More South African music info

Ian MacFarlane left a comment on this recent entry, and provided a link to his blog of the best South African bands (in his humble opinion). It's quite fun to see the 80's pictures of 80's bands (most of which I had never heard of). I especially like the photo of Sweatband (which featured Wendy Oldfield - someone that managed to re-invent herself and stay popular into the 90's).

Glad to see Ian's already done Brigh Blue (official website, more info). They are one of my all-time favourite SA rock/pop bands. I came to their music somewhat late (they broke up in the late 80's or early 90's I think - before I really got into music). Weeping is a phenomenal song, even more so when you realize what the lyrics are about. It was also voted song of the century by SA Rock Digest / Amuzine. As John Samson wrote in 2000:

It still amazes me that the SABC did not ban it for it's blatant musical reference to N'Kosi Sikelel' iAfrica, let alone for it's political charged lyrics, yet this powerful track reached number 1 on the Radio 5 charts. This is a big song in the same way that Bohemian Rhapsody is big, but without the obscure lyrics.

Other SA artists/bands that made an impression on me were Mango Groove (sadly dated now), Just Jinger (I'm ashamed to say), Tananas, Tony Cox, Boo!, Benguela, Van der Want and Letcher, Urban Creep, Sharkbrother. Tananas definitely warrant their own post in the future. (I wrote about the bass player, Gito Baloi, here, but writing about my positive memories would be good).

PS:
There's a comprehensive list of classic SA rock songs here (caveat: these are one person's pick). Some songs have links to samples you can listen to...