John Ellis & Jono Tait: Songwriters

John Ellis and Jono Tait return to share stories, swap songs, and showcase their genuine delight for the art of songwriting.

Sunday 3 May

Tickets R160pp (show only)

18h00 for 18h30 (kitchen orders close at 18h30)

*Live Music Starts AFTER Dinner Service is completed*

Dinner, Dessert and Drinks available

Fully Licensed, BYOB not permitted

Card / Cash Payment

15% Service Fee Charged

More on the Show:

John and Jono on stage is an explosive mix of chaos, humour and hilarity and a genuinely deep shared love for music. Swapping stories of the road less travelled as a pair of experience musicians, telling stories of their songs, as well as songs by others that have been a huge inspiration, and then as far as making up tunes on the spot, there really is a glut of creativity and connection between friends on show.

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. 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 four more solo projects as well as the acclaimed 2015 Tree63 release Land.

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. A father of three, he recently relocated to Cape Town from his hometown of Durban.

Jono Tait is a singer, songwriter and guitarist who has excelled within the diverse range of the South Africa Music scene over the last two decades.

Original Music, Tribute Acts, Musical Composition and Direction in Theatre / Drama, Session Work and Producer – all of these are targets that have been hit in Jono’s career as a professional musician.

With performances ranging from street corners at the National Arts Festival to Cape Town City Hall (and pretty much every bar, club and stage in between), Jono has been a near permanent fixture on the Cape Town Music Scene since he wrote his first song aged 16.

During the day, Jono runs the legendary Alma Cafe, one of Cape Town’s Premier Live Music destinations, since its inception in 2009. In 2025, he took over the reins full time, ensuring the survival of one of the country's iconic acoustic based venues.

Having studied classical and jazz music and choral singing throughout school, Jono picked up guitar at the age of 14 and set about becoming the musician he is today. Some notable bands are Hatchetman, We Kill Cowboys, For Folks Sake, Falling Mirror, Aidan Martin Band, Cape Smoke, Old Town, Dead Man Son and Christine Weir and the Flying Kilts. Tribute Acts include AC/DC, Tom Petty, Neil Young and lately, a project with his old Hatchetman bandmates, entitled The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Experience, which has been met with sold out houses and rapturous reviews across Cape Town and surrounds.