For years not taken too seriously while everybody around him was growing up and he continued to play the guitar, Piet "Hammer" Botha, astonished friend and foe alike when he eventually matured into a real serious working musician during his midlife crisis years.

Alternatively fronting Pretoria blues-rock outfit Jack Hammer or doing the twosome thing with Johnathan Martin, Botha must surely be regarded as one of the most hardworking musicians on the Pretoria pub and club circuit.

Having been involved with such acts as Raven (anybody out there old enough to remember them?) during the late seventies, Botha was also the driving force behind innovative group Wildebeest during the eighties before establishing Jack Hammer in the nineties.

Eventually seeming to find his groove, Botha and Jack Hammer formed the support act for Southern rockers ZZ Top during their South African tour.

With his lyrical side emerging ever stronger as time goes by, Botha's latest solo offering, Suitcase vol Winter, received wide critical acclaim.

Botha has a wife, children, a goldfish and a father who used to be in government.

-- from the PTA-online archives, 1999

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