Seabird – Pendulum In 1977 Pendulum followed up the success of 1976’s ‘Take My Heart’ with ‘Seabird’. While the former managed to get to number 6 on the Springbok Top 20, ‘Seabird’ did not fly as high, only getting to number 18 during a 3 week run. And this is probably a fair reflection of the 2 songs as ‘Seabird’ is not as anthemic as ‘Take My Heart. It is a more gentle track which kind of…

  Ages – McCully Workshop After 1970’s ‘McCully Workshop Inc’ and 1971’s ‘Genesis’, we had a bit of a wait before we heard from McCully Workshop again for it was 1975 before the aptly titled ‘Ages’ appeared. Now whether the McCully’s et al were playing on the fact we had to wait ages for the album or not, I don’t know. Still, for those waiting, the album did come and it was the worth wait as,…

Miss Eva Goodnight – Crocodile Harris For those of us who grew up in the 1980’s our first exposure to Crocodile Harris was his 1984 hit, ‘Give Me The Good News’. Little did we know that a decade before he had seen an even bigger hit in the shape of ‘Miss Eva Goodnight’. While ‘Give Me The Good News’ saw a modest peak of 14 on the Springbok Top 20, ‘Miss Eva Goodnight’ had reached number 5 and…

Workshop Revisited – McCully Workshop As 1977 came to an end, McCully Workshop were sitting on top of the Springbok charts with ‘The Buccaneer’, their biggest hit and probably what has become their signature tune. So, how do you follow that up. Well, they stayed with the nautical theme, swapping out the pirates and their buried treasure for a Chinese junkman. The song was not as successful as…

Why Can’t It Rain – McCully Workshop If the only time you listened to music was to listen to the old Springbok Top 20, then you really should have got out more. However, if such a person did exist, then their introduction to McCully Workshop would have happened on 17 July 1970 when ‘Why Can’t It Rain’ entered the chart at number 20. They would only have heard the song 5 times over the next few…

What Am I Listening To? Hammerhead Hotel!

Hammerhead Hotel | photo: Michael Currin A mix of South African tunes, inspired by the title track off the Falling Mirror album. Everything we do is psychotic… Nielen Mirror, 1985 https://www.mixcloud.com/briancurrin/hammerhead-hotel-feat-falling-mirror-jack-hammer-the-dolly-rockers-mccully-workshop-radio-rats/ Hammerhead Hotel Track List 1. Bus Station – Fly Paper Jet2. Hammerhead Hotel –…

Buccaneer (Stoner Mix) – Moyawetu

Buccaneer (Stoner Mix) – Moyawetu There have been a number of notable offspring of famous artists who have either gone on to greater things than their parents or struggled in the shadow of reputation of their father or mother. Julian Lennon and Dweezil Zappa spring to mind as an example of the latter while Kim Wilde and Jeff Buckley are examples of the former. We have not seen too many occasions…

It’s My Sister’s Boyfriend’s Band – McCully Workshop/The McCully Brothers

McCully Workshop Okay this is an obscure one I know. And difficult to find. While McCully Workshop are well known, this song is not. As far as I can tell it only appeared on the b-side of their 1980 single ‘Rocket Ride’ which was released under the name The McCully Brothers. One may wonder why it hasn’t spent less time face down on top of a turntable as it’s a good rocker and it’s funny.One may…