Unexpectedly wild scenes at the Hammersmith Apollo. The venue is packed to capacity although there has been almost no publicity, and the girls pressed around the stage are screaming for a singer who started recording before many of them were born. Johnny Clegg is not exactly a household name in Britain, but back home in South Africa he has the status of a national treasure, and it seems that every (predominantly white) South African in town has turned out to see him.
Clegg has a unique place in African musical history. Born in England, and brought up in apartheid-era South Africa, he's a white one-time university lecturer who was taught Zulu guitar styles by a gardener with whom he formed the band Jaluka in the 1970s. Together they set out to mix Western melodies with English and Zulu lyrics and Zulu musical structures, and to play to mixed-raced audiences, despite the hostility of the apartheid authorities. His later band, Savuka, had a more conventional Western pop approach, and with them Clegg became something of a superstar in Europe.
It's difficult to understand why he has been ignored in Britain, because he is in remarkably good form. He is singing with more conviction and attack, and is still an impressive dancer. As for the songs, the old favourites like Impi and Scatterlings work well against the newer material, and Asimbonanga is still one of the most stirring and moving of all the anti-apartheid anthems, especially when he is joined by his mighty female vocalist Mandiswa Dlanga.
He has achieved a clever blend of Western rock and African influences (many of the best songs are those in which he switches from guitar to township-style concertina), and in future he could expand his acoustic work. With a performance this good, he shouldn't just have to rely on his South African following.
