Stoking the star-making machine with a music legend | Patric van Blerk
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This podcast captures something rare: the unguarded voice of a true music alchemist reflecting on five decades of creative risk-taking. What emerges isn't just industry history. It's a meditation on passion as sustainable fuel.
Van Blerk's story begins with a 13-year-old epiphany: "I could also be in music. There's nothing stopping me."
That certainty becomes the through-line of his entire career, from warehouse floor picker at Gallo to the architect of Joburg Records, South Africa's most significant independent label. His path reveals a fundamental truth: the music industry's gatekeepers are often those who started by genuinely loving the gate.
The Rabbitt saga stands as the podcast's emotional centerpiece, a Beatlemania-scale phenomenon that came terrifyingly close to global breakthrough before imploding. Van Blerk's willingness to discuss failure ("I know what mistakes I made") shows rare vulnerability. The detail about bullets flying in Hillbrow clubs while they rehearsed "Boys Will Be Boys" crystallises the raw, dangerous energy of that era's South African rock scene.
But it's his work with Margaret Singana that reveals van Blerk's true ANR instinct. Hearing her voice and feeling "shivers down my spine", then navigating apartheid's grotesque bureaucracy (the separate entrance for "black records" at the SABC) shows someone who let talent trump every institutional barrier. The arc from "I Never Loved a Man" to the wheelchair-bound recording of "We Are Growing" is heartbreaking and triumphant simultaneously.
Van Blerk's philosophy emerges clearly: "If you don't really, really love music and you're willing to lay down your life for it... get up now." His legacy isn't hits or wealth, it's sustained enthusiasm across fifty years of dark valleys. In an era of playlist algorithms and viral moments, his story reminds us that great music careers are built on one irreplaceable foundation: genuine, irrational, life-consuming love of the art itself.
As he says: "It's the music."
Everything else is commentary.
Van Blerk's story begins with a 13-year-old epiphany: "I could also be in music. There's nothing stopping me."
That certainty becomes the through-line of his entire career, from warehouse floor picker at Gallo to the architect of Joburg Records, South Africa's most significant independent label. His path reveals a fundamental truth: the music industry's gatekeepers are often those who started by genuinely loving the gate.
The Rabbitt saga stands as the podcast's emotional centerpiece, a Beatlemania-scale phenomenon that came terrifyingly close to global breakthrough before imploding. Van Blerk's willingness to discuss failure ("I know what mistakes I made") shows rare vulnerability. The detail about bullets flying in Hillbrow clubs while they rehearsed "Boys Will Be Boys" crystallises the raw, dangerous energy of that era's South African rock scene.
But it's his work with Margaret Singana that reveals van Blerk's true ANR instinct. Hearing her voice and feeling "shivers down my spine", then navigating apartheid's grotesque bureaucracy (the separate entrance for "black records" at the SABC) shows someone who let talent trump every institutional barrier. The arc from "I Never Loved a Man" to the wheelchair-bound recording of "We Are Growing" is heartbreaking and triumphant simultaneously.
Van Blerk's philosophy emerges clearly: "If you don't really, really love music and you're willing to lay down your life for it... get up now." His legacy isn't hits or wealth, it's sustained enthusiasm across fifty years of dark valleys. In an era of playlist algorithms and viral moments, his story reminds us that great music careers are built on one irreplaceable foundation: genuine, irrational, life-consuming love of the art itself.
As he says: "It's the music."
Everything else is commentary.
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction: The Last True Music Man
- 00:56 First Meeting: The Sockless Music Man at Satbel
- 01:56 Potchefstroom to Pretoria: Early Years and Grey College
- 02:49 Musical Awakening: Elvis, Cliff, and The Beatles
- 05:18 The 13-Year-Old's Decision:
- 07:15 Gallo Days: White Coat in the Basement
- 11:22 Retail Education: Learning What Makes Records Tick
- 12:11 Storm Records and Terry Dempsey: 20 Top 20 Hits
- 14:05 Locomotive Breath: The Rabbit Story Begins
- 15:23 Tokyo Calling: Valiant V Vanguard at Yamaha Festival
- 20:24 First Number One: Knocking Barry White Off
- 21:00 Birth of Joburg Records: South Africa's Premier Indie Label
- 22:38 Stan Cohen and the Satbel Gang of Criminals
- 24:30 Margaret Singana: The Voice That Changed Everything
- 25:34 Apartheid's Ugly Reality: Separate Entrance for Black Records
- 25:40 SONG I never Loved a Man Margaret Singana
- 29:40 The Albums: Navigating Ippi Tombi vs American R&B
- 30:15 SONG Mama Tembu's Wedding Margaret Singana
- 33:24 Conglomeration: The Night Teenage Trevor Rabin Blew Everyone Away
- 34:58 Duncan Faure Walks In:
- 35:17 Margaret's Stroke and Comeback: Recording in a Wheelchair
- 38:10 SONG We Are Growing Margaret Singana
- 40:52 Neil Bogart and Casablanca: Cocaine and Sand
- 41:12 Rabbit Mania: Beatlemania in South Africa
- 43:13 Charlie: The Gay Love Song Everyone Knew About
- 43:40 SONG Charlie Rabbitt
- 46:30 Boys Will Be Boys: Born in Black Holes, Dodging Bullets
- 48:55 SONG Lifeline Rabbitt
- 50:44 Influences and Inspirations: Bowie's Photostat Machines
- 51:33 A Croak and a Grunt: The Farm, Duncan's Emergence
- 54:28 Hold On To Love: The Hit That Wasn't
- 55:00 SONG Hold on to Love Rabbitt
- 56:33 The Craft of Songwriting: Beyond
- 58:45 SONG Paradise Road Joy
- 01:01:28 The American Dream Dies: Doug Gordon's Devastating Headline
- 01:04:18 Rock Rabbit: The Sad Ending with Dooley Mason
- 01:05:11 Julian Laxton: The Unlikely Pop Star from Freedom's Children
- 01:08:35 SONG Celebrate Julian Laxton Band
- 01:11:45 SONG Blue Waters Julian Laxton Band
- 01:11:58 The Joburg Philosophy: Diversity as Necessity
- 01:13:59 Winston Mankunku, Mike Makhalemele, and The Bump
- 01:16:45 SONG Savage Rabbitt
- 01:20:06 Radio Rats: The Sister's Discovery That True Tone Rejected
- 01:21:06 Café Casablanca: Satin Walls and Silk Ceilings on Rockey Street
- 01:24:07 Cape Town Years: 23 Years and Counting
- 01:25:38 Legacy: Just a Music Man Enthusiasm and Love
- 01:27:30 SONG Ipi Ntombi Margaret Singana
- 01:27:32 Closing:
- 01:38:00 You’ve been listening to another Solid Gold Podcast
