John Theodore Kongos (born 6 August 1945) is a South African-born singer and songwriter of Greek ancestry, best known for his 1971 Top 10 hit single "
He's Gonna Step on You Again
"He's Gonna Step on You Again" (also known as "Step On") is a song originally performed by John Kongos, co-written by Kongos and Christos Demetriou, and first released in 1971 by Fly Records. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 22 May 1971 and s ...
", on which
Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays are an English rock band formed in Salford in 1980. The original line-up was Shaun Ryder (vocals), his brother Paul Ryder ( bass), Gary Whelan (drums), Paul Davis (keyboard), and Mark Day (guitar). Mark "Bez" Berry later joined t ...
based their hit "
Step On
"He's Gonna Step on You Again" (also known as "Step On") is a song originally performed by John Kongos, co-written by Kongos and Christos Demetriou, and first released in 1971 by Fly Records. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 22 May 1971 and sp ...
".
His other big hit was "
Tokoloshe Man", which was featured on the TV show ''
Life On Mars
The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ...
'' and the
CD soundtrack.
His second album, ''Kongos'', made the top 30 of the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
; but his subsequent singles, "Great White Lady" (1972), "
Ride the Lightning" (1975) and "Higher than God's Hat" (1975) did not chart.
Career
Having had success in South Africa in the early 1960s with his band Johnny and the G-Men, as well as a solo artist, Kongos went to the UK in 1966,
to pursue his musical career. His first UK based group, Floribunda Rose, formed in April 1967, comprised the British musicians, Pete Clifford (guitar) (born Peter William Frederick Clifford, 10 May 1943,
Whetstone, North London) and Jack Russell (bass, vocals) (born 29 April 1944,
Caerleon
Caerleon (; cy, Caerllion) is a town and community in Newport, Wales. Situated on the River Usk, it lies northeast of Newport city centre, and southeast of Cwmbran. Caerleon is of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable Roman ...
, South Wales), who had come to South Africa in June 1965 with The 004; drummer Nick 'Doc' Dokter (born 24 July 1945,
Kampen, Overijssel
Kampen () is a city and municipality in the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. A member of the former Hanseatic League, it is located at the lower reaches of the river IJssel.
The municipality of Kampen had a population of in and covers an are ...
, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
), a latter day member of 004; and the Cyprus-born keyboard player Chris Demetriou from John E Sharpe and the Squires. After one single, "Linda Loves Linda", Clifford returned to South Africa to join The Bats and Dokter moved to Canada and worked with Five Man Cargo. Drummer
Henry Spinetti
Enrico Antonio Giorgio Spinetti (born 31 March 1951) is a Welsh session drummer whose playing has featured on many prominent rock and pop albums.
Career
Spinetti was born in Cwm, near Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, Wales. His first band, aged about ...
joined and the remaining members recorded three singles as Scrugg.
After 18 months of gigging in Britain and Europe with his bands Floribunda Rose and Scrugg, and five singles later, he released his first solo album, ''Confusions About a Goldfish'' (1969), on the
Dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...
record label.
He then concentrated on songwriting, and began to have major success in Germany and other European countries (No. 1 and top 10 hits). He then moved to
Fly Records
Fly Records is a British independent record label, established in 1970 by the independent music publisher David Platz, and initially managed by Malcolm Jones from the offices of Essex Music in London.
History
Platz had been producing records ...
with whom he had two
hit
Hit means to strike someone or something.
Hit or HIT may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities
* Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super''
* Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
– "
He's Gonna Step on You Again
"He's Gonna Step on You Again" (also known as "Step On") is a song originally performed by John Kongos, co-written by Kongos and Christos Demetriou, and first released in 1971 by Fly Records. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 22 May 1971 and s ...
" (UK No. 4, May 1971;
U.S.
''Billboard'' Hot 100 No. 70) and "
Tokoloshe Man" (UK No. 4, November 1971).
His second album ''Kongos'' made the top 30 of the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
, but subsequent singles, "Great White Lady" (1972), "
Ride the Lightning" (1975) and "Higher than God's Hat" (1975), did not
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
.
"Tomorrow I'll Go", which appeared on ''Kongos'', was covered by New Zealand band
The Human Instinct
The Human Instinct are a New Zealand blues rock band that has been active since the late 1960s. The band currently consists of Maurice Greer (lead vocals and stand-up drummer), Phil Pritchard (guitar), Joel Haines (guitar) and Tony Baird (bass) ...
on their 1970 album ''
Stoned Guitar'', while "Ride The Lightning" (1975) was covered by
Sylvie Vartan
Sylvie Vartan (; born Sylvie Georges Vartanian; hy, Սիլվի Ժորժ Վարդանյան. on 15 August 1944) is an Armenian-Bulgarian-French singer and actress. She is known as one of the most productive and tough-sounding yé-yé artists. ...
as "
Qu'est-ce qui fait pleurer les blondes?" in France and was No. 1 on that chart for several weeks in 1976.
"
He's Gonna Step on You Again
"He's Gonna Step on You Again" (also known as "Step On") is a song originally performed by John Kongos, co-written by Kongos and Christos Demetriou, and first released in 1971 by Fly Records. It entered the UK Singles Chart on 22 May 1971 and s ...
" is cited in the ''
Guinness Book of Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' as being the first song to ever use a
sample
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...
.
However, according to the sleeve note of the CD reissue of the ''Kongos'' album, it is actually a tape loop of African drumming.
Kongos continued to work in his own London studio as a
record producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
,
sound engineer
An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...
,
TV jingle
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...
and
theme music
Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
, and
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
, as well as handling the programming of the
Fairlight CMI
The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight.
— with links to some Fairlight history and photos
It was based on a commercial lic ...
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
on
Def Leppard
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), a ...
's 1983 album, ''
Pyromania
Pyromania is an impulse control disorder in which individuals repeatedly fail to resist impulses to deliberately start fires, to relieve some tension or for instant gratification. The term ''pyromania'' comes from the Greek word (''pyr'', 'fi ...
''.
He gained notice with a new musical generation in 1990, when
Madchester
Madchester was a musical and cultural scene that developed in the English city of Manchester in the late 1980s, closely associated with the indie dance scene. Indie-dance (sometimes referred to as indie-rave) saw artists merging indie music w ...
pioneers
Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays are an English rock band formed in Salford in 1980. The original line-up was Shaun Ryder (vocals), his brother Paul Ryder ( bass), Gary Whelan (drums), Paul Davis (keyboard), and Mark Day (guitar). Mark "Bez" Berry later joined t ...
reworked "He's Gonna Step On You Again" into their
baggy
Baggy was a name given to a British alternative dance genre popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with many of the artists referred to as "baggy" being bands from the Madchester scene.
History
The genesis of indie-dance was the Balearic ...
era defining hit "Step On", which reached No. 5 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
In the same year they also
covered
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
his "Tokoloshe Man", for the
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
, ''
Rubáiyát''.
Discography
His 1966–1969 work (including his recordings with Floribunda Rose and Scrugg, and his solo album ''Confusions About a Goldfish'') was released on a
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
, ''Lavender Popcorn'' (2001).
The album ''Kongos'' (Elektra, 1972), plus his remaining singles first issued on Fly, appeared on the
CD ''Tokoloshe Man Plus'', released by
See For Miles Records
See for Miles Records (SFM) was a British record label which was one of the first British re-issue specialists predating the emergence of compact discs.
See for Miles reissued most of the records of many labels including Dandelion Records on C ...
in 1988.
Personal life
Kongos is married to Shelley and has four sons; Johnny, Jesse, Dylan, and Daniel, who are members of the rock group
Kongos.
References
External links
Official websiteOfficial MySpace page*
John Kongos biographyat
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
John Kongos at Amazon.comJohn Kongos on iTunes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kongos, John
1945 births
Living people
Singers from Johannesburg
RCA Victor artists
South African expatriates in the United Kingdom
20th-century South African male singers
South African record producers
Dawn Records artists
Fly Records artists
South African people of Greek descent
South African people of Hispanic descent