Legendary rock group, Collective Soul, will be adding international flavour to this year’s HEINEKEN® Symphonic Rocks, with the announcement that frontman, Ed Roland, will be joining the already impressive lineup.

Roland will perform at both Cape Town and Johannesburg legs of the tour. The 2012 event takes place at the GrandWest Grand Arena in Cape Town on Saturday 29 September, before moving onto the Carnival City Big Top Arena in Gauteng on Saturday 6 October.

HEINEKEN® Symphonic Rocks is a cross-genre live music show ranging from rock to pop, adult contemporary, R&B, hip hop, electro and soul, all set against the breath-taking onstage backing of a 65-piece symphonic orchestra.

Roland joins a list of impressive artists including award-winning MiCasa and Zahara, Tumi and the Volume, Freshly Ground’s Zolani Mahola and Ard Matthews, as well as the soulful ChianoSky and pop-rock band MACSTANLEY. In addition, the show will also offer unique performances from multi-award winning Van Coke Kartel and Afrikaans Rock favourites F*ofpolisiekar; electro-pop singing sensation, Toya Delazy; and finally, popular rock hit-makers, aKing.

Collective Soul, who have produced double and triple-platinum albums with hits such as ‘Shine’, ‘December’ and rock anthems ‘Where the River Flows’ and ‘The World I Know’, have performed sold out concerts in SA twice before, where they wowed audiences with their unapologetic classic-rock sound. This year, Roland has returned to perform the band’s most iconic hits, with the spectacular symphonic backing of the Cape Town Pops orchestra.

Andy Mac, the event’s creator, says that Collective Soul were the natural choice for the event. “We wanted to really raise the bar for this year’s show, and while we’ve always had only top quality musicians in our lineup, having international rock royalty like Ed Roland on the bill just adds that extra something special this year,” explains Mac. “Collective Soul are no strangers to performing with symphonic backing, having done a live concert DVD with the Atlanta Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2005. This mind-blowing performance, coupled with the simple fact of Ed’s pure musical genius, meant that he was undoubtedly my first choice and I’m over the moon to have him on board.”

Both shows start at 20h00 and tickets are available from Computicket at a cost of R200 to R225 in Cape Town and R225 to R250 in Johannesburg. Capacity at each of the venues is limited so fans are advised to book in advance.