The Julian Laxton Band - The South African Rock Encyclopedia

The South African Rock Encyclopedia > Rock Legends > 1970s / 1980s > The Julian Laxton Band

Legends Of South African Disco Rock

The Julian Laxton Band, a cornerstone of the South African music scene from 1976 to 1981, captivated audiences with their infectious blend of disco and rock. Alongside legendary bands such as Hot R.S., Disco Rock Machine, and Buffalo featuring Peter Vee, they defined an era of unforgettable music.

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Discography

The Julian Laxton Band – Celebration

Tracks

Blue Water (van Blerk/Laxton) [7:12]
Johannesburg (van Blerk/Laxton) [5:05]
I Get High (van Blerk/Laxton) [4:10]
Celebrate (van Blerk/Laxton/Rabin) [5:58]
All I Need Is You (van Blerk/Laxton) [5:28]
Man To Man (van Blerk/Laxton) [8:44]

Produced by Julian Laxton & Patric van Blerk
Arranged by Julian Laxton
Recorded at Satbel Studios

All these tracks except for ‘I Get High’ appear on the Julian Laxton Collection CD (1994)

Musicians

Julian Laxton: Guitars, bass, keyboards, drums
Trevor Rabin: bass
Eugene Havenga: vocals
Arthur Stead: keyboards
Neil Cloud: drums
Crash Flash: drums (no idea who this is, possibly Cedric Samson or Kevin Kruger)

Release information

LP: April 1977, Jo’burg Records, TJL 13015
LP: 1977, Jo’burg Records, PVA 13
8-track: 1977, Jo’burg Records, ETJ 13015
Cassette: 1979, DJ, WHAM WH 003 (with “Fooled Around And Fell In Love” added)
Streaming / Download: Possibly 2014, Gallo

Review

John Samson, February 2001

While the name Julian Laxton appears on just about every second South African rock album from the 70s (as guitarist or producer), the Julian Laxton Band were not that prolific. ‘Celebration’ is one of the few albums produced by this band.

Opening with ‘Blue Water’ this is a great mixture of rock, funk and disco. From the start two things stand out; Julian’s guitar work and the strong falsetto vocals of Eugene Havanga, the latter being reminiscent of Jon Anderson of Yes fame. The guitar work is tight but not clinical, it flows in a determined to be laidback kind of manner.

There is not one duff track on the album, with 5 of the 6 tracks making it onto ‘The Julian Laxton Collection‘ retrospective CD released in 1994, but it’s ‘Blue Water’ and ‘Celebrate the Rain’ that are the highlights. ‘Celebrate the Rain’ starts with the sounds affects of a torrential downpour with some thunder in the background, a synth is introduced, and then it’s into some heavy tribal beats and chants. This gives way to more of Eugene’s vocals and Julian’s guitar, but goes a long way to encapsulate the feel of a highveld storm.

The album closes with it’s funkiest track – ‘Man to Man’ which chugs along at pace, forcing everything in it’s way to dance. Clocking in at over 8 minutes this track has enough false endings to make even the most hardened DJ wary of playing this.

‘Celebration’ is just that, a celebration, of love, life, music and dance. A feel good album, that made disco cool for rock lovers.

Artwork

The Julian Laxton Collection

Tracks

Blue Water [7.12] from Celebration
Invent Yourself [6.00] theme from “Okavango: The Wild Frontier” TV Series 1993-1994
The Bridge [4.26]
Celebrate [6.01] listed as “Celebrate The Rain”, from Celebration
Johannesburg [4.16] edit, b-side of Fooled Around And Fell In Love single 1977; from Celebration
Make A Stand For Love [4.28] single 1981, theme from “Rising Storm” film in 1989
Down The Line [4.00] single 1977
The Thin Red Line [7.41] a theme from “Hold My Hand, I’m Dying (Blind Justice)” film in 1988
Fooled Around And Fell In Love [4.50] single 1977, a cover of the Elvin Bishop US#3 hit from 1976
We Are Growing [6.00] from Shaka Zulu TV series in 1986; reached #1 in The Netherlands in 1989
All I Need Is You [5.31] from Celebration
Man To Man [8.46] from Celebration
One Nine Six O (1-9-6-0) [3.55] single 1978

All tracks are by The Julian Laxton Band except tracks 2, 3 and 8 by Julian Laxton, and track 10 credited to Margaret Singana.

Musicians

Julian Laxton: Guitars, bass, keyboards, drums

Other musicians (selected)

Margaret Singana: vocals on ‘We Are Growing’
Trevor Rabin: bass
Eugene Havenga: vocals
Kevin Kruger: drums
Arthur Stead: keyboards
Stockley Sisters: backing vocals
Neil Cloud: drums
Cedric Samson: vocals, drums

Over the years the Julian Laxton Band included the vocalists Eugene Savage (Havenga) (1976), John Weddepohl (1977), Frankie Gibb (1978), Ronnie Padlas (1980), Cedric Samson (1980) and Huey Bush (1981).
Mixtapes.org.za

Release information

CD: 1994, Gallo, CDGMP 40458 S
Streaming / Download: May 2014, Unique Music

Sleeve notes

Julian Laxton has been active in the music industry for many years. He made a name for himself as a guitarist with such bands as “Mel, Mel and Julian” (in the 60s), “Freedoms Children”, “Hawk” and “Julian Laxton Band” from which he penned such hit songs as ‘Celebrate The Rain’, ‘Blue Water’ and ‘Johannesburg’.

He has also been active in the production side of the music industry and has won a “Sarie” award for best recording engineer. He has also produced artists such as “Rabbitt”, “Stingray”, “Margaret Singana”, Mango Groove”, “The Stockley Sisters”, and many others.

He has also actively been writing many radio, T.V. and cinema commercials (Jingles) and has won two bronze awards in New York and a Lurie award for ‘Best Music’ for a Coca Cola Commercial.

For the past five years he has written music scores for film and T.V. such as:-
Main title theme for “Shaka Zulu”. “Hold My Hand, I’m Dying”, “Jewel of the Gods”, “Quiet Thunder”, “Panga”, “Final Alliance”, “Purgatory, “The Evil Below”, “Headhunter”, “Rising Storm”, “Crime Lords” and “Okavango”.

Julian has just finished a very well acclaimed five month stint playing guitar in a show called “THE LEGEND OF CLAPTON” which was dedicated to Eric Clapton’s long and successful career. He is currently doing odd gigs with his Blues band called “Julian Laxton and Friends” and will be soon writing some material for a new album.

Review

SA Rock Digest Issue #98

by Kurt Shoemaker, Blanco, Texas, SA Rock Digest Issue #98, 18th March 2001

The tuff cover photo on the CD shows the guitar warrior looking fit and ready to play electric guitar. Julian Laxton, the South African rock legend and guitar master, may look like a tough rocker, and I’ll bet he is, but he is also a sensitive musician capable of playing many instruments and creating lovely melodies.

This CD should be titled ‘The Two Julian Laxton Collections’ because there are two kinds of songs included: rock songs and theme songs. The rock songs include three of my Julian Laxton favorites, ‘Blue Water’, ‘Celebrate the Rain’, and ‘Johannesburg’. The themes are interesting even though they have neither visuals nor nostalgia for me (except for ‘Shaka Zulu’, I never saw the shows or films). They range from rock (‘Invent Yourself’), to inspirational (‘The Thin Red Line’), and include the distinctly pretty theme-like ‘The Bridge’. The downright powerful ‘We Are Growing’ from ‘Shaka Zulu’ thunders over the veldt like an impi of bachelor warriors heading home for their reward after battle….

This Julian guy is some talent. He composes, produces, and plays guitar. On several of the tracks he is the only musician: “All instruments played by Julian Laxton”! He has a history of the positive sort: Mel, Mel, and Julian; Freedom’s Children; Hawk and Jo’Burg Hawk; as well as a solo career. Furthermore, his friends on this disc have name-brand recognition: Kevin Kruger, Trevor Rabin, Stockley Sisters, Neil Cloud, Margaret Singana, Cedric Sampson, Patric van Blerk and others.

This disc has over 72 minutes of music, making for an average track length of almost six minutes. In the rock numbers, this gives Julian and friends room to move, and in the theme songs they have time for movements and variations in a velvet groove.

All of the songs but one on this disc were composed by Julian Laxton, and most of them have lyrics written by Patric Van Blerk. The one cover tune is Elvin Bishop’s ‘Fooled Around And Fell In Love’ (a US #3 hit in 1976 for Elvin, a refugee from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band), and Julian’s hot guitar here is a treat.

‘The Julian Laxton Collection’ is a fine anthology of his later work containing guitar vocal rock and instrumental rock. ‘The Collection’ closes with a couple of hooky rock numbers, ‘Man To Man’ and ‘One Nine Six 0 (1960)’. The latter is strong guitar rock and closes the set.

The vocals on this CD are by several different singers, with here and there a sound not unlike the vocals of the Bee Gees. Unfortunately, the CD is out of print so the only place to find it is in the used CD shops. Good music, and maybe not so tough to find.

Next stop, Jo’burg, to visit Julian’s Theatre & Bistro to catch The Julian Laxton Band perform their Eric Clapton Tribute. If too early for the evening shows, there’s always music and braai in the beer garden. To judge by Julian’s website, this is a place where I could easily become a regular and annoy the waitresses.

Artwork

*The Julian Laxton Collection (Spotify)*

Singles

A-Side [time] / B-Side [time] chart info	Label	Catalogue Number	Year
Celebrate [3:55] / Children Of The Sunshine [2:52] Springbok Radio #10 in August 1976. Achieved #2 on Radio 5.	Jo’Burg	TJS 32	1976
(Take Me Back To) Blue Water [3:55] / (Take Me Back To) Blue Water (Disco Version) [6:30] Springbok Radio #7 in January 1977. Achieved #1 on Radio 5.	Jo’Burg	TJS 50	1976
Down The Line [3:57] / Down The Line (Disco Version) [5:52]	Jo’Burg	TJS 60	1977
Fooled Around And Fell In Love [4:30] (Elvin Bishop cover) / Johannesburg [4:08] Springbok Radio #13 in April 1978. Achieved #8 on Radio 5.	Jo’burg	TJS 68	1977
1-9-6-0 [3:55] / I Get High [4:08]	Jo’burg	TJS 94	1978
(Come Join My Band) Make A Stand For Love [4:20] / Don’t Close Your Mind [3:00]	Nitty Gritty Records	NGS 232	1981
Merry-Go-Round [3:50] / Don’t Close Your Mind [3:00]	Nitty Gritty Records	NGS 245	1981