John Ellis & The Stremes

Name: John Ellis & The Stremes
Start: 2025-09-21T18:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-09-21T22:00:00+02:00
Location: 20 Alma Rd, Rosebank, 7700 Cape Town, South Africa

Schedule

Sun Sep 21 2025 at 06:00 pm to 10:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

20 Alma Rd, Rosebank, 7700 Cape Town, South Africa | Cape Town, WC

Join one of South Africa's all time great songwriters 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘀 and cult duo 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 for a once off unplugged and intimate double bill at The Alma Cafe.
Sunday 21 September
18h00 for 18h30 (kitchen orders close at 18h30)
Dinner, Dessert and Drinks available
Fully Licensed, BYOB not permitted
Live music starts when dinner service is completed
Card & cash payments accepted | 15% service fee charged
Tickets R160 via Quicket
More on the Artists:
𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘀 is one of the most well-known singer-songwriters in South Africa. Born and raised in Durban, John wrote and played guitar with Saint Legend in the early 1990s before forming internationally-renowned three-piece Tree63 in 1996. John led his band Tree63 to international acclaim as the band’s singer, guitar player and award-winning songwriter.
Tree63 won multiple industry awards and was based in Nashville for many years, regularly touring Canada, the US, Europe and Australasia before John relocated back to South Africa to raise his young family.
John began a solo career as a singer-songwriter with the release of Come Out Fighting in 2010, an album which garnered him a SAMA nomination. In the past decade John has released five solo projects with his most recent being “Native”.
As an experienced studio musician, John has appeared on numerous albums and songs for other artists as a session guitar player, both in South Africa and in the US. He has also produced local artists Pixie Bennet, Ard Matthews and Bradley Grey, to name a few.
Since returning from the US, John has performed all over South Africa with a diverse range of musicians, including Just Jinger, Natalie Rungan, Pierre de Charmoy, David ‘Qadasi’ Jenkins and even the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has appeared on stages with various members of Johnny Clegg’s band and contemporaries such as Arno Carstens, Ross Learmonth and Zolani Mahola.
John Ellis is a highly-regarded singer, songwriter, guitar player and all-round entertainer. He is also a published poet and has just completed his MA in Creative Writing at the University of the Western Cape.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 are a South African rock band formed in London in 2006 by front man Wayne Pauli (vocals and guitar), Benjamin Peacefull (bass and vocals) and Atom Shape (drums and vocals).
In early 2006 Wayne recorded some home demos which he placed on MySpace as The Stremes. These demos were noticed by an indie label publishing house in London and a deal was soon signed with the band. An album was recorded at The Dairy Studios in Brixton called ‘New Digital Romance’ which saw a number of the tracks being placed in various TV shows and a headache pill advert in the USA. After two years and an expired visa Wayne returned home to South Africa and Benjamin followed shortly afterwards in 2008. Wayne and Benjamin continued playing as a duo on the Cape Town music scene and in 2009 the band recorded an album at Sunset Studios in Stellenbosch called ‘Maze of Light’.
After a long hiatus and the Covid lockdown The Stremes started working again in 2024 and released two tracks ‘ The City Sleeps’ and ‘Got Myself Together’ across all music streaming platforms as well as an official music video on YouTube for The City Sleeps. A heavier third track ‘Overload’ was released in early 2025 and is currently receiving airplay abroad.
The Stremes are a modern band fusing classic rock sounds and electronic soundscapes. With a diverse range of influences from U2, Nirvana and Oasis to the classic blues rock of the late 60’s. Their sound can be described as widescreen guitar driven rock with melodic and at times heavier elements. “We think of ourselves simply as a rock band in the classic sense and not necessarily belonging to any particular sub-genre like ‘indie’ or ‘hard rock’ etc”.
The Stremes are currently recording new tracks to be released in the upcoming months and filming another music video is in the pipeline. The band is gigging around Cape Town preparing to tour and play at a number of venues and music festivals across the country.