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Remembering James Phillips


30 years ago, on the 31st of July 1995, James Phillips died from complications resulting from a car accident outside Grahamstown earlier in the month. He was in Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival. To commemorate Jame’s life and his influence, we have put together two 15-song mixtapes.

The first includes a cross section of songs from his recordings with Corporal Punishment, Illegal Gathering, the Cherry Faced Lurchers, James Phillips and the Lurchers, as Bernoldus Niemand, and under his own name.

The second includes versions of his songs recorded by others, other musicians’ songs on which he featured, and songs written as tributes to or dedicated to James. The covers are: ‘Shot Down’ – Urban Creep, ‘Afrika is Dying’ – Vusi Mahlasela, ‘Snor City’ – Blues Broers, ‘My Broken Heart’ – Matthew van der Want, ‘Positive’ – Phillipstines, ‘War Song’ – Wendy Oldfield and the Cherry Faced Lurchers, and ‘Snor City’ – Johannes Kerkorrel. The Phillipstines was a James Phillips tribute band especially formed for Concert for James. Similarly, the Cherry Faced Lurchers reformed at the Concert for James with Wendy Oldfield on vocals for ‘Warsong’. Other performers’ songs which featured James Phillips included here are: ‘Paranoia’ – Koos Kombuis (James on backing vocals), ‘Absoluut Goed’ – Joannes Kerkorrel (James plays blues harp), and ‘Bigger Than Jesus’ – Kalahari Surfers (with James on backing vocals). Songs in some way dedicated or in tribute to James include: ‘Home’ – Matthew VD Want and Chris Letcher, ‘Sunny Skies’ – Robin Auld, ‘Baby, Baby’ – Pressure Cookies (The full ‘Swallow’ is dedicated to James), ‘So I Can Die Easy’ – Dorien Du Toit (off the 10 Years of Splashy Fen compilation), and ‘Groove for James’ – The Dynamics.

James Phillips, who never properly received the attention and rewards his talent warranted, was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboard and harmonica player who started out as a musician in the late 1970s, initially with Corporal Punishment and Illegal Gathering before releasing a solo album under the name Bernoldus Niemand, and then going on to form the Cherry Faced Lurchers (which later became James Phillips and the Lurchers).

Corporal Punishment formed in Springs in 1980 with James Phillips (guitar, vocals), Carl Raubenheimer (bass, vocals), Herbie Parkin (rhythm guitar), Mark Bennet (keyboard, vocals) and Chris Hattingh (drums). Hattingh was replaced on drums by Henry Jantzen. Recorded two songs for the WEA Records Six of the Best (1979) compilation: “Victim’s Victim” and “Goddess of Depression”. Released the 7 inch ep “Fridays and Saturdays” in 1980, including four songs: “In The Night”, “Brain Damage”, “Johnny’s Conscience” and “Rock And Rolls Royce”. The band broke up but James Phillips, Carl Raubenheimer and Steve Howells (drums) reformed the band in 1982 to record new versions of original Corporal Punishment songs in the Shifty Records studios. These recordings together with original Corporal Punishment recordings were released on cassette along with the James Phillips and Carl Raubenheimer project, Illegal Gathering, in 1986.

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).

In 1983 James Phillips recorded the single “Hou My Vas Korporaal”/”My Broken Heart” using the pseudonym Bernoldus Niemand (Bernoldus Nobody) as a separate musical identity to his work in his own right. He followed this up with another single, “Boksburg Bommer”/“Jody” in 1984 and then released the album Wie Is Bernoldus Niemand in 1985. Having retired the Bernoldus Niemand persona in 1985 he resurrected it for the Afrikaans Voelvry tour in 1989.

The Cherry Faced Lurchers formed in Johannesburg in 1984 with James Phillips (guitar, vocals). Lee Edwards (bass), and Michael de la Hunt (drums) who was replaced by Richard Vos. They released the album Live at Jamesons in 1985 (including the iconic song ‘’Shot Down’), and recorded The Otherwhite Album in the late 1980s but it was not released until 1992.

In 1991 James recorded a series of demos which were later posthumously released as Soul Ou under his own name.

In 1993 the album Sunny Skies was released as James Philips and the Lurchers with James Phillips, Lee Edwards and various new members and session musicians. The Cherry Faced Lurchers developed a cult following in the 1980s and performed live over the years, including the performance of many songs that have not been released on any of their albums.

All of these albums (as well as the Concert for James) can be purchased for download on the Shifty Records page on Bandcamp.

Also look out for two excellent James Phillips documentary films which were both released on DVD:
James Phillips: Famous For Not Being Famous (Lloyd Ross/Shifty, 2006)
The Fun’s Not Over: The James Phillips Story ( Michael Cross, 2018)

Volume 1: Remembering James Phillips

  1. Goddess – Corporal Punishment
  2. Darky – Corporal Punishment
  3. Brain Damage – Corporal Punishment
  4. Johnny Cool – Illegal Gathering
  5. Changing My World – Illegal Gathering
  6. East Rand Blues – Bernoldus Niemand
  7. Hou My Vas Korporaal – Bernoldus Niemand
  8. Toasted Take Aways – Cherry Faced Lurchers
  9. Shot Down – Cherry Faced Lurchers
  10. Heavy Ous – Cherry Faced Lurchers
  11. Detainees – James Phillips
  12. Polling Day – James Phillips
  13. Where Will You Be – James Phillips
  14. The Fun’s Not Over – The Lurchers
  15. Moses – The Lurchers

Volume 2: Honouring, Covering And Featuring James Phillips

  1. Shot Down – Urban Creep
  2. Afrika Is Dying – Vusi Mahlasela
  3. Snor City – Blues Broers (Concert For James)
  4. My Broken Heart – Matthew Vd Want (Concert For James)
  5. Positive – Phillipstines (Concert For James)
  6. War Song – Wendy Oldfield & The Cherry Faced Lurchers (Concert For James)
  7. Snor City – Johannes Kerkorrel
  8. Paranoia – Koos Kombuis
  9. Absoluut Goed – Joannes Kerkorrel (James plays blues harp)
  10. Bigger Than Jesus – Kalahari Surfers (With James doing backing vocals)
  11. Home – Matthew Vd Want And Chris Letcher
  12. Sunny Skies – Robin Auld
  13. Baby, Baby – Pressure Cookies
  14. So I Can Die Easy – Dorien For James (Off Splashy Fen compilation)
  15. Groove For James – The Dynamics

 

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Woza Weekend!

While we tend to take weekends for granted it is worth remembering that workers struggled hard for centuries for the luxury of two days off at the end of the week. New Zealand was the first country to officially adopt a two-day weekend in 1908, and thereafter more and more countries followed. Today, weekends are a part of life in many cultures, providing opportunities for recreation, family time, relaxation, including partying and listening to music. During the apartheid era, employed black South Africans relished any time in which they could escape from their employers’ hold over them, so weekends off work, if experienced, were especially cherished. This mixtape includes a selection of South African songs which celebrate the weekend, mostly from the apartheid era.

We start off with two of South Africa’s most iconic weekend celebratory songs: eVoid’s ‘Jiving To The Weekend Beat’ captures the sense of fun which the weekend jol promised, while Juluka sang a love song to the coming weekend, a worker viewing the weekend as they would a lover. Many of the songs here follow similar themes, either looking forward to the weekend or simply enjoying it when it arrives. Brenda and the Big Dudes, however, warn against being used by someone simply as their ‘Weekend Special’. As Brenda Fassie sings, ‘I’m no weekend, weekend special’. We end off with Seba Kaapstad’s ‘Friday That’s Good’: “Friday that’s good, uhm, that’s good, that’s good, uhm, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good, that’s good.” Indeed!

  1. Jiving To The Weekend Beat – eVoid
  2. Woza Friday – Juluka
  3. Phelaviki (Let The Weekend Come) – Irene And The Sweet Melodians
  4. Weekend Special – Brenda And The Big Dudes
  5. Friday (Zis’imali Yam) – Peto
  6. Woza Weekend – Respectors
  7. Weekend – Jazz Maniacs
  8. This Weekend (Vocal Version) – The Dynamics
  9. Saturday Night Special – Vairkweru
  10. Weekend – Springbok Nude Girls
  11. Welcome To The Weekend – The Parlotones
  12. Feels Like Friday – Louis And The Jive
  13. Friday Night – Vusi Shange
  14. Saturday Night – Supa Frika
  15. Saturday Fever – Jivaro
  16. Saturday Night – Pacific Express
  17. Saturday Night – Rebecca
  18. Woza Friday – Mapaputsi
  19. Friday Morning – Neville Nash
  20. Ready For The Weekend – MarcAlex
  21. Friday That’s Good – Sebe Kaapstad
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Capital 604 – The Miss Parade: 1984

1984 was yet another poor year for South African artists charting on the Capital Radio Top 40 countdown: only nine songs in all. Two bands included in this week’s playlist did chart on Capital’s Top 40: Bright Blue with “Window on the World” and Juluka with “Work For All”.

1984 saw a continuation of some of the themes noted in 1983: there was a steady increase in musicians fusing South African neo-traditional and Western styles of music: Hotline, Juluka and Via Afrika all brought out new albums, eVoid recorded songs possibly for their next album and Bright Blue debuted with their first album. There was also a continuation of the post-punk/new wave scene with songs by Dog Detachment, Niki Daly, The Dynamics and Illegal Gathering. Happy Ships produced the quirky and catchy “Car Hooter” while there were yet again several artists with pop songs based in neo-traditional township forms: Brenda And The Big Dudes, Harari, Joy, Lumumba and Condry Zuqubu, Hugh Masekela, Sankomota and the Soul Brothers. There was also scope for musical styles not often included on our mixtapes thus far: A heavy metal song by Black Rose and Tighthead Fourie & The Loose Forwards contributed the lone country song on this week’s mixtape.

Among the musicians who appear on this week’s playlist there is a reminder of the repressive arm of the apartheid state. The Dynamics, Juluka and Harari were regularly stopped at roadblocks and questioned about people of different race groups travelling together (Harari’s manager was a white woman). Roger Lucey had found it increasingly difficult to find venues at which to perform and broadcasters were not interested in playing his music, and so he changed his name and musical style in an attempt to resurrect his music career. As Tighthead Fourie & The Loose Forwards he hoped to at least get airplay as a country artist. To no avail.

Meanwhile in 1984 Condry Ziqubu had begun to tour in Africa and the USA with Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya, and in 1985 formed the Busa musical with several exiled and South African musicians and they toured several African countries including Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Libya, Senegal and the ‘frontline’ states of Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. On their return from the tour Ziqubu and the other members of the Busa cast had their passports confiscated and were harassed by the security police.

After releasing their debut album in 1984 Bright Blue were forced to take a two-year hiatus while two of their band members – Dan Heyman and Ian Cohen – underwent conscription against which they were strongly opposed. And while touring South Africa in 1984, eVoid’s drummer – Wayne Harker – was arrested by the Military Police because he had gone AWOL in order to participate in the tour. Former eVoid drummer, Danny De Wet, stepped in so that the tour could continue.

Uhuru were a Lesotho-based band who were banned from entering in South Africa because of their political lyrics (and the band’s name didn’t help). To get around this problem Shifty Records ingeniously took their recording studio to Lesotho (in the Shifty caravan) and recorded the band’s debut album there (it was also the first album Shifty recorded). The band in the meantime changed their name to Sankomota, which made it more likely that the album could be released in South Africa without repressive consequences. In time the band relocated to South Africa and continued to perform and release new music from their new base.

Once again, huge thanks to Marq Vas for helping us source a very hard-to-find track.

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