lan Royal Pierce RIP - 21st September 1937 - 8th September 2001
California Sunshine hits Africa in the late70's. Many musicians & followers of SAfrica's alternative music - from Folk ‘n Jazz to Country, Maskandi & Hard City Rock - were revolting; depressed & angry at the 70's. Then Alan Pierce & Capital Radio 604 came to the rescue out of Port St. Johns Transkei Dec 26th 1979. Not quite Radio Freedom, but a whisper of fresh air through the short wave crackle & pop against the FM thunder of segregated state controlled radio. Despite having their signals jammed by the State (the SABC), Capital Radio 604 bravely competed with His Master's Voice; who in turn could not shut out all the programs, try as they might. On Medium & short wave, when the sun went down, 604 could be found all over Southern Africa - and you'd hear news & music that you could never imagine existed. This Shel Silverstein classic, delivered by Alan on air, is an example.
From 10pm to Midnight Allan's show - Something Else - would get through the jamming. That's how we met; on air & over the phone, early 1980, between Hillbrow Johannesburg & Port St. Johns Transkei.
Alan Pierce was always the wise ever-slim & thin elder laid-back statesman, even in those early days. Grey sideburns & lengthy thinning hair - sometimes under his braided British golf cap - underscored by a broad constant well-weathered & experience-lined smile... & that voice! That voice that he could wield like a wand regardless of whether he was advising, scolding or charming you, on air or face-to-face; extracting the potential artist & rebels out of us all. His role on earth seemed to be checking out the good in all humanity; giving people breaks & making us feel good about ourselves, whether we deserved it or not. He just blended into the bush with his cultured American (if slight) twang and a bit of SAfrican; Hey! Lekker my China & whozit my bru!
On air he was the consummate professional. And it wasn't only his thousands of listener's, the Capital Radio or the 702 followers & the wannabe jocks that he would comfort, council, confront & entertain - it was the one-on-one care & time he took whenever anybody had a problem. Or a joke.
Allan was a close friend to many 3rd Ear Music people. It was he who gave the wandering Allen Kwela & the lost Charles Comyn shelter; who championed (his onetime informal producer & all time late friend) Tony Campbell, who counselled Colin Shamley, comforted Franny Marks, hung up & out with his very close friend Art Kelly & arty the crowd at Rumours; playing pool with (the late) Rodney Barnett when all else seemed hopeless in Hillbrow & lost in Yeoville.
The measure of the man could be counted in many more ways, but it was perhaps his open defiance of the apartheid regime that stands out. He made his radio bosses cringe for their licenses on many occasions; threatened with dismissal, he wasn't bothered much - although he didn't want to hurt feelings either side of the microphone. One such 3rd Ear Music experience was how he defied the official banning order (direct from the Publications Control Board) on Roger Lucey's album “The Road Is Much Longer”... We were legally advised that the mere possession of this banned album could lead to an effective 5 years in prison, a R10 000 fine or both. But that didn't stop Alan plugging a few tracks. When Capital had to move (under mysterious circumstances) from the Transkei to Milpark in Johannesburg in the mid 80's, Tony, Colin, Rodney & on occasion myself, would sneak up into the studio just before midnight with a bottle of Jack Daniels & a Box of cigars, among other performance enhancing goodies… spinning discs & heads in sessions that were as magic as a live concert performance. Cheers Al. You are one missed ray of sunshine & a hurricane of fresh air in a country that needed you. Thanks.
Between them, they explain the enormous significance of TE Lawrence and the enormity that his/Britain's betrayal of the Arabs set in motion the catastrophe that is ongoing today.
I've written here on this forum about my first encounter with Rory Stewart. Some years after that, he became one of my heros. I don't think anyone on God's Earth is better suited to understanding and explaining TE Lawrence.
Another of my heroes (non gender specific) is Gertrude Bell. This second video is not a documentary but a dramatisation. It covers the period in Lawrence's public life after the War.
One of the items on my bucket list, which has inevitably been thwarted for one reason or another, is to visit and pay my respects to Bell's grave in Iraq. I've already visited Lawrence's cottage Clouds Hill and his grave in Moreton and of course his monument at St Paul's. Gertrude Bell is such an important figure in the modern History of the Middle East that I feel compelled to pay my respects to her, though had we met in life I may have slapped her face for her intelligent perfidy.
Re: We need more
Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 7:21 pm
by TheGreenGoblin
My favourite film is Lawrence of Arabia... he was a fascinating, enigmatic, odd, kind of person. The film adds to the mythology, and in doing so probably traduces the truth, but hey, isn't that all part of the mythos of any life, no matter how great or small...
Re: We need more
Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 9:10 pm
by Undried Plum
I remember the premier of that movie in Embra, at the Odeon.
The first movie I'd seen which had two intermissions.
At both, there was a stampede down the aisles for the Kia-Ora and the ice-creams. Remember those girls with the over-shoulder-boulder-holder stocks lit up with the batteries which lasted about fifteen minutes? They got massacred!
I remember the premier of that movie in Embra, at the Odeon.
The first movie I'd seen which had two intermissions.
At both, there was a stampede down the aisles for the Kia-Ora and the ice-creams. Remember those girls with the over-shoulder-boulder-holder stocks lit up with the batteries which lasted about fifteen minutes? They got massacred!
Thank God for insouciant girls...
Re: We need more
Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:51 am
by TheGreenGoblin
Re: We need more
Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:18 pm
by boing
My favourite monologue. I have posted this before but it stands repetition.
Fabulous restrained facial expressions.
.
Re: We need more
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 5:16 pm
by ricardian
Apologies if this has been posted before but it is well worth watching again
Full English breakfasts and tormenting of our children Woody!
Re: We need more
Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 6:38 am
by Woody
A small tribute to Wilbur Smith.
Re: We need more
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 3:30 am
by Karearea
I have a copy of a facsimile edition of The Wipers Times: The Famous First World War Trench Newspaper and was pleased to find this BBC dramatisation; runs 1hr 35min:
It is only when the going gets tough that you realise who your true friends are. That they are few, and true, in number but good at heart, is never disputed, so perhaps we can always do with a few more of them, although one doesn't want to be somebody who claims he or she is going to have lunch with 50 of his or her "close" friends!
