Hotline

Formed in 1980 as a rock band and released their debut album Burnout in 1981.

Original line-up was PJ Powers (vocals), Alistair Coakley (guitar), George van Dyk (bass and vocals), Geoff Sedgwick (keyboards, vocals), Pat van Rensburg (drums). In 1982 Larry Rose replaced van Rensburg on drums and Bones Brettell replaced Sedgwick on keyboards.

They became extremely popular amongst black South Africans when the band crossed-over to a township-pop/rock sound with albums like Music for Africa (1983), Jabulani (1984) and Wozani (1985).

The band even managed to play in Europe and the United States but the Cultural boycott prevented them from releasing music there. There were a couple more line-up changes in 1987 but then the band broke up in 1987.

PJ Powers

Singer-songwriter who started out as the lead singer for Durban-based Pantha in 1979.

She went on to join Hotline as lead vocalist but increasingly began to perform as a solo singer, including duets with Steve Kekana (backed by Hotline) while still with Hotline.

She released her first solo album Thandeka in 1985 and followed that with several albums including There is an Answer (1986), Living On Dreams (1988), The Secret’s Out (1989), Thandeka … Back Again (1990), Woman Of Africa (1995), Sondela (2006) and Destiny (2013).