Formed in Johannesburg in 1983 by Simba Morri (acoustic guitar and occasional vocals), John Trafford (saxophone), Derek Walter (bass) and Punka Khosa (drums).
Their song ‘Pambere’ was included on the Shifty Records Forces Favourites compilation album (1985). The group performed with various drummers during their existence. They performed at venues where mixed audiences were allowed or tolerated, especially Jamesons, UDF and ECC gigs and at private jols.
The group broke up in 1986 and Simba Morri went on to record a solo album with Shifty Records. An ep including four of their songs was released on the Shifty Bandcamp site in 2014.
Mzwakhe Mbuli rose to fame in the mid-1980s as the people’s poet, reciting his resistance poems at political rallies, often sneaking in and out because he was wanted by the apartheid security forces.
Shifty invited him to record an album dub-poetry style, with a backing band. In 1986 the album Change is Pain was recorded with a core backing band of Simba Morri (guitar), Gito Baloi (bass) and Ian Herman (drums). The album was promptly banned because of its outspoken political message.
In 1989 Mzwakhe recorded a second album with Shifty, Unbroken Spirit, which in part documented his time in prison. In the 1990s he continued to record albums but with major labels.
