Illegal Gathering

Formed in Cape Town in 1981 by Carl Raubenheimer (guitar, vocals) and James Phillips (guitar, vocals) with (initially) Brett Murray (bass) and Brian Rath (drums). After an initial attempt at getting things going Murray and Rath left and were replaced with David Ledbetter (bass, guitar, vocals) and Wayne Raath (drums) when the band reconstituted later in 1981.

In early 1982 they recorded a few songs, some of which ended up on marginal compilations (for example, “Emphasis Shift” and “Buttons Your Lip” on the 1983 Regional Jive cassette compilation and “”Johnny Cool” on the 1984 Out Of The Blue compilation LP).

Insisters

An all woman band formed in Johannesburg in 1981 with Sue Charlton (drums), Yvonne Raff (guitar, vocals), Linda Dawson (lead guitar, vocals) and Muff Shapiro (bass, vocals).

Linda Dawson wrote their first single “If that’s what you want” and it was recorded with Jonathan Handley’s Wradium Records in 1981 and a distribution deal was done with Benji Mudie at WEA who released it in 1982.

It featured on SABC’s Pop Shop video programme , was nominated as John Berk’s “Pick of the week” on Radio702 in 1981 and went on to chart on Capital Radio.

Although the song was released as an Insisters song Dawson arranged it, sang and played all the instruments apart from the drums which were played by Sue Charlton.

In 1982 Tammy Isaacson replaced Muff Shapiro on bass and Colleen Briel joined as keyboard player. They recorded a follow-up single “Bluebeat” in 1983 but split-up soon after that.

Sue Charlton went on to release a solo single “I’m amazed” with WEA in 1984.

Linda Dawson committed suicide in 1993. Jonathan Handley wrote the Radio Rats’ “The day is connected to the night” as a very fitting tribute to her.

Isja

Formed in Cape Town in 1986, playing bluesy jazz influenced by Cape Malay rhythms.

Karin Jerg (vocals), Moegamat Domingo (keyboards), Eirfaan Gillan (Tenor sax), Solly Domingo (guitar), Shafiek Kimmie (bass), Ian Herman (drums) and Kurt Egelhof (percussion).

They recorded the album One for all with Shifty Records in 1986.