On the Couch with MEX

Enjoy this exclusive interview on Cape Talk, from Thursday 30 May at 9pm with Grammy-winning duo, Blue Lab Beats. Context: "Few acts encapsulate the breadth of what’s been happening in London’s jazz and neo-soul worlds as well as Blue Lab Beats” - Loud & Quiet “Fresh innovation...the duo’s broadest statement yet” - CLASH “Their sound is a shining example of the youth-driven, boundary-breaking creativity that characterises the blossoming scene which is dominating the capital” - DUMMY Grammy winning duo Blue Lab Beats one of the fastest-rising production duos in the world right now have just released there fourth studio album, Blue Eclipse. The prodigiously talented duo who ended 2023 by selling out KOKO and picking up their second MOBO Nomination, got 2024 off to a stunning start with the sumptuous soul groove of their new single “Wait A While”, featuring Grammy-nominated Amber Navran, LA-based singer/producer, and founding member of Neo-Soul trio Moonchild, and rising UK Neo-soul artist Farah Audhal. Blue Eclipse heralds an exciting new era for Blue Lab Beats and the 12 songs reveal the depth and breadth of producer NK-OK, and multi-instrumentalist Mr DM’s musical ambition. Featured guests include Mercury Prize nominated Kojey Radical alongside Daley, on “Take Time”, IDK & Jay Prince on “Say Wow”, Amber & Farah on “Wait A While”, and Poppy Daniels on the title track. “We called this album Blue Eclipse as a nod to Blue Skies, our first EP. We wanted to embrace some themes and sounds that we’ve used throughout our career and make an album that truly represents us. Using sky titles acts as a reminder of people in our lives who inspired us and left a very important mark on us. We wanted to welcome old friends as well new ones onto this project and we are so happy with everyone’s amazing contributions.” Blue Lab Beats. Listen below Blue Eclipseopen.spotify.com Track-listing: 1.Never Doubt 2.Say Wow (feat. IDK, Jay Prince) 3.Rice & Peas (feat. Kyra, Bnny Hunna, Aidan) 4.Cherry Blossom (feat. Ben Jones & Parthenope) 5.Sky Paradise (interlude) 6.Wait A While (feat. Amber Navran, Farah Audhali) 7.Sunset In LA 8.Nights In Tokyo (feat. Kaidi) 9.Take Time (feat. Kojey Radical & Daley) 10.Guava (feat. Poppy Daniels, Richie Seivwright, Camilla George, Kaidi) 11.Blue Eclipse (feat. Poppy Daniels) 12.Brother (feat. Natalie Lindi) Starting out as bedroom producers, remixing tracks for A-listers such as Dua Lipa and Rag’N’Bone Man, on to supporting the likes of Roy Ayers and Thundercat, and producing on Kojey Radical’s ‘Reason To Smile’, Blue Lab Beats have been dreaming big from the beginning. Their 2018 debut album XOver, a brilliant blend of analog and electronic sounds, included the track ‘Pineapple’, which amassed over 10 million streams alone, while 2022’s ‘Motherland Journey’ proved a work of great musical ambition and imagination featuring vocals from the late great Fela Kuti, as well as one of a kind artists Tiana Major9, Ghetto Boy, Ego Ella May, Kofi Stone, and Pip Millet. The last two years have seen Blue Lab Beats emerge from the bedroom, and into the ears, minds and hearts of millions of music lovers with over 50 million streams, a GRAMMY for their production on Angelique Kidjo's 'Fired Up' track from her ‘Mother Nature’ LP, a Jazz FM Innovation Award and now two MOBO nominations. The pair also contributed the key track "Blow You Away" (Delilah) featuring Afrobeats artist Ghetto Boy, for the hugely acclaimed British film Rye Lane and also made their silver screen debut when they performed in the movie. Playing two electrifying sets at Glastonbury Festival in 2023, the Blue Note in Tokyo, Love Supreme in Japan , three shows at Jazzaladia Festival in Spain, a sold out show at the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, a support with Robert Glasper at Jazz A Vienne and straight on to both Montreux Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival before ending the year at the legendary KOKO for Global Soul Radio in...

Guy was back on Thurs at 9pm on CapeTalk Talking about: Shortage of training for filmmakers in the business aspects of film. How are they financed? How do you justify the cost and what is the plan to repay the money. Lack of institutional financing and the negative thinking around film and television projects The importance of having the legal issues pertaining to a project resolved from the outset – this extends to chain of title, production and distribution agreements. #businessofentertainment

With a background in corporate law at one of South Africa’s big five law firms, Guy joined the firm in 2002 and seeing an opportunity of an under serviced sector began practicing in the broader field of media and entertainment. The firm has since grown into a formidable boutique entertainment firm that is often described as “punching above its weight” given its client base in the film and television sector both locally and internationally. With more than 20 years’ experience in the legal and business end of the entertainment industry and his involvement in the production and/or financing of more than 200 projects, Guy is in a unique position to offer quick and comprehensive advice on all aspects of film, television, development, production, financing and distribution. Guy’s clients include global financing institutions active in film and television financing, studios, streamers and production companies as well as some well-known individual creatives. Guy has numerous film and television credits to his name including the Oscar nominated film “Invictus”. He is highly regarded both locally and internationally as South Africa's leading entertainment lawyer and has been instrumental in securing production work for his clients in excess of three billion rand. Guy is also a regular speaker at industry events.

Peter Lacey is a successful entrepreneur who comes from a background in the entertainment software industry, having successfully built S.A's largest independent entertainment software company, Vision Software, before selling it to Electronic Arts (EA) and running the African division for four years. Peter has always taken pride in the fact that South Africa has tremendous talent, both in software development and musical ability, and that all we ever needed was a channel to the international market to develop that intellectual property offering. Peter is a huge music fan, having been a DJ at college and he has known Brian O'Shea for 20 years. When he decided to leave EA in 2000 there was only one thing he wanted to do: create a music company with a global reputation for great music. Peter is a natural risk taker who has brought all artists onto the label under his motto "Pride, Passion, Patience and Persistence". Peter handles all exploitation and other business activities. These include publishing, personal and business management arms to young artists striving to break out of the traditional low income base artists presently have in this country.

Peter Lacey is a successful entrepreneur who comes from a background in the entertainment software industry, having successfully built S.A's largest independent entertainment software company, Vision Software, before selling it to Electronic Arts (EA) and running the African division for four years. Peter has always taken pride in the fact that South Africa has tremendous talent, both in software development and musical ability, and that all we ever needed was a channel to the international market to develop that intellectual property offering. Peter is a huge music fan, having been a DJ at college and he has known Brian O'Shea for 20 years. When he decided to leave EA in 2000 there was only one thing he wanted to do: create a music company with a global reputation for great music. Peter is a natural risk taker who has brought all artists onto the label under his motto "Pride, Passion, Patience and Persistence". Peter handles all exploitation and other business activities. These include publishing, personal and business management arms to young artists striving to break out of the traditional low income base artists presently have in this country.

Greg has kindly given me this, in the room, story of that famous recording - Yes, Greg did ALL the work ;-) The story begins sometime in late 1978 early 1979. Patric Van Blerk, who was on a sabbatical from the music industry at the time, had shown a great interest in the newly formed trio of Joy. He was at the time planning his re-entry into the music business after the demise of the Satbel record company and troubles at the newly formed Jo’burg records. He had re-established his connection with his old song writing partner Fransua Roos after years of being estranged from him and had written a new batch of songs. He was looking for a new breed of artists to form the core of his then emerging label Café Society, named after the very successful café Casablanca on Rocky Street. Two of the new batch of songs were “Paradise Road” and “Ain’t Gonna Stop ‘Til I Get to the Top”. Linda Bernhardt and myself were invited to Patric’s house in Orange Grove on several occasions to discuss the potential of his involvement with Joy and Spirits Rejoice. Fransua Roos was present at one of these meetings and played for us, on the piano, an unfinished version of Paradise Road and Ain’t Gonna Stop. We were both blown away by the songs and from there on forward we knew they were going to be very powerful and perfect for Joy. It was decided that the recordings would be done as a collaboration with Fransua Roos arranging the tracks in conjunction with Spirits Rejoice. Spirits Rejoice were using a spare room at Satbel Studios for their band rehearsals. We arranged for Fransua to join them along with Joy in the rehearsal room to start the rehearsals in preparation for the recordings. This was a magic rehearsal session. Fransua played the songs a couple of times to introduce the band and the girls to the song, Patric had more or less completed the lyrics and after about a couple of hours the arrangements had come together, the girls had worked out their parts and it was sounding amazing. Felicia had mastered the tone and delivery that Fransua wanted for the verses, Anneline had delivered the power going into the choruses and Thoko had the warm low harmonies that were so much the sound of Joy. The phenomenal bass line was a natural for Sipho Gumede and the subtlety of the drums/percussion was a result of the amazing techniques of Gilbert Mathews on the drums. Everyone was so high after these rehearsals, we knew this was going to be a big hit and couldn’t wait to get into studio to record. Unfortunately there were some complications that would hold up the recording. Patric was still in the process of concluding his label deal with Matt Mann of RPM records and there were questions about where we would be able to record our tracks. We were holding out for the recording to be done at Satbel Studios as they had the most advanced 24 track recording studio in South Africa at the time. The issues were resolved in the fullness of time and we started to record at Satbel studios. The rhythm section we used for the backing tracks with consisted of Gilbert Mathews on drums, Sipho Gumede on bass, Paul Peterson on guitar, Fransua Roos on grand piano and Mervyn Africa on Fender Rhodes. The backing track was laid within one or two takes along with two or three other backing tracks. We then proceeded to add the vocals. We were very fussy with the vocals and probably spent more than a day doing this, in fact I think we came back to some parts two or three times as the orchestration developed. Fransua then went away to write the parts for the string section. The string section took a long time to record as Fransua had not held back on the complexity of the arrangement and the string players found some of the parts tricky to deliver, especially the cello parts on the intro’s and turnarounds. Once we had completed the string section overdubs we all started to have visions of this being the perfect kitchen sink production. Fransua then went away again and...

Part two, where I chatted with multi talented production man and lighting designer, Jp Willson about events, shows and weddings, and much much more on CapeTalk, just past 9pm each Thursday, on the #BusinessOfEntertainment. Please enjoy.

We spoke to multi talented , production man , lighting designer Jp Willson about events , shows and weddings and much much more on CapeTalk just past 9pm on the #BusinessOfEntertainment. Please enjoy.

For over 35 years, Iain Banner has co-founded and directed various successful businesses and charitable ventures throughout the world, across the sports, entertainment, luxury goods and hospitality industries. As co-founder and chairman of E-Movement, Iain and his partners successfully staged Formula E Cape Town in February 2023. Prior to that, they also staged ‘Africa’s Green Economy Summit’, connecting capital with the Green Economy; launched Formula Student Africa and staged the ELECTRIC Festival. GO GREEN AFRICA was launched by Iain at this time too. Iain’s previous projects include co-founding Sports International, the Gary Player Design Company, and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Iain also co-founded the Laureus World Sport Awards and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which has raised over €250 million supporting some 300 projects annually, using sport as a tool for social change in the lives of children. Independent assessments have shown that some seven million children have been positively impacted by the work of the Sport for Good Foundation since it was founded in 2000.

Having just released their latest studio album, Bauhaus Staircase, MEX, and by extension, me, Jason Curtis, was gifted a rare opportunity to speak to both Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) on the eve of the most extensive world tour in 45 years. The best part is the synth pioneers will be heading to South Africa in April 2024, the third time we get to welcome them back, eager to hear new music and a wall of evergreen classics, too. While we wait, give this two-part interview a whirl, dust off those seminal records and prepare to be blown away. Thursday, 18 April 2024 - Green Point A-Track, Green Point, Cape Town Saturday, 20 April 2024 – Marks Park Sports Club in Emmarentia, Johannesburg For all the details, head to ⁠Breakout Events⁠ for tickets and more information.

For over 35 years, Iain Banner has co-founded and directed various successful businesses and charitable ventures throughout the world, across the sports, entertainment, luxury goods and hospitality industries. As co-founder and chairman of E-Movement, Iain and his partners successfully staged Formula E Cape Town in February 2023. Prior to that, they also staged ‘Africa’s Green Economy Summit’, connecting capital with the Green Economy; launched Formula Student Africa and staged the ELECTRIC Festival. GO GREEN AFRICA was launched by Iain at this time too. Iain’s previous projects include co-founding Sports International, the Gary Player Design Company, and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Iain also co-founded the Laureus World Sport Awards and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which has raised over €250 million supporting some 300 projects annually, using sport as a tool for social change in the lives of children. Independent assessments have shown that some seven million children have been positively impacted by the work of the Sport for Good Foundation since it was founded in 2000.

Arthur Goldstuck is a popular South African icon as a journalist, media analyst and speaker. Arthur heads the World Wide Worx research organisation in which he leads ground-breaking market research to how change affects business and society and presents his findings and insights to audiences both locally and internationally. World Wide Worx is a producer of the most widely accepted statistics for Internet use in South Africa and has piloted research across the African continent since 2001, in which the complexities of operating on the continent is unravelled.

Arthur Goldstuck is a popular South African icon as a journalist, media analyst and speaker. Arthur heads the World Wide Worx research organisation in which he leads ground-breaking market research to how change affects business and society and presents his findings and insights to audiences both locally and internationally. World Wide Worx is a producer of the most widely accepted statistics for Internet use in South Africa and has piloted research across the African continent since 2001, in which the complexities of operating on the continent is unravelled.

Having started from rung #1 of the ladder of the entertainment industry, a courier biker for a music company in London, John slowly climbed upwards, from trainee engineer at Air Edel to engineer, then trainee Producer at Air Studios London to Producer. Shifting focus out of the studio and into the world of Music Publishing, he began his publishing life at Chrysalis Music, moving to MCA Music, to his own company CFM and then back to the corporate world of PolyGram Music. Within the PolyGram Group, John transferred to Germany and eventually South Africa, building PolyGram Music from scratch, shifting to Universal Music and taking the company to being #1 Publisher. John was also the chief negotiator o.b.o. NORM (during his role as Chairman), securing the first Digital Agreement in Africa, paving the way for a precedent to be set for all Digital agreements with DSPs thereafter. He was also the pioneer and founding driving force behind the first unified mechanical society in South Africa, CAPASSO. Now joint owner of independent music publishing company, Active Music Publishing, he continues to strive to develop and support composers in this highly competitive area of the industry, adding value in whatever means possible to further their careers. A Board Member of the Independent Music Publishers Forum (IMPF), a body of over 175 Intl. Independent Publishers, vying to ensure the interests of composers and publishers is heard globally, sitting on various committees, one of which is the current hot topic…, AI. “Measuring your success in the world of music is not about who you have worked with, it is about who you are working with. It is not about what you have done, it is about what you are doing”.

We talked Podcasts and more with Brendan “Spike” Ballantine on Thurs 14 March at 9pm on the Business of Entertainment on CapeTalk. Since 2015, Spike has focused on podcasting; his company, dbo Media, has provided production services to South Africa’s podcasting pioneer CliffCentral, and overseen the creation of podcast series for BMW South Africa, Investec, WITS and DHL Europe, amongst others.

We taked Podcasts and more with Brendan on Thurs 7 March at 9pm on the Business of Entertainment on CapeTalk. Brendan “Spike” Ballantine is a media industry professional, with over 20 years experience encompassing audio production for both radio and television, as well copywriting and content ideation. Since 2015, Spike has focussed on podcasting; his company, dbo Media, has provided production services to South Africa’s podcasting pioneer CliffCentral, and overseen the creation of podcast series for BMW South Africa, Investec, WITS and DHL Europe, amongst others.

The Business of Entertainment on CapeTalk, hosted by Martin Myers every Thursday at 9 pm, landed a real coup with this exclusive one-on-one. Kevin Leo-Smith has extensive experience in developing and growing conservation-based tourism projects. He is the co-founder and partner of Safari Investments Advisory and a non-executive director of Immedia, a South African cloud-computing platform In the late 1980s, he conceived of the idea behind Phinda Game Reserve, achieving the then biggest private conversion of land use from agriculture to conservation in South Africa at that time, and formed its parent company Conservation Corporation Africa with Alan Bernstein and others, where he was responsible for development and operations until 1996. In 1997, Kevin established Kwando Safaris from scratch with a partner, constructing 5 luxury camps in Botswana’s Okavango region on over 400,000 hectares of private concession. In 2006, he co-founded SFM Africa (now African Conservation Development Group) with Alan Bernstein, creating and operating projects in Gabon, Guinea and Rwanda. Most of the projects had a safari tourism component as well as forestry and agriculture.

We spoke to Kevin Leo-Smith on Thurs, 22 February 2024 at 9pm on Cape Talk's, The Business of Entertainment. Now in its 10th month, the Business of Entertainment on Cape Talk, hosted by Martin Myers every Thursday at 9 pm, has landed a real coup with this exclusive one-on-one. Kevin Leo-Smith has extensive experience in developing and growing conservation-based tourism projects. He is the co-founder and partner of Safari Investments Advisory and a non-executive director of immedia, a South African cloud-computing platform. In the late 1980s, he conceived of the idea behind Phinda Game Reserve, achieving the then biggest private conversion of land use from agriculture to conservation in South Africa at that time, and formed its parent company Conservation Corporation Africa with Alan Bernstein and others, where he was responsible for development and operations until 1996. In 1997, Kevin established Kwando Safaris from scratch with a partner, constructing 5 luxury camps in Botswana’s Okavango region on over 400,000 hectares of private concession. In 2006, he co-founded SFM Africa (now African Conservation Development Group) with Alan Bernstein, creating and operating projects in Gabon, Guinea and Rwanda. Most of the projects had a safari tourism component as well as forestry and agriculture.

Meet my most recent guest on The Business of Entertainment on Cape Talk, delivered each Thursday at 9pm. Laura Vincenti is a highly accomplished and dynamic figure in the art world, currently serving as the Director of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, a position she has held since 2017. With a degree in architecture, she has successfully blended Italian design styles with African materials, showcasing her creativity and a keen eye for detail, meticulous attention to detail, problem-solving skills, and natural aptitude for authority which has assisted in taking her to where she is today.Vincenti's career has been marked by significant achievements and diverse experiences. She earned her architectural education in both Italy, Turin, and England, Oxford, and has been actively involved in artistic and architectural events since the 1990s. Notably, she served as the Exhibition Designer for renowned art biennales such as BIG TORINO in 2000 and 2002, as well as the Venice Biennale in 2005 and 2013. Her collaboration with influential artists and curators like Francois Confino, Maurizio Cattelan, Mario Merz, Piero Gilardi, and Michelangelo Pistoletto has further enriched her portfolio.As a Project Manager and site managers' coordinator, Vincenti played a pivotal role in the successful delivery of the three Olympic Villages for the Winter Olympic Games in Turin in 2006, demonstrating her ability to manage large-scale projects efficiently. She then served as the Principal Architect for ARTISSIMA, an international fair of contemporary art in Torino, from 2007 to 2014.One of Vincenti’s aims is to establish a successful consultancy in South Africa that bridges the cultural influences of her birthplace, Italy, and her newfound love, South Africa. Her vision includes fostering connections between these two countries and contributing to the cultural dialogue.As the Director of Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Vincenti is dedicated to positioning Cape Town as a significant international destination for art and culture.

This interview, made up of three parts, was recorded at the home of Sipho Mabuse, back in 2019. Please give it a listen and celebrate this giant of music's contribution to our collective entertainment economy. RIP, Tony.