Festivals: Oppies & toppies

Dad to the frontman of Shortstraw, Jeremy Thomas says the surest way to rear a rock star is to take your kids to festivals

The rocking and rolling began soon after we pitched our tent. It had nothing to do with the acts on stage - just two teenagers boxing the hell of out of each other on the back seat of the car.

It was an autumn afternoon in the final year of the millennium and we were at our first Splashy Fen in the Drakensberg. Julian, all surly 16 years of him, and 13-year-old brat Alastair, were finding their feet. So they had a fight.

Flash forward to 2013 and blow me down if the tykes aren't on stage at Oppikoppi, South Africa's biggest rock festival: Al singing on guitar and Jules tooting his trumpet on Shortstraw's 127 Hours.

The audience, spread halfway up the hillside, is going berserk; some nut has boarded a blow-up raft to go crowd-surfing; another leaps on stage, attempts a twerk, tweaks his nipples, and dives into the first row of fans.

James, the youngest Thomas boetie, and I grin and bump fists.

The male side of the family caught festival fever at Womad in 1999 when James was just a nipper, not quite three but well up for the lark of sleeping rough in the veld somewhere north of Benoni. Womad gave his brothers and me a good look at smash local bands like Boo and Juluka, as well as international acts as diverse as Hothouse Flowers, Jackson Browne and Joan Armatrading. The hook was set.

Julian, in the middle of matric exams in 2000, snuck out with me to see Jimmy12Inch at Woodstock in Heidelberg Kloof, where we slept in the car. What were we thinking? Doesn't matter!

James had to wait 12 years before we allowed him to join us at Splashy Fen. Meanwhile he itched every Easter as his dad and big brothers made the pilgrimage to Underberg. I knew he had the music bug.

We came home from work one day to find the tot squatted on the desk amid a litter of CDs. "Dad, listen to this!" he piped. It was Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones. He'd also discovered Jimmy Jimmy by the Undertones, which caused more than a few bedsprings to go phut.

It takes grit and grace to endure a music festival in the sticks. Splashy Fen is just baby steps. You will require more than the usual measures of fortitude at Oppikoppi. The North West platinum belt near Northam consists mainly of thorn trees.

The camping ground, affectionately known as Mordor, lies under a perpetual cloud of red dust. Denizens stumble about wearing spray-masks, loving it.

I spent one night after Billy Talent had played, sandwiched in the gap between the mattresses of James and his pal Lucas, before I realised how daft I was. So last year a group of us grown-ups hired rooms in a nearby lodge so we could leg it to bed and a hot shower when it all got too much.

On top of the bill in 2013, Manchester Orchestra were glorious; we're holding thumbs Editors will be just as fine next weekend.

Naturally, proud papa will be among the masses at 6pm on Saturday night for Shortstraw on the James Phillips stage, marvelling that my lightie's band took just five years to get to the premier league.

The boys have always been music-mad. Julian was lead trumpeter at Grey High School in Port Elizabeth; Alastair played trombone. When they moved to Joburg, Greenside High was the ideal breeding ground for a pop group. Al jammed with classmate Brendan "Bugsy" Barnes, who went on to drum for his brother Garth's supergroups Tweak and CrashCarBurn.

I paid a princely R600 for Al and his schoolboy band Mutt to record a demo with former Cherry Faced Lurchers kingpin Willem Möller. The songs, rough as they were, showed a knack for the perfect pop hook. That was the closest I got to being Noël Coward's Mrs Worthington. Al has no time for pushy stage mothers (or fathers). He and his band are obsessively independent.

Newly-named Shortstraw first ventured out in December 2007. They played at Kombuis in Melville, mainly to fretting parents, but were in soon-to-be gilded company in the form of future rock gods Shadowclub. Later they played just before a certain duo who would shortly rename themselves Die Antwoord.

Band members came and went, but Shortstraw toured non-stop and scrimped cents to record an EP and two albums (another is due soon). They hit it big last year following a support slot for British band the Kooks, and three consecutive top-20 hits on 5fm. The bit of money that followed funded a tour of Australia and Japan.

Shortstraw still host free "Boosh" concerts every few months at Marks Park in Joburg, at which they showcase nearly-made-it bands as brilliant as Al Bairre and the Plastics.

You can catch them at gigs all over, from Park Acoustics on Fort Schanskop in the Voortrekker Monument precinct to every major rock jamboree: Parklife in Emmarentia, Ramfest in Bronkhorstspruit, Rocking the Daisies in Darling. And, of course, Splashy Fen.

If Oppikoppi (from August 7) is too saucy for your taste, consider Mieliepop near Ermelo on the October 17 weekend (featuring Shortstraw and Alastair's stepdad Harvey Roberts's Hip Replacements). It is rural, rustic and suitable for those of a more delicate or decrepit disposition.

Check you there. LS