Our journey began in 1999 when we: Sean Olsen, Bobby Addison, Owen Lowrey and a later addition of Ramone Pickover formed Ill System with the intent of rejuvenating and pushing the boundaries of a fairly stagnant and limited rock scene. Our music has been described as many things: Heavy rock, Reggae, jazz and African tribal but one description that seems to reoccur over and over is: ‘Original and fresh’

After performing in just about every toilet venue in the Western Cape we built up a dedicated fan base and the demand for a record became overwhelmingly apparent. So we headed into the London Connection studio, Cape Town in 2002 to record our self titled E.P. This E.P sold out its 500 units in a matter of months and the track: ‘Blood in my Mouth’ went on to claim number 4 spot on 5FM’s national radio ‘Modern Rock Chart’ for 4 weeks.

This catapulted us into the national live scene and festival circuit, playing venues such as the infamous ‘Zeppelins’ in Pretoria, Sold out shows at ‘Mercury Live’ and ‘Purple Turtle’ in Cape Town and securing a headlining slot at the 2003 ‘Cause’ music festival in Cape Town which attracts over 2000 people every year.

In 2003 the introduction of Ramone as replacement drummer prompted us to head back into the studio to record our single ‘Giving the Corporate World the Middle Finger’ in November of the same year. A budget video concept was produced by a small independent company and was debuted to a sell out crowd at ‘Mercury Live’ in Cape Town in early 2004.

As 2004 came to an end, we decided it was time to take our sound to the masses and so after quitting our jobs, leaving friends and family and Ł25 000 or so later, we ended up in the U.K.

By the time 2005 came around so much had happened to us and so much new music had been written that we decided it was time to release a decent budget professional E.P to introduce ourselves to the U.K public.

The E.P entitled: ‘International Assassins’ was recorded mixed & produced by Jeff & Ginge, previously Skindred, at Notting pill Studios in Newport in September of 2005. The E.P was officially released in November of the same year. Of the 2000 copies produced, we have sold nearly 500 units in the past 8 months around the U.K.

Ill system downloads that are available are also reaching in excess of 100 downloads a week.

But what we really live for is our live shows, described affectionately by some as: ‘A bomb going off’. We aim to generate a great band-audience atmosphere and this is successfully apparent from audience response and interaction.

We are now based in Cardiff, South Wales and since 2005 we have played over 100 shows in London, Bristol and the South Wales area as well as a slot on the ‘Taubertal festival’ in Germany.

Some of the highlights include: • ‘Taubertal festival’ in Germany: Representing U.K in Emergenza international band competition playing to over 20 000 people. Other artists on the bill included ‘Bloodhound Gang’, ‘New Model Army’ and ‘Fun Lovin’ Criminals’. • London Astoria ‘Mean Fiddler’: Emergenza U.K Finals played to a sell out audience of over 1200 people we came 1st place out of over 1000 bands that had entered • ‘Carling Academy’ Bristol: Competed and won regional position for The Emergenza competition • Cardiff Barfly: Support for Scottish metal band ‘Mendeed’, as well as our own recent sell out headline gig. • ‘The Point’ Cardiff bay: Part of our ongoing ‘Stand & Unite’ tour • ‘The POP Factory’ • ‘Pontypridd Muni Arts Centre’ • ‘Bridgend rec centre’

Future tour destinations include Dublin in Ireland, Spain and California as well as South Africa in early 2007

Ill system has also recently received favourable press in Newspapers and magazines such as ‘Western Mail & Echo’, ‘TNT magazine’ (London) and ‘The South African’ newspaper which is distributed nationally in the U.K.

Ill System remains one of the top sought after unsigned bands in the U.K and dare we say possibly the world…!?