BOO!

The original Monki Punkers

Discography:

Official Website:

Musicians:

  • Miss Chris Chameleon: vocals, bass
  • Princess Leonie: drums
  • Ampie Omo: trumpet, trombone, keyboards, percussion

Biography:
Press release from APB Records website, 2001

Boo! entered the South African music scene in October 1997, with their mind-bendingly weird, though deliciously consumable sound. The band describes their music as "Monki Punk", because it breaks away from the usual combination of bass, drums and guitar, and substitutes the guitar with brass and keyboard sounds.

But this anarchy is not born out of anger, it is born out of a self-asserted freedom to express and expose different and conflicting human emotions. The message is one of rejoicing in the deep multiplicity of human nature.

Boo! consists of three members. The genderless phenomenon, Miss Chris Chameleon, is the bass player, lead vocalist, and writes all the music and lyrics. Princess Leonie provides extremely unconventional, yet wildly rocking beats on the drums. The blonde bombshell, Ampie Omo, produces the rest of the colorful spectrum of sounds on his trumpet, trombone, keyboard and percussion instruments.

From the start, Boo! always presented their fans with much more than just a live performance of their music. Chris Chameleon appears as some alien, mysterious and extremely passionate character, who speaks to the audience in an intriguing stream of apparently meaningless sounds which Ampie Omo then translates into English. The music takes the audience through a wide spectrum of human emotions, and often an incredible range is covered in the space of one song. Boo! does not waste energy on repetitiveness, they deliver the message with a decent punch, and move on. The songs are short but powerfully satisfying.

The extremely original sound of Boo! has been captured on the "live" tape, "Banana Flava", and subsequently on their debut CD, "Pineapple Flava". The last of the fruity flava's, in the form of a Video Compilation is the "Cherri." a New project focusing on three of SA's producers, each in his own genre, called "The 3 Boo?dists" was released in Dec 1999. Their fourth release "70's, 80's, 90's, Naughties" was released at the end of October 2000 and licensed for the first time to Sheer Music.

They went on their first international tour to Australia in April '99. They toured to London in the first two weeks of November 1999, and UK, Holland and Germany in April/May 2000. August and September 2000 saw them touring UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the USA. November 2000 they returned to Atlanta for more local dates, after supporting the Smashing Pumpkins in South Africa. 2001 Boo! tours Holland, Belgium, South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya, UK and USA on a continual basis.

Some interesting facts about Boo!:
Boo! appears on the following compilations - Get the Funk out Vol:7, Mr. Price Red Cap Summer, Oppikoppi Bushveld Blast, 5FM TDK Music Explotion Vol 1, 5FM Showcase Vol 1, 5FM Showcase Vol 2.

Boo! plays an average of 150-200 gigs per annum.
Boo! has played the following international festivals:
· Peter Gabriel's Womad - Feb 99, Benoni (SA)
· Pukkelpop - Aug 2000, (Hasselt, Belgium)
· The Cultureel Virus Festival - May 2000, Eindhoven (Holland)
· The Meadow Festival - Sept 2000, (Augsburg, Germany)
· Hotel Musieque (Night Town) - March 2001, Rotterdam (Holland)
· Oeral Festival - May 2001, Terschelling (Holland)
· Atlanta Annual Pride Festival - May 2001, Atlanta, GA (USA)

Boo! has played all the festivals in South Africa including as highlight:
Oppikoppi (headline act), 1999 - B&H Synergy New Years (headline act), State of the Nation '99 and '00, Martell Blues/Rock Grahamestown Festival, Splashy Fen '99 and '01 (headline act), etc.


South Africa's Rock Legends | South African Rock Digest