Harry's Place Arts

For this week’s Junkbox Jury I have bent the rules a little. You see, I know all three of these artists, but since they are all South African, I don’t think very many other people in the UK do – which is why these albums have landed up in bargain bins. I suspect they were bought by 2nd hand CD shops as part of job lots, and no one really knew what to do with them. Unlike their Australian and Canadian counterparts, South African musicians have had little luck breaking through internationally.

First up, the Spingbok Nude Girls. This is an Afrikaans band, though they sing in English. For most of the late 90s they were the biggest selling SA rock act. They have a huge following, and having recently reformed after a hiatus, they seem as popular as ever. I first encountered them when thy’d just started out in 1995. I was between bands and had agreed to road manage a friend’s band for a few month. One of the gigs was a few nights at the National Festival of the Arts. The music venue was a huge marquee tent and somehow (for reasons I forget) I ended up doing the sound mixing for all the bands. One of the new bands on the bill was the SNG. They were a huge hit, largely due to the charisma of their frontman, Arno Carstens. And they just got bigger and bigger.

Sad then that international success eluded them. Ironically, they play to packed out venues in London (like the Shepard’s Bush Empire) - to audiences of thousands of screaming young South AFrican expats.

I got this CD for 50p in Berwick Street. A pleasant surprise was that the disc was autographed by Arno Cartstens. I’ve chosen the track ‘Genie’

The second album featured I got for a mere 10p, also in Berwick Street. It’s called “Live Meltdown The Pops Mohamed Tapes”. The reason I bought it was that it features contributions by a sax player called Zim Ngqawana, who I was at university with in the late 1980s. Even then he was a musical prodigy and something of a campus celebrity and I was fortunate enough to see many of his early concerts, both with a small combo and with the university’s Big Band. The track I’ve chosen is called “Migrant Workers”. (If you like it, the whole album can be heard online here.)

The third album is by Lesley Rae Dowling(50p, also in Berwick Street). Now she was a little ‘before my time’ in the sense that she was doing more AOR when I was a teenager. I suppose she was a sort of local Kate Bush figure. She has quite a unique voice I think. I’ve chosen her big hit “The Spaniard”, which I think still stands up today as a good example of the female singer/songwriter genre.

So, pop over to the Junkbox Jury Muxtape #3 and sample the tracks. Let me know what you think.