Solid Gold Podcasts #BeHeard From the Hip with Benjy Mudie

From the Hip with Benjy Mudie

Music industry veteran Benjy Mudie does a deep dive into what makes the music world tick.

From interviews with leading artists, songwriters, publishers, radio DJs, label insiders, and producers, to stories from nearly 50 years in music. Sometimes funny, and often irreverent and controversial.

He'll take you inside the backrooms and the back stages of the South African music industry. The concerts, the parties, the politics, the hedonism, the highs and lows of a headlong career.

Along the way, Benjy passes along advice on how to chart the stormy and ever-changing landscape of the modern music business.

It's from the hip podcasting brought to you exclusively by Solid Gold Podcasts.
Occasionally English Explicit South Africa Music · Society & Culture
20 Episodes

All things Shifty

Lloyd Ross (founder/owner Shifty Studio/Records) and Warrick Sony (partner Shifty Studio/founder Kalahari Surfers) Throughout the turbulent Eighties Shifty Records forged an uncompromising, if solitary, trail through the South African music business. Founded by avid music fan, Lloyd Ross, the studio and its accompanying label was responsible for creating a tsunami…
23 Nov 1 hr 39 min

Making music in an alternative nation | Gary Rathbone

Gary Rathbone talks up Spectres, ECC, and SA music in the 80s. Guitarist/drummer, singer, and writer, Gary Rathbone has spent the last 40 years skirting the parallel worlds of alternative rock and catchy jangly pop with bands like What Colors, The Aeroplanes, Urban Camouflage, The Spectres, The Weathervanes, and more…
25 Oct 1 hr 23 min

A 3rd Ear Experience | Robbi Robb

Most fans of South African rock will remember the incendiary assault of the Asylum Kids and Tribe After Tribe's fusion of sonic Afro grooves with jagged guitars - songs like the anthemic "Schoolboy", the revolutionary "Fight it with your mind" and the genre-bending cover of Dylan's "As I went out…
15 Sep 1 hr 41 min

Speaking her truth | Wendy Oldfield

Wendy opens up about fame in The Sweatband and her successful solo career. Catapulted into a helter skelter life of rock & roll at an early age, Wendy Oldfield has experienced multiple chart successes in the `80s with The Sweatband ("This Boy" and " Shape of her body") and over…
29 Jun 1 hr 08 min

John Perlman and Benjy Mudie chat about the From the Hip podcast

Music industry veteran Benjy Mudie does a deep dive into what makes the music world tick. From interviews with leading artists, songwriters, publishers, radio DJs, label insiders, and producers, to stories from nearly 50 years in music. Sometimes funny, and often irreverent and controversial. He'll take you inside the backrooms…
2 May 9 min

Samson brings the house down! | Cedric Samson

Grammy, Golden Globe, and Oscar nominee opens up about his career in music. As an internationally acclaimed artist, producer, singer, arranger, and songwriter Cedric Samson should be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to South African music. A child prodigy, his nearly 60-year career has seen him…
26 Apr 1 hr 13 min

Ella Mental my dear Watson! | Heather Mac and Tim Parr

Heather Mac (vocalist) and Tim Parr (guitarist) revisit Ella Mental 40 years on. 40 years ago, Ella Mental released their debut album "Uncomplicated Dreams". Fueled by smash singles and a devastating live show the band rapidly became one of the biggest rock bands in South African music history. Their incendiary…
15 Mar 1 hr 02 min

From Impi to Concert in the Park | Hilton Rosenthal

Inside the music industry with Hilton Rosenthal (Music Industry Excecutive) Hilton Rosenthal has done it all- a multi-talented music industry insider, he sketches out his rise from A&R executive to successful producer to concert visionary. Along the way his studio work with Johnny Clegg`s Juluka and Savuka produced multi-platinum albums…
5 Mar 1 hr 32 min

The Magic Man | Neill Solomon

Neill Solomon explores his world of music, art, film and theatre. Neill Solomon journeys through fifty years of making original folk, rock, pop and world beat with side trips into performance theatre, painting, film soundtracks, the creative process and composition. His endless quest to use music as a tool of…
5 Feb 1 hr 12 min

Sex, Drums & Rock and Roll! | Danny de Wet

A hilarious Danny de Wet lets rip about the madness in the music. Danny de Wet is one funny guy...a natural storyteller of note, he has been, as he calls it, the `lead drummer` for some of the biggest South African bands in rock: eVoid , Petit Cheval., Electric Petals…
24 Jan 1 hour

Powers to the People! | PJ Powers

PJ Powers opens up about Hotline hits, fame, Mandela & The Queen, and more. My guest in this episode of From the Hip with Benjy Mudie hardly needs an introduction; she is one of South Africa's most successful musicians with over 40 years of hit-making under her belt and is…
14 Nov 2023 1 hr 06 min

One for the Fadgets! | éVoid

éVoid come clean about Shadows and life on the fame rollercoaster in the 80s. This was an in-depth conversation with Lucien Windrich (éVoid guitarist and vocalist) and Erik Windrich (éVoid keyboardist and lead vocalist), the founding members of the iconic 1980s South African band éVoid. They pioneered an innovative fashion…
12 Nov 2023 1 hr 12 min

No Substitute! | Cindy Alter

Cindy Alter unpacks her career from Clout to Nashville and back. Singer-songwriter Cindy Alter is no shrinking violet! With dollops of humour and candour, she reminisces about her time in South Africa's most successful pop export, Clout, scaling the heights of the global music business, travelling the world, and selling…
25 Oct 2023 1 hr 26 min

Rabbitt, YES, Hollywood - the inspiring story of a musician | Trevor Rabin

Trevor takes you on his journey to pop, rock, and film superstardom. Trevor Rabin has scaled the heights of pop superstardom with Rabbitt, global recognition and chart success with prog rock demi-gods YES, and conquered the highest echelons of the competitive Hollywood motion picture soundtrack world with nearly 50 blockbusters…
7 Oct 2023 1 hr 24 min

From The Beaters to Burnout | Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse

South African music is blessed with a diversity of unique music styles and none more irresistible than the afro-funk sound of the '70s and '80s. In this episode, Benjy Mudie and the legendary music icon Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse talk about Sipho's early seminal bands, The Beaters and Harari, social consciousness,…
21 Sep 2023 52 min

Alchemy in the studio | Tully McCully

In this episode, uber-producer Tully McCully waxes lyrical with Benjy Mudie about producing hard-to-categorize South African artists. He delves into the recording history of multiple award-winning songstress Lesley Rae Dowling, deep dives into the arcane and often psychotic world of rock outfit, Falling Mirror, the bizarre off-the-wall humour of writer,…
18 Sep 2023 1 hr 23 min

What Alternative? | Rob McLennan and Barney Simon

The rise of Goth and Alternative music in '80s South Africa. In this episode, Rob McLennan, founder and frontman of South Africa's most successful Goth band, No Friends of Harry and legendary punk/alternative radio DJ, Barney Simon swap musical war stories with host Benjy Mudie about the rise of alternative…
5 Sep 2023 1 hr 21 min

Special Stars - the Mango Groove explosion | John Leyden and Claire Johnston

The stories behind this iconic South African pop outfit's success. In this episode, Benjy Mudie shoots the breeze with John Leyden and Claire Johnston of Mango Groove about the band's phenomenal success in the early nineties. They explore the early days of the band, the recording of that iconic multi-platinum-selling…
6 Aug 2023 1 hr 26 min

Quick Quick to the top of the charts! | Marc and Alex Rantseli

Marc and Alex Rantseli, MarcAlex, break musical boundaries with genre-busting songs. Host of From The Hip Benjy Mudie explores South African music with Eighties pop sensations MarcAlex. Hailing from their humble beginnings in Diepkloof Soweto, Marc and Alex Ranseli shot to the top of the charts with their brand of…
13 Jul 2023 55 min

Welcome to From the Hip with Benjy Mudie

Music industry veteran Benjy Mudie does a deep dive into what makes the music world tick. From interviews with leading artists, songwriters, publishers,, radio DJs, label insiders, and producers, to stories from nearly 50 years in music. Sometimes funny, and often irreverent and controversial. He'll take you inside the backrooms…
11 May 2023 1 min