Battery 9
From ArticleWorld
Battery 9 is the creation and the baby of Paul Riekert who is the writer, performer, and producer of the band. The music is a mix of English and Afrikaans. The band is headquartered where it was born, Johannesburg, South Africa.
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The beginning
The band was created in 1994 and is effectively the brainchild of only one member, Paul Riekert. Battery 9 was originally meant to be a platform to do various project and formed into a band of its own design. He in turn created One F Music, which is his own record label so that he can produce his own music in his home studio.
The first Battery 9 album was Protskrog, this came out in 1995. This album was made on little more than a poor man’s budget. The album sold well and was popular enough to warrant a licensing deal with Tic Tic Band, an independent record company.
Strop
Strop, the next album came out in 1996 and was a huge hit as it broke through to a wider audience with the hit, Kiss the Machine. This song received airtime and eventually charted on 5FM, a major national commercial radio station in South Africa.
1997
Battery 9 began to do a sleuth of concerts and eventually did a solo performance at the Viper Room in Pretoria. This solo performance drew over a thousand people and was regarded a huge success.
In that same year, 1997, Girs was released and housed a list of remixes and was an interactive CD.
1998 through 2004
Wrok, was released in 1998. It was given the award Best Rock Album in that year's South African Music Awards. They did a few live performances and supported Prodigy and Faithless on the South American tour. Taking intermittent breaks over the next few years they released Sondebok and to perform live in a number of tours that were focused in South Africa.
2005
After a long break, the sixth album, Straks, was released in late 2005 with virtually no marketing or promotion.