Future of Instrumental guitar in SA........

Manfred-Klose

Does any one think that it would be possible to arrange a really big gig with about say 5 SA instrumental guitar players.

SA certainly has the talent, do you agree?

What does future hold?, seems to me like the music scene is expanding very fast.

SA music is just at the beginning of evolution, since we are about 30 years behind rest of the world(sarcasm), we could be somewhere in the 1970's british music scene, for using bands as an example:

led zeplin(1970's) - seether(2008)
the who(1970's) - parlotones(2008)

led zeplin and the who where some of the pioneers of that time, and so seether,parlatones,harris tweed,arno carstens are the first pioneers for SA.(and many more)

understand what I am trying to say?

AlanRatcliffe

It's possible, and the talent is definitely out there. But instrumental guitar music is a small section of an already small market so it would be tough to make a decent profit from it. You'd probably be more successful with a "guitar heroes" kind of thing that included vocals.

We do have talent, but very little of it is innovative, and what is innovative is typically swept under the carpet in favour of the poppier, commercial stuff. Even when we do have an innovative and different music style, it is usually only recognised by outsiders. Which is why it takes a Paul Simon to take our music international and then export it back to us at a profit. It's also why most of our great musicians end up based overseas. I have great respect for David Kramer for putting together the Karoo Kitaar Blues CD - that's innovative.

We're up to date with what's happening, pretty much always have been - every era of music has had major SA artists with commercial success locally and abroad. All respect to bands like Seether and Parlotones, but I wouldn't put them anywhere close to the Who or Led Zep. It was innovative when those bands did it now it's just retro. We need to keep an ear open and look out for the unique musicians who will set trends rather than those that jump on the current musical fashion bandwagon ('scuse the pun).

Manfred-Klose

That is what i wanted to say, is that the SA musicians(some of them,dont get me wrong) could sometimes be afraid to be unique with their style.

Face the fact, you wont make money out of music, so you might as well enjoy making music!

Wessel

I really think the whole South Africa sucks excuse is old.Whe live in a global communitty where everyone is just a mouse click apart . On myspace and other internet sites our music can be heard by millions.Why is there then this constint excuse that whe are not recognized by the rest of the world.And why then do whe have to conform to certain genres if whe could reach peolpe all over the world with the style whe love to play ? If you are good enough you wil be noticed.

And South Africa is not light years behind America ? And Why should whe always be compared to America ? Whe are certainly not power hungry or self obsessed as they are.They will also fall like all other "great" civilizations before them .

And I certainly believe that in the 60's and 70's there could have been a South African band on the same or better musical level as Led Zeplin. Why not ?

I may sound like a big hipocrite because of my earlier posts about selling your soul to a certain genre.But I only realized all that I mentioned above now ?

AlanRatcliffe

I certainly believe that in the 60's and 70's there could have been a South African band on the same or better musical level as Led Zeplin. Why not ?

Well, there weren't any bands anywhere on a par with Zep in their prime. Many good bands, many better musicians, but zep had a certain magic and everything came together. SA had Rabbitt, who were a pretty damn good band by any standards. Trevor Rabin moved on to playing with Yes ("Owner of a Lonely Heart, etc.) and now composes for Hollywood movies, while Duncan Faure moved on to the Bay City Rollers.

Also if you look around there were quite a few SA artists who've done well: Manfred Mann, Johnny Clegg, Bakhiti Khumalo, Ray Phiri, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Dave Matthews, Margaret Singana, Jonathan Butler, James Phillips, Abdullah Ibrahim and Anton Fig spring immediately to mind. If you count in the producers and engineers like Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Eddie Kramer, the list grows even more.

Manfred-Klose

eddie kramer is probably the best engineer in the world!!!!
sorry, i just had to say that.

In my eyes America is a 3rd world country, because they are fat and stupid(maby about 50%)

Renesongs

My take on this is that SA has some excellent musicians we just don't have, as a nation, a culture that supports anything as sophisticated as the arts, I live close to Newlands stadium and cricket grounds, It peeves me at how sport obsessed this country is. People will take off work, stay up all night, travel from far off provinces. Municipalities will divert major traffic arteries, flood light stadiums while adjacent suburbs go without electricity. 2010 WTF, I don't even want to talk about it >☹ .

In the old days you use be able to pick up a few penny playing in the local bar - but publicans found it more attractive to put in big TV sets and turn the the local dive into a "Sports Bar" FFS, if people are that obsessed with watching a dumb animal chasing a ball they should get themselves a dog and a lawn ?

Once a year Big concerts can muster up just enough support to bring a top international band here for 1 day and support local bands to boot and all the locals can do is complain about the inconvenience and the noise >☹

My conclusions: SA audiences don't respect or deserve SA musics (In SA a musician is considered only 2 notches up from a paedophile) - immigrate if you are serious about music.

AlanRatcliffe

Once a year Big concerts can muster up just enough support to bring a top international band here for 1 day and support local bands to boot and all the locals can do is complain about the inconvenience and the noise >☹

Pet peeve of mine. Amazing how people will buy a house next to a theatre/live venue and then complain about the noise. I did an acoustic consult for The Assembly recently, who were having problems with a neighbour complaining about the noise.

The Brass Bell in Kalk Bay used to have a regular live band outside, but thanks to complaints and a council noise control "specialist" who thought that a decibel meter needs to be 10cm from the speakers, they were forced to stop. On a windy day, the noise of the waves breaking on the wall was louder than the music.

Renesongs

Just another a side note - when Rabbitt were in their hey day all the local musos I knew were falling over each other to slag them off - "pop" - "pretty glamour boys" - "daddy's money backing them" - etc..

Paul Rogers (Bad Company, Free) did a tribute album to the Late, great Muddy Waters featuring some of his favourite guitarists playing the blues - , Jeff Beck, Brian Setzer, Buddy Guy, Slash, David Gillmour, Gary Moore, Brian May and ... Trevor Rabin