Saturday Night on BBC London 94.9 FM

3 July 04

Shiyani Ngcobo from Durban, South Africa

No drums. I’ve got nothing personal against drummers, but some of the best and most influential records were made without one.

Voice, guitar, bass. Exactly fifty years ago, on 5th July 1954 , Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore and Bill Black recorded a new version of an eight-year-old blues song, That’s All Right Mama, in Sam Phillips’ studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Released on Sam’s Sun label a few weeks later, the single was played on just a few radio stations and juke boxes in the South, not at all on American pop radio, and was not released in the UK until two years later. But counting backwards, it can be seen as the starting point for so much that followed. Some would say, for everything that followed. At exactly the moment that Marlon Brando (who died today) was mumbling and glowering his way into a new style of acting, a mumbling and glowering Elvis, ten years younger, helped invent a new kind of pop music.

Voice, guitar, bass and washboard. Eight days later (13th July 1954) , Chris Barber’s Jazz Band recorded a 10” album that included a track featuring Lonnie Donegan singing a new version of an old folk/blues song, Rock Island Line. A top ten hit in both the UK and the US eighteen months later, Rock Island Line had as big an impact on Britain ’s do-it-themselves musicians as Elvis and Scotty Moore had on their American counterparts.

Two voices, guitar, bass. Shiyani Ngcobo has been playing music in and around Durban , South Africa , since 1966, but has finally recorded his first album only this year. Produced by British guitarist Ben Mandelson, Introducing Shiyani Ngcobo may not be as epoch-defining as the two drummer-free singles referred to above, but will delight anybody whose tastes were shaped by them, directly or indirectly.

Tonight, Shiyani brought his acoustic guitar and was joined by bass player Aaron Meyiwa to play two songs, thrilling us with their endlessly satisfying, interweaving melody and rhythm lines. Shiyani sang lead, Aaron joined in on the choruses; we hoped their songs would never end. Known as Maskanda, the music is evocatively characterised by Ben in his sleeve note as displaying elastic precision. Shiyani also sat down to play an extra song on a home-made guitar whose sound box is an oil can, with a big square hole cut out of the side that the strings are stretched over. Enraptured, I think I forgot to breathe.

Shiyani is in London to play the Spitz on Wednesday 7th July, when the duo will be joined by female vocalist Pathekile Lukhozi, as featured on the album. If you missed tonight’s show but live in the London area encircled by the M25, and have not lost all use of your legs as a result of watching too many televised Euro 2004 football matches, you should try to catch this wonderful trio in full flow. The Spitz is at 109 Commercial St, close to Liverpool St station, and is the perfect venue for such a band.

Among a couple of other songs from South Africa was Lungile Tabalaza, the tale of a man who died in prison, sung by Roger Lucey, whose career hit a mysterious brick wall during the early 1980s (*). Only much later did he find out that he had been blacklisted by the South African Secret Service, tracked by an agent called Paul Erasmus. The two men have since reconciled and each tells his side of the story in a book called Shoot the Singer (collated by Freemuse and published by www.zedbooks.co.uk ), a bewildering account of music censorship throughout the world. Bewildering, because the reader wonders what fear and fury could drive the Taliban to cut the hands off anybody found with a cassette player or musical instrument? What is it in music that frightens totalitarians so much?

This programme went out on the eve of the final match of Euro 2004, between the football teams of Portugal and Greece . I unwittingly anticipated the result in choosing a lament from Portugal (by the blind singer, Dona Rosa) and a rousing cheer from Greece (by multi-cultural Krotala).

Radio London is at 94.9 FM and on DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) in the London area, and at www.bbc.co.uk/london worldwide. Each Saturday Night show can be heard ‘on demand’ for seven days at the BBC London website – the links can be found from the menu bar at the top of every page.

This site now contains a full listing of all the upcoming gigs mentioned on the show, stretching for several months ahead, which is displayed by activating the "What's Going On" link on the menu bar above. If you have pertinent information regarding live music in the London area, send it straight to Alan Finkel

I also present a weekly world music show on the BBC World Service, broadcast four times a week in a 24-hour cycle, Wednesday-to-Thursday. Exact times vary from region to region throughout the world.

In the UK the World Service is now available 24 hours a day on DAB radios, and my programme can also be heard on Radio 4 at 1.30 am on Thursday mornings. The "BBC World Service" link on the menu bar above offers an ‘on demand’ replay facility and also to playlists for the past several weeks.

(*) Continuing on the site: debates in the Feedback Section. I was looking forward to reading proposals for the best-ever record without drums. Among my candidates would be Train and the River by the Jimmy Giuffre Trio (who recorded it several times in slightly different combinations of instruments, but never with a drummer). What I got was a suggestion from regular contributor Howard Male that the Roger Lucey song may have been the worst record I have ever played on the radio, and observed that it was further proof that politics and music are uncomfortable bedfellows. I cannot defend its naive and strident delivery, but did find it sufficiently curious to warrant playing just this once. Don't worry, Howard, I won' be making a habit of allowing a song's sympathetic message to disarm my critical faculties.

Guest images by Philip Ryalls.