometimes by Anton O in discography section below)
One night they came home early from the pub and brought home more than stories of drunken debauchery. They brought a lead guitarist! Glen V. attended the same apartheid propaganda machine called school, which the others had attended. At school he played rugby for the first team and had always been considered a bit of a jock and it was surprising to the rest of the gutter crew when he showed some of the same depth of character that only a misspent youth in a dysfunctional home can bring. He also had a very unique approach to the guitar. Clearly he was a great talent that had taught himself and he used to rip riffs from nowhere and add some credibility to the otherwise mediocre songs. It must be said that these mediocre songs were performed with passion, belief and conviction. Didn’t the Sex Pistols prove that that was all you needed to succeed in music: conviction and passion?
Satan’s Talent competition
Soon they entered into a local talent competition held at a nearby school, organized by a teacher sleeping with a metal head with some minor local celebrity.
The night before, during another drinking session, the guys decided to change the name of the band, because Lovecraft wouldn’t do any longer. Although everybody present at the session, to this day, claim that they thought up the name, it was a group effort. The name they decided on was God’s Zoo, after the name of a song on a Death Cult album.
“You gotta bleed a little while you sing, else the words don’t mean a thing!’ The Cult
The talent competition would draw blood as God’s Zoo performed two songs. Sometimes, which was a bit honest for all those present, went smooth but the new song, River of Light, which Michael wrote for a girl that was still ignoring him, even though he was in a band, proved too much for the band who had tried to calm the jitters with sherry before it all started. Glen forgot the riffs and sat down on stage with his head in his hands, Anton who had established himself as vocalist forgot some lyrics and improvised; Jacobus dropped drum sticks and desperately tried to grab them from between the feet of the snare drum stand.
Only Michael and Elmer couldn’t be stopped and seeing their determined effort, the others caught up and the song ended on a high note….and silence. Everyone in the audience sat dead still except Jakobus’s slightly older, good looking sister who cheered a bit loud in the half filled school hall. Everybody knew she was with the band and that she was compensating for the silence. We all loved her for that. Jakobus didn’t allow her at band practice…much. He knew the mind of the mammal.
Death Metal bands won the first three spots even though they didn’t stop to breathe in between hissed, guttural prayers to Satan and even though there was no difference or discernable music in the senseless monotone assault on their instruments.
God’s Zoo came fourth just ahead of the three gospel choirs that were quite surprised to find the mix of ‘talent’ at the competition। They sang their praises to the Lord, being judged by sweaty demons in black clothes and black fingernails. Off course God’s Zoo was gonna come fourth, which Satanist would pick a gospel choir above even a struggling bunch of wannabes?
Warning: Don’t be fooled kids. Careers Kill Bands!
They didn’t stop struggling though. They did their time and got better. They stuck to the drinking and rehearsing. It was more by default than design because there wasn’t much else to do for the five angry mammals in industrial suburbia. Anton and Michael were writing songs and soon there were two directions in the band. Anton was more introverted and the enemy he attacked was within and Michael attacked the enemies he saw without. It made for a comprehensive revolution and soon friends would drop by and come and see the band rehearse and the house became a scourge to neighbours and an ‘abomination’ from all that transpired there. The police had to shut down raging parties more often than not. They recorded two songs, Sometimes and To Fly. The songs weren’t really great but it showed a great improvement for a bunch of wasters that had come from knowing nothing about music to a coherent group that could start expressing themselves in the realm of sound.
And then suddenly it changed.
The End of the Beginning
During and acid trip in a dingy club, Michael had a moment of clarity to see the meaninglessness and misdirection of his rage and decided to search for Truth while vowing to give up substance abuse. The change was astounding. He lost the gnawing anger and decided to go to the USA for a while. The band respected his decision and it was the first but not final end of God’s Zoo. The rest of the guys tried to record another song; River of Light, but they felt a bit out of sorts as Michael had been a force driving them forward. Although he was the least talented musician, he was the most passionate and it all seemed a bit hollow after he left. Elmer decided to go and study again. Jakobus focused on his job and Anton moved his dirty mattress to the back room of the home of Glen’s grandparents.
While Michael was in New York volunteering for groups like Jews for Jesus and being chased on the subways by angry Jews, Anton and Glen started to form quite a formidable songwriting team. Anton took up the guitar and harmonica and Glen started concentrating on rhythm guitar. He soon started sounding like something that could be described as The Edge on the edge but he was different somehow, more tribal.
Not a lot happened apart from acoustic late night jamming but they kept the dream alive as they honed their skills on the guitar.
When Michael returned, he would visit the guys in the back room in between bouts of prison ministry. He soon saw their talent and contracted with Glen and Anton to make music. Music is a disease and they were invariably infected.
The Rebirth of God’s Zoo
The rebirth and ultimate end of God’s Zoo was so close together with such amount of ground gained and so many good songs written that it was a bit of a blur to all those involved and the stories of what really happened is slightly different depending on who you hear it from.
Anton and Glen started looking for musicians to fill the ranks in God’s Zoo and even advertised an audition. Those who pitched for the audition were mostly no–hopers and it was soon apparent that they would have to wait, especially since the last person that auditioned duly informed them that he had sold his soul to the devil to be a great guitarist. After the performance and the hopeful, yet doomed candidate had departed, Anton and Glen agreed that the guy had been ripped off.
The Gathering of the Animals
Soon Anton and Glen had a drummer. Fernando was a Portuguese South African whose family had fled their farm in Mozambique as the mortars were exploding behind them. Fernando was a passionate drummer and recorded two songs (War and Shine) with God’s Zoo on drums and added a bit of emotion with the recorder on one.
Fernando was going blind because of Diabetes and soon it was impossible for him to join in the band practice due to transport problems. Not long ago it was learned that he had lost all his vision.
Deon, like Billy-Ray, was a Preachers Son that had the wrong type of friends; the members of God’s Zoo. Soon he was roped in to play base guitar. He was very good at picking up a baseline and delivered a solid attack. He steered clear of drugs and kept his day job and the job was one of the factors that caused the end of the band.
Gerrit G. and Warren D were two musicians that walked in off the street after hearing God’s Zoo rehearsing. They lived in a house up the street and were also looking for band members. Gerrit was a drummer and also an athlete that had represented his country in the long jump. Warren was an electrician with the local municipality and played lead guitar.
During the first jamming session everybody gelled well and the two new comers were almost instantly part of God’s Zoo. Anton and Glen had a list of songs that they had been working on and now the lead guitar and drums completed it.
Michael financed the remainder of the songs that made up an amazing untitled EP. As the band wanted to have a worthy cause to fight for and because it reflected the animal mindset of the band, a photo provided by Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), exposing the cruel conditions at a laboratory experimenting on animals, was used as the main creative element for the CD cover art. This picture became the focus of the band’s effort to break out of the cage and attack the unknown source of their rage as well as highlight the plight of other animals in different cages.
In preparation for the release of the EP, Michael arranged with a friend Victor T. to start getting Gods Zoo on stage. Strangely, it was very difficult to get the band members to commit to anything. It was as if they were afraid of their own potential…as if they didn’t believe.
They had three gigs and each one made more of an impact on the crowd than the previous. The last gig was at a club in a bad section of town and God’s Zoo rocked. They blew the roof off and the crowd knew that they had witnessed something familiar, yet strange for a South African outfit. There were promises of greatness in every chord and blood sweat and tears in every phrase. The crowd was sold and screamed for more, but the encore never came.
Michael believed so much that he invested all he had in the band and somehow it came to naught. It is still a mystery to most as to how they had allowed it to happen but in the next few weeks after the big gig, fate tore them apart.
Deon got a job as a manager in another part of the country. It was an ‘opportunity no one should pass up’.
Anton’s girlfriend got pregnant and he had to get a job. Juggling a job and his fragile state was too demanding on him and the music was not an immediate priority anymore.
No one is sure but it was thought that Warren was pressurized into getting married, also because of a pregnancy and asked to behave more responsibly.
Gerrit and Glen were left to their own devices and more often it was only vices.
Somehow within a month of the bands show of true potential it was all over. It was as if they had stumbled into the perimeter of greatness, took a picture and left without insisting to stay. Perhaps they failed to believe that they deserved greatness, perhaps they just failed to believe… and existence without belief comes to nil.
The latter inmates of God’s Zoo: From left to right: Deon, Warren, Gerrit, Anton and Glen.
Aftermath
Michael pulled the plug on releasing the EP and became a drifter. He retained his revolutionary ambitions and releases a revolutionary song every now and then. He also keeps in contact with Anton and they still write songs together. He finally decided to tell the story of God’s Zoo in 2008 more than 10 years after the fact.
Anton is still writing music. Anton has matured into an exceptional songwriter. He still suffers from anxiety.
Deon is managing something, somewhere.
Rumour has it that Warren released a few self produced CD’s.
Not much is know about Gerrit or his whereabouts.
Glen demoted himself and played base in a couple of bands for a while but no one knows if he’s still making music. It would be s shame if he isn’t.
The songs of God’s Zoo show a dramatic improvement over a short time as it told the story of the search for meaning. They grew from bad to naïve to awesome. To me, God’s Zoo will always be reckoned the best band that never really was.
Discography
God’s Zoo made various recordings. Some were done in Studio but a lot were done as demos on various devices. Whether it be a professional recording or home recording, the rage, sorrow and raw desire below the surface were always boiling over into the conscious animal mind.
Unnamed EP (Unreleased Studio Recordings) 1998
War(Oosthuizen, Vorster, Raubenheimer): Militant Anti-War Anthem that punches you in the chest. The war drums skipped a beat here and there that added to the idea of fallibility inherent in the human condition and that imperfect drummers are better than perfect machines. After this song was recorded the guys dared to believe, even if it only lasted for a moment.
Masters (Vorster): A song written with a slanted believe in karma as cause and effect with the quote ‘We all create monsters and sometimes they come back for their masters’ as back bone। A good stomp or even a mosh.
Jade (Oosthuizen, Vorster): A minimalist Gothic anthem of the dark cold watches of midnight one faces in broad daylight as depression takes hold। Guitar and voice never sounded so haunting or so good. If The Sisters of Mercy could keep it simple, it would sound like this.
Brother (Oosthuizen, Vorster): A powerful anthem against cruelty both to man and animal. Absolute rhythm guitar magic and angst as we are reminded that we are our brother’s keeper. Some virtuoso lead thrown in, not for virtuoso’s sake but to add to the questions this song asks.
Shine (Oosthuizen, Vortser): When faced with the destruction of persona and psyche by a rolling force of uncontrollable despair, some of us take the opportunity to shine. This song was written by those in the trenches in times of trouble and it seethes with controlled brittle emotion. Thank God it was never a hit so that it can remain fresh for the privileged few.
Serpent’s Wing (Vorster)
‘Step in to my fountain, rush into the tide…that’s burning…’ A Dylanesque celebration of mortality and wrath in a single unceremonious master piece. This is God’s Zoo at it’s best, the song they closed shows with and the encore the audiences screamed for never came.
Miscellaneous Demos and Try Outs and Freak outs. Get an insiders view of the evolution of a band with the frustration of inexperience and unconsumated creativity. Buy the revolutionary Six Track EP of Lost recordings for $6(US) and get all this free. Click here.
Circle (Oosthuizen): Very listenable demo done in a garage and a pretty little neighborhood girl on backing vocals.
Reunion (Oosthuizen , Du Plessis): A riff driven studio demo that rocks.
River of Light (Raubenheimer, Oosthuizen, Botha) One of the first songs performed as God’s Zoo at a satanic talent show. Early days call for simple songs and this shows a progression for the band that moved from wannabe to should have been.
Sometimes (Oosthuizen): Recorded at a home studio of a guy of who owned a base guitar that was said to have once belonged to Gene Simmons of KISS. The bands base didn’t work (flat battery of an onboard passive amp…who knew?) and the owner didn’t trust them with his KISS guitar so the base lines were sequenced and the studio wasn’t rigged for live drum recording either. Sometimes is a too honest call for help that civilized society isn’t really prepared for. Another song preformed at Satan’s Talent competition.
To Fly (Raubenheimer): Recorded as a kind of a B-side for Sometimes. One fan confessed to liking it and made a bootleg, maybe the others are still making up their minds?
Screamfeed (Raubenheimer, Matthews): Ex God’s Zoo release by God’s Zoo collaborators. Continuing an industrial flavored assault where Trent Reznor stopped.
Be sure to select the option to release your contact details to God's Zoo when you buy your six track EP from the music vendor at the other side of this link. If all else fails contact the Zookeeper at raubenheimer@gmail.com.
Warning: Don’t be fooled kids, Careers Kill Bands!
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