A bit of Wonderboom on voting day

By Jessica Farley

Music and politics have for many years been intertwined. In days gone by, during periods of oppression and recession, music has stood as the mouthpiece of protest. Alongside its theatre and poetry counterparts, music is one of the last true bastions of unleashed speech and one of the most difficult political voices to silence.

Anthems which stand out as rousing (and in most cases anti-) political tributes range from Bruce Springsteen's entire Vietnam collection, through The Clash's iconic London Calling and back around to pretty much everything the Manic Street Preachers did pre-1994. On home ground, the anguish of apartheid and South Africa's political struggle found its musical outlet in the dusty streets of Sophiatown where some of the legends of progressive jazz flexed their creative muscles alongside the genius of Hugh Masakela and Miriam Makeba. The fall of the Berlin Wall was even sat side by side with the music of its time when David Hasselhoff issued a warbling performance of his song “Looking For Freedom” which was an apt favourite around Germany at the time. For each political milestone, it seems, there is a fitting soundtrack.

22 April 2009 was an iconic political day in South Africa. Possibly as important as the April 1994 elections, Wednesday saw South Africans stand up and do their duty. Many, many songs have been written about the history of South Africa's violence, but 22 April 2009 was not a day that would go down in that history book. Rather, voters went to their polling stations, embraced their constitutional right to be a part of the country's ruling, let rip their versions of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika and Shosoloza across the nation (with hopefully minimal renditions of old Jacob Zuma's favourite 'Lethu Mshini Wami’ – go and fetch your own machine gun) and democracy was served without any of that unnecessary blood shed. Sure Zuma took the crown, but there were droves coming out to ensure a strong opposition for the next 5 years.

For me, the day was yet another affirmation that the spirit of South Africa is alive and well. However, having voted in one of the more sterile white neighborhoods in Johannesburg, I was not party to any of the vibrant singing, dancing and toyi-toying that was available for sampling in other areas. So, in celebration of a day which will not be marked highly in South Africa's historical calendar of bad bad days, I decided to source my own voting soundtrack and took my brown blotched left thumb as my date to the Barnyard at Cresta Centre to watch Wonderboom and hopefully stock up on some classics. I was not disappointed.

The guys from Wonderboom are still the stalwarts of South African rock and probably the closest thing we have in our archives as a real rock 'n roll band (I would say the Nudies deserve that title, but with their yo-yo break up and get back together cycle, they just can't be trusted). The guys look the same and they sound the same and that reliability is something to be treasured, especially when their 13 year long catalogue of home-grown songs have played such a large part in the musical tapestry of post-apartheid South Africa. Personal favourites from the performance included Something's Wrong and Best Side. For the big Wonderboom supporters out there, you will be chuffed to know that the guys are working on some new material, so hopefully we will be seeing a new album out by mid-2009.

To be fair, I was so buoyed up on patriotic cheer by the end of the day that a razzling performance from Kurt Darren would have sent me into the throws of ecstasy, but luckily he wasn’t playing at the Barnyard that night. Wonderboom was. The talent is definitely still there and there is no better way to romance your just voted self on the African continent than through a rousing proclamation of the keepers of the City of Gold. So to the beat of the South African soil I bopped, studiously avoiding the sway of Cito’s hips and the bad behavior it always seems to imply. Wednesday wasn’t about bad behavior, it was about feeling the spirit of democracy through the voices of a band who know South Africa’s soul best, it was about taking the time to reflect and it was about giving my left thumb with the dodgy brown stain the down time it deserved to appreciate the impact of voting on one of South Africa’s most historically important days.