CASSETTE, a new band fronted by Jon Savage -- awesome

S and I went off to the Bassline in Newtown last weekend with her buddies Paul and Justin Dempsey. Justin's here from London, and he's a pretty hot muso and producer. He'd heard a track by CASSETTE on the radio, and thought they might be the freshest South African band he's heard.

So when we heard they were opening for SQUATTA CAMP, we had to go check em out.

I can say this... CASSETTE is pretty much the best South African band I've heard. I can say this... I'm listening to their first cd, 'Welcome Back to Earth' on repeat, and I'm loving it. They sound a little like late Manic Street Preachers, mixed with a bit of Pulp's attitude. I dig them. Deluxe.

Their stage presence is delicious. Attitude. Angle. Real skill. Jon Savage has a killer voice.

And when he punched the punching bag with Robert Mugabe's face stuck to it while singing 'Get in the Ring', and the bag mashed off the stage and beaned a photographer almost slicing her head open but not quite and he didn't apologise, I thought, 'Hmmm... there's a chance we might actually have a South African rock star here!'

(Unfortunately, his conscience seems to have gotten the better of him, and six songs later he did apologise, but in a low key way. So maybe he CAN be a rock star.)