The Official Home of Martin Rocka

Welcome to The Sick Shop, in the coming weeks this will be the new place to venture for all things dark, twisted and pretty much as degenerated as you would like it to be. But for now why not join up to further the sickness. . .

and the WINNER is... MARTIN ROCKA & THE SICK SHOP

Martin Rocka & The Sick Shop took first place at the South African leg of the GBOB National Finals at Emperors Palace on Sunday evening. Placing second were Blk Jks and Mel -Funktion came in third. Mr Rocka and crew will be off to the world finals in London to represent South Africa against 23 other competing countries. Lets hope we bring it home this year... www.gbob.com

This was the second time this competition has taken place in South Africa and Martin Rocka won by a unanimous vote by the seven judges present. Between them, the judges represented record companies, magazines, newspapers, band managers and Public Relations professionals. They were in complete agreement that, on the night, Martin Rocka just blew everyone else away.

The ten other finalists in the competition put up a good fight, notably Melfunktion, Black India, Myepic and The Blk Jks, but the confident stage presence, technical ability and accessibility of the Martin Rocka set took it away from them all. “Basically we play straight up rock and roll and make no excuses for that and no apologies for winning,” Said Martin Rocka himself after the show, “We dig doing straight forward, filthy rock and roll. There were so many generic bands in the competition that it made me want to be sick, they’re all just copy cats. To the few that aren’t, well done on making the finals!”

“Its winner takes all in GBOB,” remarked competition organizer Simon Foulds, “And on the night, Martin was just too good. Under the new judging system, there were no points awarded for audience participation and the result is solely based on the professional opinion of the judges, all of whom are active and knowledgeable members of the music industry.”

This means that Martin Rocka and The Sickshop will fly to London to take part in the Global Finals at the London Astoria on December 7 2005. They will be hoping to improve on the second place that Wonderboom achieved in 2004 and the hopes and reputation of South African music goes with them.

David Chislett

Rock ‘n roll music and why I preach against it. I believe that it is a contributing factor to our juvenile delinquency of today. I know what it does to you. And I know of the evil feeling that you feel when you sing it. And I know the ... the ... lost position that you get into ... and the beat ... well ... uhmm ... if you talk to the average teenager of today and you ask them what it is about rock ‘n roll music that they like, and the first thing that they’ll say, is the beat, the beat, THE BEAT!!!