By Alec Hogg.There are nights you'll always remember, like our crash landing at OR Tambo. Then there are nights to cherish. Saturday at Gold Reef City's The Lyric was one of those. Thanks to my good friend, music-obsessed Charles Smith, a shameful omission was righted. It's taken me 32 years to get to a Johnny Clegg concert. I've been the loser..I did meet South Africa's famous musical export some years ago when we breakfasted at a modest coffee shop in Norwood. We were brought together by his then lawyer David Dison who wanted to engineer the takeover of JSE-listed company AME. Moneyweb, which I then controlled, was to be the vehicle to acquire a mish-mash of businesses put together during the 1997 new listings boom. AME was in an almost terminal state, but did own two extremely valuable radio licences (OFM and Algoa)..Johnny was keen to get involved, primarily to help bankroll the transaction and use his experience of the music industry to right the leaking AME ship. Sadly, the idea never got past the discussion stage. From what I saw of Mr Clegg it would have been a privilege to work with him. And the financialupside was also considerable. The professional manager who was brought in to clean up the mess had fairly quickly turned AME back into a money machine. Ownership of the legislated monopolies called South African radio licenses tends to do that..I remember Johnny Clegg as thoughtful and, despite (or perhaps because of) his casual dress, a highly civilized, mature man. Last night was the first time I'd seen him since our breakfast. This time we were a few hundred metres apart. The black jeans and t-shirt were still there. But instead of bringing a smile to the waitron, he was generating cheers from the 800 fans lucky enough to get a seat at the last of a two night mini-season in Johannesburg. Fresh from a lengthy US tour and London's Royal Albert Hall, Clegg is so popular internationally that his local appearances are infrequent. So if you do get the chance to see him and his tight six-person supporting band, do it..Clegg's website tells us he was born 60 years ago. His dance moves would be impressive for someone half his age, especially as he kept them up for over two high-energy hours. But the show was mostly about music and the stories. The only deviation from a simple set being a large screen above the performers showing video footage. The biggest cheer coming during the encore when we were treated to a deeply emotional clip of a slightly younger Nelson Mandela on the Clegg stage doing his trademark jive..This time there was no overhead kick or traditional dance from the White Zulu. Instead, the Clegg package has matured. The Juluka/Savuka/Clegg favourites were there, including the hauntingly powerful Impi. I caught it on my iPhone – and although there's no fancy zooming (and my hand's a bit shaky sometimes) it's well worth watching the Youtube video to get a feel of the crowd's emotion. Have mebedded the video at the bottom of this blog. Between tracks he treated us to some of his amazing life story. Clegg, an anthropologist and deeply aware "greenie", is highly articulate. These interludes were, for me, a huge bonus as they provided context through unique insights into how the next song was born, its background and history..As Gary Player keeps showing the world, a strict fitness regime is able to turn back the clock. Judging from his condition, it's obvious Johnny Clegg looks after that side. But it's not just physical. Everything about him shouts out that Clegg is a man on purpose..Another thing that amazed me was the power in his voice. So I asked Charles's cousin, the band's drummer Barry van Zyl, how Johnny manages to keep his vocal chords so smooth and powerful. Barry explained that it is a combination of sleep and limited talking, especially between gigs. Barry says singing is actually less stressful on our voices than talking. Never heard the 40 winks angle before, but the drummer says it's well known in the music business that lots of sleep is the key to vocal longevity. And, I guess, knowing that when you're off the stage, it's best to switch the cotton wool from your ears to your mouth. As Clegg, in public and private, clearly appreciates.
