Ray wrote:
There's lots of music like that, or at least I think so. At the same time there was another Springs outfit called Corporal Punishment. Also very lekker. Those days Springs was buzzing and just had to be the garage band capital. You couldnt walk down a street for more than a block and not hear a jam going on closeby. See, now I've gone all nostalgic. Hell, I miss those days and those people! I wish I wasnt always on a plak those days.
Also at the same time there was another bunch called Baxtop. But they werent Springs. Anyone around at the time?
From Springs I remember Hogs Norton. They had Dave Allen playing guitar for them, he was a great rhythm player - very solid, put a lot of drive into the band. I thought of him as SA's answer to Keith Richards. I saw Dave playing at TJs a few months back.
I recall the Rats. Jonathan Handley was not a great player, but he was an effective player, and you've hit the nail on the head as regards the clarity that he played with. I'd never thought about that until about 10 minutes ago, but you're right on the money.
I like the Corporals a lot. They were such an interesting band, and they were a SOUTH AFRICAN band, singing about South African things with South African accents. James Phillips was a fine songwriter.
Baxtop were a Jo'burg band. Not anything you'd call "punk" or "new wave". More like ZZ-top. Larry Amos and Tim Parr on guitars, Fuzzy Marcus on bass, Bruce Williams on drums. All very good players.
Larry's half-brother was Robbi Robb of the Asylum Kids. Robbi is now in LA.
In the late 70s a band named "Void" came south from Zimbabwe. They were doing a Hendrix-influenced thing. They soon shed members until they were down to a trio and reinvented themselves as E-Void.
I recall lots of artists and groups from that era. Raven (heavy band from Pretoria), Flash Harry, Edi Niederlander, Fresh Evidence, The Lancaster Band (I think Robin Auld played with them), Rabbitt (who I saw playing in a dingy basement in Joubert Park - two months later they were on the receiving end of large amounts of lady's underwear), Roger Lucey, the aforementioned Finch and Henson and the Silver Creek Mountain Band, The Other Band (band leader Dax Butler now heads up an excellent band named Them Particles, gigging around Jo'burg).
