News - 15/10/97

Steve Hofmeyr on tour.

A question. Who are the four most popular music artists in South Africa today, based on sales of their albums? You might answer Abashante, M'Du, Arthur, Juluka, Springbok Nude Girls, P.J.Powers, Soul Brothers, Soweto String Quartet or Bles Bridges. You would be wrong! A snap poll of a few SA stores revealed the following list: Leon Schuster, Rebecca Malope, Laurika Rauch and Steve Hofmeyr.

Now as we all know, 'cool' music fans prefer to be judged as much by whom they like as by whom they dislike. If you want to grab some instant credibilty, just mention that you love REM, Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix and Koos Kombuis and then slip in that you really hate ABBA, John Denver and (my two 'favourite' kinds of music) country and western. Rock snobs are R1,00 a bunch round these parts.

Ask a local rock fan what he thinks of Steve Hofmeyr and you'll get a spluttering stream of invective. Then tell them that this ou has released nine albums since he began his career in 1989 and to date has sold over 600,000 units with all these albums achieving Gold and Platinum status. He has undertaken several wildly successful nationwide tours. His 'Steve and Friends' tour attracted a capacity audience to the Sun City Superbowl. His new album "True To You" is a massive seller and was recorded in Belgium where his duet with the top Flemish singer Dana Winner, "Vroeger Bracht Je Bloemen"/ "You Don't bring Me Flowers", reached the number 2 spot on the Belgian charts. He has just released a book of his poems called "Valkuns" which has sold out its initial issue in three weeks. He is an accomplished musician and even had the dubious honour of being on the infamous 'Chris Hani death list' as was revealed during Clive Derby-Lewis and Janus Walusz's appearance in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commision. Add to that his celebrity status as Doug Durand in the cult SATV soap 'Egoli' and you'll begin to understand why Steve Hofmeyr is really impervious to the criticism that sometimes surrounds him. Success, as they say, is the best revenge. In person he's a regular, warm and very lekker ou and was holding tightly to his freshly acquired copies of the new Verve and Rolling Stones CDs.

Hofmeyr is currently halfway through his 1997 SA tour and has played to packed auditoriums at every centre. His two-hour show to promote the new "True To You" CD runs through to the end of November and the remaining dates are listed below. Top of the request lists at these shows is the song he was commisioned to write for the Northern Transvaal Rugby team, "Die Bloubul Song", which shifted 50,000 units in five weeks but still didn't manage to push the Blue Bulls into the Currie Cup semi-finals.

So you may not want to catch Steve Hofmeyr in concert-- that's fine because you probably wouldn't be able to get a ticket anyway. You may not want to buy his CDS but please remember that the music industry in South Africa is beginning to grow into the huge industry it deserves to be. The usual cry is that the record companies don't support 'local'music. Well, they actually do when the artists are as successful as Steve Hofmeyr and the more succesful Hofmeyr and the other 'not-so-cool' SA artists become, the more the record companies will pay attention to the SA market. This can only open doors for the bands that you feel do deserve the record companies special attention, support and promotion.

Steve Hofmeyr has his own website at:
http://geocities.com/broadway/5328
with all the personal details and discography you require. You can also email him from this site. For information on the tour or anything else regarding Steve Hofmeyr you can call 083-9000-829.

Remaining dates on the tour are:

October:

14th - Parow (Civic Centre)

15th - Paarl (SAPD Auditorium)

16th - Vredendal (Sports Hall)

17th - Upington (High School Duineveld)

18th - Kimberley (City Hall)

30th - Brits (City Hall)

31st - Pretoria North (City Hall)

November:

5th - Sasolburg (Etienne Rousseau Theatre)

14th - Pretoria West High School

15th - Odendaalsrus (City Hall)

21st - Potgietersrus (Van Rensburg Hall)

22nd - Phalaborwa

23rd - Nylstroom

28th - Newcastle