Eric Clapton and the Kings Concert - Swaziland 1989

A collegue was telling me at lunch time he is going to see Eric Clapton next week at the O2 in Dublin - I thought about seeing him, but honestly there are just too many concerts to see these days, but I was telling him about when I saw Eric Clapton in 1989 in Swaziland.

My BFF had gone to a Rock Concert with her brother the previous year in Zimbabwe to see, Bruce Springsteen, I was very jealous that I was not going with, she also came home with some amazing stories, that I will tell you about some day.  So when another friend of mine invited me to go with them to see Eric Clapton and a host of other bands in Swaziland, I jumped at the opportunity.

My friend and I were going with a mutual ex-boyfriends brother and his friend.  Well the friend that came with was a BIG marujana smoker and smoked in the car all the way up.  We left at about 10 a.m. on the Friday morning 21st of July 1989, the concert was on Saturday evening in Mbabane at the Somhole Stadium, it was the Kings Trust concert, basically a concert to celebrate King Mswatti II 21st birthday - he aparently had a private concert at the palace.

So we drove to Oshoek border and got through relatively easy, aparently that night and the next day there were 5 hour waits.  We had no accommodation, but a tent in the car and a couple of tins of tinned food, my friend had organized with some mates of hers that worked there that we could camp on their property or stay in the house, and this back in 1989 when there were no cell phones or email everything was done on trust and hope.

We eventually found the guys place, well the house that they stayed in was so filthy that we even decided it was not worth using the toilet as we did not know what we would catch, so we really roughed if for the week-end.

I don't remember too much detail but remember it was an awesome week-end, I am going to go and dig up my old photos and scan them in.  While searching the internet for any information about the concert I came across this newspaper article which describes everything to a T.

Travelling back on Sunday, we decided to go through Piggs Peak as again there was a 5-8 hour wait at Oshoek border post, which was probably a wise move.  We got back and I had to have 3 baths to get rids of the dirt, and my husband wants to know why I don't like camping!

 If you can't read the article I have posted here, here is the link which should be a lot clearer: http://samusicheritage.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/swazi-rock/

The Great Bank Tunnel Robbery

In 1977 (42 years ago now) the biggest and bravest bank robberies in South African History was staged in Krugersdorp South Africa, it was over an Easter week-end.  

The Standard Bank in Krugersdorp was robbed of over R400 000, which back in 1977 was a lot of money, considering we bought our house in 1996 for R100,000.    

A shop across the road from the bank was rented, they used a false name (Mr Nightingale) and an address in a Johannesburg Suburb.  Mr Nightingale said he was opening a photographic studio and therefore pasted Newspapers all over the windows of the shop.

In 1977, during the Easter weekend, the Standard Bank in Krugersdorp was robbed in one of the most daring robberies in the history of South Africa. More than R400 000 was taken.

During the day, the robbers dug a tunnel to the bank, placing the soil in bags which were then removed from the premises.

What counted in their favour was that the ground was relatively soft and there were no underground cables or pipes on the route. They even installed wooden props in the tunnel, leading people to believe they had mining experience.

They did their homework very well – they knew that compressors were being used nearby, enabling them to mask any sounds they would make during the excavation – in fact, the bank turned off its trembler alarms for that very reason.

The robbers tunnelled for three months, digging 21 metres under four adjacent shops until they struck the bank’s vault, without anyone knowing about it.

During the Easter weekend, the robbers broke through, took what they wanted and disappeared. No arrests have been made to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Krugersdorp_bank_robbery

The "Big Snow" in 1981

This week was the anniversary 10th of September of the Snow we had in Johannesburg in 1981, majority of us kids had never seen snow in our lives before, so it really was a novelty.

I remember the week so well, the week before we celebrated Spring day and it was starting to get warmer, the blossoms were out.  I remember leaving for College on the morning of the 10th, there was no sign of a cold weather and it was rather warm.

I caught the Nr. 45 bus from Linmeyer to Eloff Street in Johannesburg, and as we drove through Rosettenville the sky was absolutely black!  We got to college, it was situated towards the end of Eloff street towards the station and we were on the 11th floor!


The snow started lightly, we were all looking out the window until it started coming down much heavier, then when it started to settle we took this opportunity to make snowballs and start throwing them down at the people in the street below.

There was absolute Chaos and the Principal said that only the kids whose parents said they could go home could go home, but I think we all just took this opportunity to bolt.

In the side road "Post Street" running down to Risi Avenue, some kids had rolled a GIANT snowball in the middle of the road, so no cars could get up or down.    A week later it still hadn't quite thawed out and the Fire Brigade had to use pick axes to smash it and get it to melt.

I would love to hear about your stories from the Snow in 1981 in Johannesburg!


It's amazing how to this day, 38 years later everyone who was around that day have their own stories to tell.   We were lucky living in the South of Johannesburg as we had more snow than anywhere else and it lasted for at least 2 days!  I heard that in the Northern suburbs it didn't even really settle.

I found this really cool website of Snow in South Africa from 1853 - 2014, some really good photos on the website as well.