97 Goodwood Road, Mahogany Ridge
Pinetown, Durban

It is ridiculous when something you've looked for is to be found right under your nose. And so it was that one of the readers of THE RAG emailed us with news of a Rock Festival that was to happen at VMacs Roadhouse on 7/7/07. VMacs? Never heard of it, but it sounded worthy of a visit.

Lady Friend and I made our way to 97 Goodwood Road, Mahogany Ridge, Pinetown (Durban) the Friday evening of the same week. 

The owners are biker buddies - and also (sadly) Harley nuts ...

The VMacs chilling on the mezzanine level

Don't let the location fool you. This is one classy establishment with a nice, clean, stainless steel industrial feel to it, softened by Harley and Route 66-type memorabilia scattered, cottage furniture style, about the place. Somehow they have managed to combine a sense of 'homely' with 'industrial' that gives off an aura of 'welcome'. A mezzanine level caters lounge couch seating for rest from bar stool numb-bum and dancing footsore. Otherwise, the venue is dominated by a varnished concrete bar, the top of which is inlaid with all nature of bike-theme badges and gadgets, perfectly suited to the Coyote Ugly genre of bar top dancing that is actively encouraged.

Coyote Ugly or Coyote Nice?
Is that Loone's hand up her dress?

Viv, Kevin's wife, is the resident PRO. "All three owners are avid bikers and have owned Harleys for many years," says Viv. "And all three belong to Steelwings Harley Club, Durban. The pub has become very popular with Muso's. We have live music on Fridays and Saturdays and every month-end music coordinator, Clyde Lawrence, organizes a bunch of muso's to jam it up on a Saturday afternoon, normally starting after the big screen rugby. Sunday is popular for breakfast runs and the Presidents use it for their meetings once a month.  We are also available for private functions. Mondays we are closed to the public but are open for anyone who wants to use the venue for private meetings or functions." 

"We'll just go for a couple of hours," I told Lady Friend, "just to check it out." Yeah, right. We arrived around 7.00pm and crawled out at about 2.00am, adequately trashed for me to have done my Very Coyote Ugly bit on the bar top. It helped not one bit that the ladies behind the bar were such that my eyes stayed riveted at roughly chest level, or that the two-man all-girl band pumped out some of the best Rock that the seventies had to offer, including excellent renditions of stuff by Stealer's Wheel, Led Zeplin, Pink Floyd, The Eagles - and many more.

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