Bands from Mufulira ~ 60's and 70's

From Great North Road

By: Paudie Coughlan

Herewith photos of some Mufulira-based bands/musicians in Zambia in the late 60's and early 70's. Two of the photos show Chewy Lavallette playing drums with us.

Apollo 4 Muf 1968 L to R John, Des, Alistair, Paudie.

Taken just after we had all come back from our first year at boarding school. We had formed up the previous year at Mufulira High School. All pretty much self-taught John Costopoulos, age 16, played on in bands and the caberet scene in Zambia until circa 1986, and did some caberet in Zims and Kenya. Is now in business in Durban, and music-wise does mainly caberet in duo with his wife Kim. Also collaborates musically wilh Mike Thomas, another ex-Zambia muso. All as semi-pro. Des Brand, age 15, played with this line-up until Jan 1971, when he went to Bulawayo. Now living in Johannesburg.

Alistair Coakley, age 15, played with John and Paudie and others in Zambia until circa 1973. Alistair went on to be a professional musician in South Africa, playing in the chart-topping band "Hotline" in the 80's. Is now in Jo'burg, and is a top personality in the SA music industry. He was the only one of us to have the courage to live his dream to the full. Ali's sister Elaine is living in Chingola, married to Arthur Couturi.

Paudie Coughlan, age 16, played on in numerous bands in Zambia, many with John Costopoulos, until 1980, when he gave up music to focus on a commercial career. After UK, Oz, Italy, and Ireland, is now in Perth, Oz and no longer plays music publicly.

We are all now in contact again after all these years, ultimately and gratefully through the GNR (ed. note: Des, John and Paudie are now GNR members)

Apollo 4 Muf 1968 L to R John, Alistair, Graham, Paudie.

After a practice session at John's house. The guy in the dark shirt is Graham Heeson (sp?), ex Ndola, who played with us for a while. He was more experienced than us, and could afford a large amplifier, which added to the sound.

Smarty Gobblers Jan 1969.

L to R Graham, Alistair, John, (Des and Paudie out of shot). Our first real grown-up session, good money and all. The name shows that we knew nothing about marketing. We had been called Apollo 4, but as this session approached, someone very cleverly noticed that there were five of us. During the discussion that followed, someone quipped sarcastically that the Ndola people were going to be very impressed when they saw that the band was made up of a bunch of smartie-gobblers ( the then current term for lighties). The name stuck, briefly thank goodness.

Smarty Gobblers 1969.

Same session ( Alistair out of shot). Does any GNR member out there know who "Ndola Man" is?

Mynde Projection at Muf Rugby Club 1971.

One of many sessions at Muf Rugby Club at that time. Wouldn't be surprised if a young Gill Main was there, maybe chaperoned by Les or Val? Some of the musicians viewing this will be amused by the basic equipment, but we made good music. Here Alistair is playing flute - he could do a mean Jethro Tull impression, standing on one leg and all. The music we played in "Mynde Projection" tended to be to the heavy side rather than just commercial.

Mynde Projection at Muf Rugby Club 1971.

Another shot at the same session. On the left looking on are Lee Ouzman and Dave Barrett. Alistair is in the throes of a guitar solo. In another photo, of insufficient quality to post here, some people visible dancing at this session are Carol Connelly, Mike Coughlan, Helen King, Linda Stone, Roger Costopoulos, Danny McKay and, in the background Chester Mountjoy, Peter Lee, Trevor Jones and Neiles Billany. Of names I've seen and recognize on the GNR addresses as having been in Muf at that time, the following are also likely to have been there - Bridget Billany, Sparky Wallace, Steve Keely, Eddie Pfeffer, Barry Winterburn, Dave Webb, Rod Crowe, Owen Thomas.

Mynde Projection at Mindolo Dam, Kitwe 1971.

L to R - Paudie, Alistair, Chewie Lavallette, Marnie Raubenheimer. After Des Brand left for Bukawayo, Marnie played bass. John Costopoulos was taken ill a few days before this session, and we managed to talk Chewie into standing in on drums for the gig. If Kevin Mason is reading this, the guitar Alistair is playing is Marnie's 'Fender Stratocastor', I think the same one Kevin mentions using in another band with Marnie several years earlier. This was our first session ever at Mindolo Dam. Funnily enough I remember that this set of photos was taken by Pierre Fabel, who used to help us out moving gear etc. The other memory is that there was a fight before the session started, in which Karl Claussen got whacked over the head with a bicycle chain - impressive, as Muf guys used to at least wait till sessions started before indulging in fisticuffs etc.

Mynde Projection at Mindolo Dam, Kitwe 1971.

The same session. Here Chewie is doing a drum solo, and the rest of us are egging him on. This shows our heavy side, when we ignored the dancing audience for a while and did our own thing. Many a time though, many people would stop dancing and gather round the bandstand to watch these solos. Seated at the far right is Des Wandry.

Muther's Convention, Ndola Trade Fair, 1971.

L to R - Paudie, John. (out of shot are Marnie, bass, Des Wandry, organ, Roger Costopoulos, drums, and Ian Kyle, sax). We played on the Zambia Breweries stand for 3 days, I thinks 4 sets per day. The money was good and we had free draft beer when we wanted it. However, playing in the hot sun, we had to be sensible about drinking.

Muther's Convention, Ndola Trade Fair, 1971.

L to R - Paudie, John, Des Wandry, Marnie. As a matter of interest, the ponchos were one of the several "uniforms" we played in for more formal do's.

Muther's Convention, Ndola Trade Fair, 1971.

L to R Marnie, John, Paudie. Shows part of the crowd at the Breweries stand. Also, there was a Pick a Box competition twice a day, some of the prizes can be seen in front of the band-stand.

Muther'sConvention, Ndola Trade Fair, 1971.

Inside the bar at the Breweries Stand after a hard day's graft. L to R - Ian Kyle, John Costopoulos, Des Wandry, Marnie Raubenheimer, Paudie Coughlan, Roger Costopoulos (Roger is now in business in Jo'burg)

Muther's Convention, Muf Rugby Club, Xmas 1971.

At a formal Christmas function, dressed in one of our formal "uniforms" - Paudie concentrating on a keyboard solo.
Hopefully these photos and comments will bring back some memories to some people. We had so much fun playing and it was a real privilege entertaining so many of the people, some of you who are now reading this on the GNR, who shared our time in Zambia.

Photos and text contributed by: Paudie Coughlan Posted to GNR: Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 14:59