WELCOME TO YOUR ENTERTAINMENT RADIO STATION WEBSITE JUST FOR YOU TO ENJOY 24/7
SOUTH AFRICAN ARTISTS AND SINGERS REMEMBRANCE WALL
Bles Bridges:Ruiter
Bles Bridges (22 July 1947, Viljoensdrif, Free State) – 24 March 2000), born Lawrence John Gabriel Bridges, was a South African singer. He became known as Bles Bridges, as his Irish grandfather called him "Bles" (meaning "bald" in Afrikaans), due to his very thin hair from an early age.
He released his first album in 1982, Onbekende Weermagman (Unknown Soldier). His professional career began in 1984, with the release of his second album, Bles, which went gold in under a month (25,000 copies) and included Maggie, one of his better-known songs. The album had sold twice that by the time his third album was released. At the time of his death, Bles had sold more than two and a half million albums (records and CDs).
Soon Bles Bridges began alternating between Afrikaans and English language albums, to great acclaim. He also began working with Eurovision South Africa. In 2000, he began recording an album with his friends in the music industry. The first song - a duet with Patricia Lewis (and his last song as it turned out, as he died within a week of finishing it) - was "The First Kiss Goodnight" by Dennis East; it was recorded on 21 March 2000. His biggest hit was "Ruiter van die Windjie" (Rider of the Wind), which was released in 1986.
In the 1980s, he held a concert in support of the Volkshulpskema (People's Help Scheme) of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a far right paramilitary organisation, which raised R10,000.
He had cancer during the 1980s and gave generously to charity for cancer research after his recovery. His wife Leonie was his sound engineer and the composer and/or songwriter of most of his songs, including most of his biggest hits, including "Maggie" and "I am the Eagle, you're the Wind", among others. It was his custom to hand out roses to some of the female audience members in the front row at his concerts.
His career highlight was when he performed to a soldout Superbowl at Sun City, five times on one weekend, becoming the first and only artist to do so, as feature artist on 14 and 15 May 1987. He actually managed to draw a bigger crowd than Frank Sinatra did when he opened the Super Bowl in 1982.
Bles died in a motorcar accident on 24 March 2000,leaving behind his wife, Leonie, and children Sunette and Victor. More than 15,000 mourners turned up for his funeral.
In Die Windjie
Almal, van ons weet hoe vry is die windjie
As hy waai wil hy waai as hy draai wil hy draai, die windjie
Oral om ons die gesuis van die windjie
En hy dra aan ons oor die gevoel om weer vry te wees
Ruiter van die windjie wil ek bly
Vryer as die voëltjies rondom my
Op verre lande vertel ek
Goue strande en die see
Ooh oh, ruiter van die windjie o, so vry
Ewig op jou ruggie wil ek ry
En oral waar jy mag swerwe
Voer jy my ook altyd mee
Saans, as ek slaap slaap ek tussen die blare
Deur jou liedjie gesus as jy saggies versteur, die blare
Vroeg, voor die eerste straal skyn van die môre
Is ons twee weer op reis na die vryheid wat vir ons roep
Ruiter van die windjie wil ek bly
Vryer as die voëltjies rondom my
Op verre lande vertel ek
Goue strande en die see
Ooh oh, ruiter van die windjie o, so vry
Ewig op jou ruggie wil ek ry
En oral waar jy mag swerwe
Voer jy my ook altyd mee
Instrumenteel
Ooh oh oh, Ooh oh oh,
Ruiter van die windjie wil ek bly
Vryer as die voëltjies rondom my
Op verre lande vertel ek
Goue strande en die see
Ooh oh, ruiter van die windjie oh so vry
Ewig op jou ruggie wil ek ry
En oral waar jy mag swerwe
Voer jy my ook altyd mee
En oral waar jy mag swerwe
Voer jy my ook altyd mee
SINGERS
Danny Williams (7 January 1942 – 6 December 2005) was a South African pop singer. Williams earned the nickname, "Britain's Johnny Mathis", for his smooth and stylish way with a ballad.He is best known for singing his UK number 1 version of "Moon River" in 1961 and his US top ten hit, "White on White".
Born in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa,Williams won a talent contest at the age of 14 and joined a touring show called Golden City Dixies that played throughout South Africa. In 1959, the show came to London where Williams impressed EMI's Norman Newell, who signed the young singer to a recording contract. He was to spend most of his life in the United Kingdom, where at first he made a few moderately successful singles, mainly popular ballads, before scoring a Number One hit with his cover version of "Moon River" in 1961.To this day it remains his most famous record which he re-recorded for a self-titled album "Danny Williams" issued in the UK by Contour Records in 1972. It led to his appearance in a film about a pop group, directed by Michael Winner, called Play It Cool (1962) which starred Billy Fury. In 1963, Williams joined a 20-city tour which starred Helen Shapiro and featured the Beatles as a support act on the bill; like many other ballad singers of the day, he was swept away by the new beat group era.
Williams had no more major British hits, even though "White On White" became popular abroad and was his only US Top Ten hit, charting in 1964. He continued to record for HMV until 1967 while working the nightclub circuit. In 1968, he had a nervous breakdown and was declared bankrupt two years later. However, he resumed his singing career in the early 1970s, achieving a Top 30 success with "Dancin' Easy" in 1977.In the early 1990s he recorded for Prestige Records and subsequently starred in a Nat "King" Cole tribute show which made several British tours.Compilations of his early recordings, including "Moon River", have been issued on CD.
He died in December 2005 of lung cancer, at the age of 63. Williams was married three times, and is survived by his two daughters (Natali and Melody Williams) and two sons, the actor Anthony Barclay and Michael Stewart.
Louise Carver (born 10 January 1979) is a South African folk rock singer-songwriter and pianist.
Carver was born in Cape Town, and holds dual citizenship in South Africa and the United Kingdom. She began playing piano at the age of 11, and received her first recording contract at the age of 15. She matriculated at the Rustenburg School for Girls, matriculating in 1996. She earned an honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Cape Town in 2002.
Carver released her first single, It Don’t Matter (1996) when she was 17. The single topped the South African National Campus Charts. It spent 11 weeks on the South African National Top 40 Charts, where it peaked at the number three position.At age 18 she followed the single with her debut album, Mirrors and Windows (1998).
First for Women, a South African insurance company, sponsored Carver's 2008 Home Tour
Channel24 gave a favorable review of Carver in 2009. In June 2010, the City Press said that Carver's Look to the Edge album "has an edgy electronic/pop sound with infusions of South African rhythms and percussion, [and] will appeal to South African and global audiences alike... This 12-track album is unique and diverse. It’s easy listening and has something for everyone.
Fredi Nester Esterhuizen (25 Maart 1959 – 3 Julie 2015) was 'n Afrikaanse liedjieskrywer en sanger. Hy het 14 albums en een DVD oor sy loopbaan opgeneem. Van sy populêre liedjies sluit in: Getoor, Sê My, Meer En Meer, Hey DJ en Bly Net Naby My. Sy verhoognaam, Fredi Nest, is 'n kombinasie van sy voornaam en eerste gedeelte van sy middelste naam.
Fredi is op 25 Maart 1959 in Johannesburg, Suid-Afrika, gebore en was die oudste van vyf kinders. Hy het al van kleintyd af gesing en kitaar gespeel, maar het eers in sy laat dertigs besluit om musiek sy loopbaan te maak.
In 1995 is sy debuutalbum, Memory Train, uitgereik. 'n Jaar later het hy die IBA-prys vir Listen To Me, as die mees gespeelde liedjie op gemeenskapradiostasies ontvang. Hy het sy deurbraak in die Afrikaanse musiekbedryf in 1999 met die album Wie is jy gemaak.
Nest het in Cullinan naby Pretoria gewoon, waar hy vir homself 'n ateljee gebou het wat ook vir CD-opnames en produksies gebruik is.
'n Breingewas is in Mei 2015 by hom gediagnoseer, waarna hy behandeling by die Steve Biko Akademiese Hospitaal in Pretoria ontvang het. Die kanker het egter vinnig na die res van sy liggaam versprei. Hy is op 3 Julie 2015 by 'n plaaslike hospice oorlede
Steven De Groote (1953—1989) was a South African classical pianist.
Steven De Groote was born in Johannesburg, South Africa into a Belgian family in which, for three generations, almost every member had been a professional musician. His grandmother was a recipient of the Prix de Rome in Belgium, and his father the conductor of the Cape Town University Symphony. As a youngster, De Groote toured South Africa performing trios with his father on violin and brother on cello.
He trained with Lamar Crowson in Cape Town, and with Eduardo del Pueyo at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, graduating in 1971 with first prize in piano.
In 1972, De Groote entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with Rudolf Serkin, Mieczysław Horszowski, and Seymour Lipkin. He graduated in 1975.
In 1976, De Groote took honours in the Leventritt Competition in New York City. In May 1977, he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In September of that year, he was awarded the Grand Prize at the Van Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. In that same competition, he also took prizes for Best Performance of a Commissioned Work and Best Performance of Chamber Music, the only winner in the history of the competition to take all prizes.
De Groote was an amateur pilot. In 1985 he survived a severe crash while attempting to land near Phoenix. His lung and aorta were punctured. After extensive surgery and rehabilitation, De Groote recuperated and resumed flying and piano playing. His miraculous recovery was essayed on CBS News Sunday Morning by Charles Kuralt.
In 1989 he returned to South Africa to visit family and for a concert tour. There, he was hospitalized with tuberculosis and pneumonia. He died in Johannesburg on 22 May 1989 from multiple organ failure due to AIDS.
