AAMM Alternative Afrikaans Music Movement -

AUD Audio - recording

LP Long - playing record

SABC South African Broadcasting Corporation -

TS Transcript -

Solo Artists and/or Interviewees A - W

AND André Letoit -

BER Bernoldus Niemand -

BRE Brendan Jury -

CAR Carl Raubenheimer -

CHR Chris Letcher -

GAR Gary Herselman -

HAN Hannalie Coetzee -

JAM James Phillips -

JEN Jennifer Ferguson -

JOH Johannes Kerkorrel -

KAS Kasse Mady -

KKO Koos Kombuis -

LES Lesego Rampolokeng -

LLO Lloyd Ross -

MAC Mac MacKenzie -

MAT Matthew van der Want -

MZW Mzwakhe Mbuli -

NOI Noise Khanyile -

RAL Ralph Rabie -

RAY Ray Lema -

RIC Richard Nwamba -

ROB Robin Auld -

ROG Roger Lucey -

SAL Salif Keita -

SIM Simba Morri -

STE Steve Newman -

TON Tony Cox -

VUS Vusi Mhlasela -

WAR Warrick Sony -

WIL Willem Möller -

Bands A - W

ABS Abstractions -

AER Aeroplanes -

BEK Bekimbazo Brothers -

CFL Cherry Faced Lurchers -

COR Corporal Punishment -

DRA Draadloos -

FSM Free State Music -

GBB Gereformeerde Blues Band -

GEN Genuines -

HAP Happy Ships -

ILG Illegal Gathering -

ISJ Isja -

JCS Jo’burg City Stars -

KER Kêrels -

KGB Kgwanyape Band -

KHS Kalahari Surfers -

KOO Koos -

KTM K - Team

LUR Lurchers -

RAD Radio Rats -

SAN Sankomota -

SOF Softies -

SUN Sunshines -

TAN Tananas -

THF Tight Head Fourie and the Loose Forwards -

URB Urban Creep -

WJM Winston’s Jive Mixup -

Compilations A - V

ANA A Naartjie in our Sosatie -

FOR Forces Favourites -

FOS Fosatu Workers Choirs -

NEW New Africa Rock -

VOE Voëlvry -

The story of Shifty Records is a true South African story of musical activism.

When Lloyd Ross, the force behind Shifty Records, first encountered the band Corporal Punishment in the late 1970s, he was blown away by their music what he recalls “the most vital and deeply honest music ever made in South Africa”, and he could not understand why such compelling music could be completely ignored by the music industry. The influences of the music originating from the East Rand bands, and in particular a young James Phillips would become Lloyd Ross’s primary inspiration for recording and producing “honest” music when nobody else would – a path he would never deviate from.

By the early 1980s the country was in political turmoil and the situation would only escalate as the dark decade progresses. With this, a music sub-culture of defiance emerged. Lloyd Ross noticed that young people started to ignore boundaries, became more attentive to each other’s music and started playing together. He felt that “some even believed it was possible to rock apartheid into oblivion’. Still, nobody was recording the music.

In 1983, Lloyd Ross and Ivan Kadey, an architectural lecturer and member of the mixed-race punk band National Wake, set up a mobile recording studio in a Gypsey caravan, hitched to a Ford V6 truck. They would bring a significant shift to the South African music industry. Now legendary and true to its name, the Shifty mobile recording studio shifted between places, and even between boundaries into Lesotho to record their first band Sankomota, who was banned from entering South Africa. The band had previously toured South Africa under the name Uhuru, but half way through, the tour was cut short, presumably due to the lyric content of their songs. When no record company was willing to release the album that Shifty had recorded, Shifty did it themselves and their first album, titled Sankomota was released in 1984.

A prolific recording studio, Shifty continued to produce an album every two months until 1993 and remained one of a few outlets for independent musicians to voice their opposition against apartheid during that time.

These recordings resulted in the most comprehensive collection of South African political and social commentary music in existence with a range of genres that reflect the diverse cultures and influences from which the artists drew their inspiration. The reason being – no other institution would record this music within the context of state repression and censorship at the time, so Shifty virtually did it all.

When Shifty released James Phillip’s 'Wie is Bernoldus Niemand?', the first ever rock album in Afrikaans in 1985, the impact was immense. Afrikaans musicians Koos Kombuis and Johannes Kerkorrel, amongst others, would cite this album as a major influence in their own music, and one that would trigger the emergence of the so-called Alternative Afrikaans Music Movement (AAMM) and the subsequent ground-breaking Voëlvry tour of 1989.

It is interesting to note that the major instigators of the so-called Alternative Afrikaans Music Movement were not Afrikaans at all, but two Englishmen. Lloyd Ross’s determination to capture the Afrikaner voice of dissent and James Phillips’ aspiration to assist young Afrikaners in nurturing positive identities would prove that music transcends language barriers.

With the release of the Afrikaans protest album, titled 'Voëlvry' in 1988 the stage was set and time was right for the Voëlvry tour, sponsored by Shifty Records and the 'Vrye Weekblad', the following year.

Steered by energetic tour manager and rock and roller, Dagga-Dirk Uys, the free birds Andre Letoit, James Phillips as Bernoldus Niemand, Johannes Kerkorrel and the Gereformeerde Blues Band and entourage would ignite towns and cities across South Africa with the sound of rock and roll boere-punk. Banned from most university campuses, they managed to secure alternative venues and performed to packed audiences throughout the tour. When university rector Mike de Vries banned the concert from the Stellenbosch campus, the town experienced one of the biggest demonstrations it had seen in years as 1500 students protested in anger. The bannings and the restricted airplay by the SABC would only boost what Max du Preez called the ‘Boere-Woodstock’. Many believed that Voëlvry boosted the Afrikaans language like few events before it and helped to bring about change.

When once asked during an interview what the highlights of his career were, Lloyd Ross pointed out three ground-breaking events and moments that have become historic in their own right:

• The Voëlvry tour (getting banned off a whole lot of Afrikaans university campuses and generally causing a commotion during a terrible period in SA history)

• Mzwakhe Mbuli achieving gold status on an album despite being banned. His 'Change in Pain' album became Shifty’s biggest seller.

• The honour to have recorded James Phillips’ entire repertoire.

In 2011, SAHA, in collaboration with Lloyd Ross embarked on an archive project to preserve, organise, research and make accessible the endangered archive of Shifty Records. The sound recordings in particular were in urgent need of digitisation to a stable medium, as the formats of many of its historic audio recordings were deteriorating rapidly.