RODRIGUEZ TO PLAY JHB SHOW IN OCTOBER
The Ba**line, Newtown 13 OCTOBER 2005.
The story of Sixto Rodriguez is surely one of the strangest tales yet
to be told in a rock n roll universe littered with bizarre and surreal
experiences.
It is a story of hard times and stoned paranoia, rumours of death and
ultimate redemption. Even a hardened Hollywood scriptwriter would
struggle to create a story such as this.
Emerging in the late 60's from an immigrant Mexican background in
working cla** Detroit, Sixto's (so named because he was the sixth child),
socially aware folk-blues were a true testament to the times.
His seminal album Cold Fact was released in 1970, and contained tracks
like Hate Street Dialogue, This Is Not A Song, It's An Outburst, and
Inner City Blues - a title that pipped Marvin Gaye by six months. Of
course, it also contained Sugar Man a cautionary tale of the love and hate
between dealer and user, and one of the great-unheard drug songs of all
time.
Shortly after its release, his record label Sussex, fell into financial
trouble and the album just seemed to disappear. Believing that his
brief foray into the music industry was ill fated, Rodriguez quit music and
returned to the mean streets of Detroit to raise a family, and he too
seemed to simply vanish.
Yet, halfway across the world the most extraordinary phase of his
career had just begun. A few crates of Cold Fact had made their way to South
Africa and Australia, where Rodriguez's haunting vocals and tales of
social alienation struck a chord with disaffected youth and his cult
steadily grew throughout the 70's.
His impact was felt particularly hard in South Africa where the
alienated white youth of the day embraced his radical social commentary and
stoned imagery, during that country's most turbulent struggle period. His
songs took on an added edge during the Soweto uprisings of 76, and the
state-controlled SABC saw fit to ban most of them from the airwaves.
Through the 70's and 80's bizarre rumours began to circulate about
Rodriguez and his fate - that he was dead, or languishing in jail or a
mental institution, blinded by his own hand. A long time South African fan,
Stephen Segerman took it upon himself to try and track down the truth.
After several years and many false leads he finally managed to locate
Rodriguez's daughter in the 90's, who lead him to her father - working
on a construction site in Detroit, completely oblivious to the fact that
he was revered by so many on the other end of the world!! And that Cold
Fact had sold in the region of 250 000 copies in SA alone.
This ultimately lead to him tour South Africa in 1999, with sold out
arenas across the country, playing to amazed audiences that transcended
three generations.
(This period was captured beautifully in the documentary Looking for
Jesus).
Now, 35 years on from the release of Cold Fact, Rodriguez is set to
play his first ever UK shows and Friday and Saturday, 7& 8 October 2005.
With the recent inclusion of Sugarman on David Holmes' compilation,
Come Get It I Got It, Rodriguez has been introduced to an audience that
will be discovering him for the first time. At the age of 63, Sixto Diaz
Rodriguez may be able to add an amazing new chapter to what is already
a compelling life story
Due to the amazing demand, he will also play a Johannesburg date as
part of this tour.
The Johannesburg dates for Rodriguez:
Thursday 13 October
The Ba**line, Newtown
Tickts: R240
Book at Computicket (
www.computickert.co.za)
Ends
For more information, photo's. interviews etc, please contact:
DCPM
David Chislett
david@dcpm.co.za
011 486 1411
***I DUNNO BOUT YALL, BUT IM ON IT HEAVY***
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