From the Hip with Benjy Mudie

Durban`s almost all-girl teen band spill the beans! Allan Rosenberg (Guitarist, Songwriter and Band Founder), Angie Becker (Lead Singer), and Graham Boynton (Band Manager) look back... Take four Greek teenage girls, add in a Jewish guitarist with rock pedigree, mix in a handful of power, attitude drenched tunes and adrenalin fueled live performances, and you have Durban`s Eighties raunchy rockers,...

Rob Zipper (Otis Waygood Blues Band | Lead Singer and Saxophonist) tells the wild, full story This episode is for Gen X music lovers who grew up hearing the name Otis Waygood and wondering what really happened. Benjy Mudie sits down with Rob Zipper, lead singer and saxophonist of the Otis Waygood Blues Band, for the first time in decades to relive the extraordinary story of the band that Rian Mala...

This podcast captures something rare: the unguarded voice of a true music alchemist reflecting on five decades of creative risk-taking. What emerges isn't just industry history. It's a meditation on passion as sustainable fuel. Van Blerk's story begins with a 13-year-old epiphany: "I could also be in music. There's nothing stopping me." That certainty becomes the through-line of his entire career,...

Legendary Springs garage band reveal the truth about ZX Dan.... Jonathan Handley (guitarist & songwriter, Dave Davies (vocalist). If you were tuned into South African music in the late '70s you couldn't help but remember a strange but compelling song called "ZX Dan" wafting across the pop airwaves. This tale of a travelling spaceman remains one of the greatest songs in the SA rock universe. Helmed...

Step back into the sweltering heat of January 12, 1985, when South Africa stood on the edge of collapse—townships ablaze, a nation divided by the iron fist of Apartheid. Yet, from this cauldron of chaos rose a moment of pure, defiant hope: the Concert in the Park. In this heart-wrenching 40th-anniversary special, we relive the day when 120,000 black and white South Africans converged at Ellis Park...

Lloyd Ross (founder/owner Shifty Studio/Records) and Warrick Sony (partner Shifty Studio/founder Kalahari Surfers) Throughout the turbulent Eighties Shifty Records forged an uncompromising, if solitary, trail through the South African music business. Founded by avid music fan, Lloyd Ross, the studio and its accompanying label was responsible for creating a tsunami of original independent music tha...

Gary Rathbone talks up Spectres, ECC, and SA music in the 80s. Guitarist/drummer, singer, and writer, Gary Rathbone has spent the last 40 years skirting the parallel worlds of alternative rock and catchy jangly pop with bands like What Colors, The Aeroplanes, Urban Camouflage, The Spectres, The Weathervanes, and more recently, has struck out on his own with this brand of indie rock. Vinyl Junkie W...

Most fans of South African rock will remember the incendiary assault of the Asylum Kids and Tribe After Tribe's fusion of sonic Afro grooves with jagged guitars - songs like the anthemic "Schoolboy", the revolutionary "Fight it with your mind" and the genre-bending cover of Dylan's "As I went out one morning". Songs that are part of a dark period of South Africa's painful transition, and the glue...

Wendy opens up about fame in The Sweatband and her successful solo career. Catapulted into a helter skelter life of rock & roll at an early age, Wendy Oldfield has experienced multiple chart successes in the `80s with The Sweatband ("This Boy" and " Shape of her body") and over the next 3 decades career defining hits including " Acid Rain", " Miracle" and "Living in the real world". She has also c...

Music industry veteran Benjy Mudie does a deep dive into what makes the music world tick. From interviews with leading artists, songwriters, publishers, radio DJs, label insiders, and producers, to stories from nearly 50 years in music. Sometimes funny, and often irreverent and controversial. He'll take you inside the backrooms and the back stages of the South African music industry. The concerts,...

Grammy, Golden Globe, and Oscar nominee opens up about his career in music. As an internationally acclaimed artist, producer, singer, arranger, and songwriter Cedric Samson should be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to South African music. A child prodigy, his nearly 60-year career has seen him being creatively successful in many genres of music across the globe. In this...

Heather Mac (vocalist) and Tim Parr (guitarist) revisit Ella Mental 40 years on. 40 years ago, Ella Mental released their debut album "Uncomplicated Dreams". Fueled by smash singles and a devastating live show the band rapidly became one of the biggest rock bands in South African music history. Their incendiary performance at the legendary Concert in the Park in 1985 is still talked about to this...

Inside the music industry with Hilton Rosenthal (Music Industry Excecutive) Hilton Rosenthal has done it all- a multi-talented music industry insider, he sketches out his rise from A&R executive to successful producer to concert visionary. Along the way his studio work with Johnny Clegg`s Juluka and Savuka produced multi-platinum albums globally and his contribution to the success of Paul Simon`s...

Neill Solomon explores his world of music, art, film and theatre. Neill Solomon journeys through fifty years of making original folk, rock, pop and world beat with side trips into performance theatre, painting, film soundtracks, the creative process and composition. His endless quest to use music as a tool of social awareness and change is inspiring and Neill also touched on poaching, freedom song...

A hilarious Danny de Wet lets rip about the madness in the music. Danny de Wet is one funny guy...a natural storyteller of note, he has been, as he calls it, the `lead drummer` for some of the biggest South African bands in rock: eVoid , Petit Cheval., Electric Petals and Wonderboom plus a myriad of other outfits. He has also been a record company executive, tour manager, analytical chemist, club...

PJ Powers opens up about Hotline hits, fame, Mandela & The Queen, and more. My guest in this episode of From the Hip with Benjy Mudie hardly needs an introduction; she is one of South Africa's most successful musicians with over 40 years of hit-making under her belt and is responsible for some of the most iconic songs in our musical history including Jabulani, Feel So Strong, You're So Good to Me,...

éVoid come clean about Shadows and life on the fame rollercoaster in the 80s. This was an in-depth conversation with Lucien Windrich (éVoid guitarist and vocalist) and Erik Windrich (éVoid keyboardist and lead vocalist), the founding members of the iconic 1980s South African band éVoid. They pioneered an innovative fashion style adopted by legions of fans called 'fadgets' and embraced African and...

Cindy Alter unpacks her career from Clout to Nashville and back. Singer-songwriter Cindy Alter is no shrinking violet! With dollops of humour and candour, she reminisces about her time in South Africa's most successful pop export, Clout, scaling the heights of the global music business, travelling the world, and selling millions of records. Her band, Zia, were at the forefront of the Afro-pop move...

Trevor takes you on his journey to pop, rock, and film superstardom. Trevor Rabin has scaled the heights of pop superstardom with Rabbitt, global recognition and chart success with prog rock demi-gods YES, and conquered the highest echelons of the competitive Hollywood motion picture soundtrack world with nearly 50 blockbusters to his credit. This is the story of a Joburg boy's dream to achieve gl...

South African music is blessed with a diversity of unique music styles and none more irresistible than the afro-funk sound of the '70s and '80s. In this episode, Benjy Mudie and the legendary music icon Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse talk about Sipho's early seminal bands, The Beaters and Harari, social consciousness, cultural liberation, and Paul Simon's Graceland album. They also explore the phenomenal...

In this episode, uber-producer Tully McCully waxes lyrical with Benjy Mudie about producing hard-to-categorize South African artists. He delves into the recording history of multiple award-winning songstress Lesley Rae Dowling, deep dives into the arcane and often psychotic world of rock outfit, Falling Mirror, the bizarre off-the-wall humour of writer, poet, and singer, Niki Daly, the McCully Wor...

The rise of Goth and Alternative music in '80s South Africa. In this episode, Rob McLennan, founder and frontman of South Africa's most successful Goth band, No Friends of Harry and legendary punk/alternative radio DJ, Barney Simon swap musical war stories with host Benjy Mudie about the rise of alternative music and culture in heady days of '80s South Africa. Vinyl Junkie Website · Solid G...

The stories behind this iconic South African pop outfit's success. In this episode, Benjy Mudie shoots the breeze with John Leyden and Claire Johnston of Mango Groove about the band's phenomenal success in the early nineties. They explore the early days of the band, the recording of that iconic multi-platinum-selling first album, the high-profile international tours, the memorable videos, those qu...

Marc and Alex Rantseli, MarcAlex, break musical boundaries with genre-busting songs. Host of From The Hip Benjy Mudie explores South African music with Eighties pop sensations MarcAlex. Hailing from their humble beginnings in Diepkloof Soweto, Marc and Alex Ranseli shot to the top of the charts with their brand of infectious danceable soul, becoming the only South African artists to have two Numbe...

Music industry veteran Benjy Mudie does a deep dive into what makes the music world tick. From interviews with leading artists, songwriters, publishers,, radio DJs, label insiders, and producers, to stories from nearly 50 years in music. Sometimes funny, and often irreverent and controversial. He'll take you inside the backrooms and the back stages of the South African music industry. The concerts...