Wonderboom to open for Guns N' Roses in Johannesburg

News of the support slot comes just days after the Johannesburg-based band released a video for the disco-inspired 'Praying Mantis' off the band's 2017 album Rising Sun.

Support slots at rock events organised by Big Concerts, arguably South Africa's leading promoter, sometimes turn into vicious battlegrounds where bands fight tooth and nail in hope of elusive exposure in a country whose rock scene is dwarfed by most other genres.

In 2016, a social media uprising erupted following the announcement of little-known band Jasper Dan as the opening act for British heavy metal veterans Iron Maiden in Johannesburg. The southern rockers emerged as the winners of a series of battle of the bands events that many fans accused of being rigged.

The majority of rock outfits in South Africa are accustomed to playing small venues for audiences of a few hundred fans. The Guns N' Roses concert, which is expected to bring tens of thousands of fans to the fifth-biggest soccer stadium in the world, according to Business Insider UK, is a godsend for Wonderboom. 

"I'm still digesting this and don't think I'll stop," the band's frontman Cito said. "To be the sole support act of the most bad-ass band in the world... humbling."

The development comes at the right time for Wonderboom. The band began an ardent campaign last year to revive the name it made for itself in the mid-1990s and 2000s by releasing the well-received Rising Sun, Wonderboom's first album since 2011's The Automatic Shuffle. The release was followed by success in China where the band took first place at the Silk Road Indie Music Festival in the southwestern city of Chengdu.

Wonderboom has a penchant for international competitions. In 2004, the band won the South African leg of the 2004 Global Battle of the Bands and came second in the world in the finals at the London Astoria.

Meanwhile, Guns N' Roses recently completed leg 9 of the band's Not In This Lifetime... Tour, which began in April 2016. Starting in early November, leg 10 will take Slash and Co to Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the UAE and South Africa.

Buy tickets to Guns N' Roses in Johannesburg here.

Visit Wonderboom’s official Facebook page for tour news.