South Africa's traffic lights were certainly unique...

We speak to the band ready to open the greatest show on earth...

They're South Africa's biggest rock band and they've been chosen to play alongside the likes of Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys and Shakira at the FIFA World Cup opening concert on Thursday. Which just so happens to be the day ToePoke arrive in Johannesburg. Cue 20 minutes over the phone with lead singer Kahn Morbee in a vain attempt to blag a ticket. Also known as an interview...

Good afternoon Kahn, what's the craic with Thursday's big gig then?

Well, it's quite an extensive line up in a short space of time, we've got exactly eight minutes to get two songs in. And they pretty much stipulated that if there is too much of a break between the two songs they will go to a commercial break. It's probably the biggest gig we'll ever play. Shakira's last, on at something like 9.40, and we're just before her.

That's tremendous. Can you let Shakira know that her line "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble, so you don't confuse them with mountains", is probably one of our favourite ever song lyrics. So are you guys ready for it?

We've played award ceremonies and similar types of gigs before, but certainly not on such a large scale. This specific show, when you start a band and have dreams, it's one of those where you couldn't have concocted a dream that one day you'd be playing at the biggest sporting event, representing your country, being broadcast to billions of viewers...

You must be shitting a brick...

I'm more than slightly nervous yes! We're going to play singles Live Design and Push Me To The Floor. It was a couple of months ago towards the early part of this year when we found out we'd been asked to do it. We were like "oh, that's pretty cool", and you put it to the back of your mind as just another show that you're doing, but the closer it comes to D-Day, I think the reality of it is starting to sink in - it's not just another show!

It certainly isn't every day you get to play alongside musical greats like the Black Eyed Peas, though we'd love to know what the hell a boom boom pow is. It sounds like it should be the soundtrack to the old Batman TV series. But we digress. Were you surprised to be picked to represent South Africa at the gig?

We thought the bands that would be represented would be more, say, almost the cliche of what African music is. We're a rock band, most people would never say, hey, that's coming out of Africa. So it's pretty cool that they did include us as there are many facets to South African music. I think the bands that are being represented from South Africa pretty much reflect the biggest bands from those specific genres in the country at this time.

So - mind us for a second as we do our serious BBC journalist impression - do you think the most important thing to come from this World Cup will be that it should help dispel myths and cliches about South Africa?

Certainly. I think Europe and England are more familiar with South Africa, some of the elements are sometimes exaggerated in the press however, or focused on to such an extent that it tarnishes the whole country - that it's just some warzone, and you need bulletproof vests and armoured cars around you, it certainly not that. I've lived here my whole life and had only one incident, so I hope that element changes. It is an amazing place to come, tourism will certainly pick up. When people see that we can host events like this, the confidence from investors will increase, and there'll see that there's plenty of opportunity and potential here.

Brilliant. We here at ToePoke will be witnessing that first hand. We fly to Jo'burg on Thursday, watch Germany v Oz in Durban, head to Cape Town for England v Algeria and then on to Port Elizabeth for England v Slovenia. We've also got a couple of tickets for the latter stages. Any travel tips and advice for us?

You're pretty much covering the country! There's so much to explore and see. When you go to Jo'burg, go to the rhino and lion park, you can actually sit with baby cubs and play with them, and feed giraffes and also watch them being fed in their natural habitat. Jo'burg will be cold in the morning and at night though, Durban will be the best spot to be at during the World Cup, it's sub-tropical and so will be hot even in winter, I used to go there on holiday as a child. Port Elizabeth is quite a windy city, it might rain a bit, so take a rain coat. Then hire a car and actually drive the garden route down to Cape Town, it's about eight hours and it's the most beautiful scenery. But it really will rain in Cape Town.

Right. So we probably don't need that Mankini then. Oh well, we'll find some use for it. Anyway, with all the excitement we've forgotten to talk about football. How are your boys going to do?

I'm realistic, unfortunately we're in a tough group, Mexico and Uruguay have shown a lot of promise and you can never write France off. Traditionally we're not a great side and leading up to the event we haven't been brilliant, but of late we've had some successes so there's more confidence, and historically home soil advantage has helped nations do better than expected, so that's what I'm hoping for. If we progress to the next round the nation will be proud.

And no doubt blowing on those vuvuzuelas...

Definitely. If you go to a South Africa game, take earplugs. The noise is incredible. It's crazy, but it's very noisy. The vuvuzuelas, the screaming, and the (makes a high-pitched "la la la" noise), it's like a random, almost celebratory war cry.

Despite the moaning minnies over here, we think that sounds mint. It'll certainly be better than the Meccano libraries we're getting sadly so used to over here.

I agree. I got quite upset when they were talking about banning the vuvuzuela, if every World Cup was the same it'd be like going to Turkey and instead of drinking Turkish coffee you find the nearest Starbucks.

Hear hear. Right, we're off to pack our winter woolies, and research our South African coffee. Good luck for the gig, and we might see you around.

Sure, send me an email when you get to Jo'burg and I'll let you know what venues we're playing and where is good to go. See you around!

A rock star tour guide? Awesome.

The Parlotones' new single ‘Push Me to the Floor’ is out 28th June.