Gramsci Beat

Gramsci Beat was a political band made up of students at Rhodes University during the late 1980s.

The band was named after the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, since most of the band members were sociology students at the time.

They are remembered for their crowd-pleasing rendition of the classic Dollar Brand anthem, ‘Mannenberg’.

The band line-up was: Chris Letcher (guitar and trumpet), Michael Drewett (guitar), Alan Finlay (keyboards), Monty Roodt (bass), The drummer was Thomas Jacobs (drums) and Mary-Anne Naude (vocals).

Thomas died in 2012.