"Local is Lekker" goes off shore

When I lived in South Africa I had a more than warped fascination with radio, broadcasting and more especially music - my friends would attest to that.

There was a constant battle between local music and the international import market, and whereas in the UK the line doesn't exist as those "international stars" are local, South Africa did not have it so good. There was also a misconception that quality was not of the highest standard. And so the music marketing guru's got together and came up with a very catchy tag line - "Local is Lekker" (Translated very poorly as "Local is good"). At the time this tag line was corny, a bit dull, and some would argue did more to isolate South African music by putting it in a box than anything else.

And yet, over the many years since this first happened, the concept does appear to have lasted and indeed worked.

South African artists have flourished to the point where I was pleased to discover a great new blog today - "SA Music in and around London..." How fantastic!

Not only can the South African music industry find itself a voice overseas (well, there ARE 250,000 South Africans in Wimbledon alone!) but it can be introduced to a whole new audience of English people (OK - this is London we're talking about, so not JUST English people, Kiwi's, Aussies, Poles, French, oh you get my point!)

It seems you can take the Saffa out of South Africa - but you can NEVER take South Africa out of the Saffa!