Mango loved to Groove

Benoni’s Big Day Out brought families and friends together, with a picnic setup at the Benoni Northerns Sports Club on recently, with Mango Groove as the main act.

The group consists of 11 members who exploded onto the national scene with the release of their 10-time platinum debut album in 1989. With over 30 platinum sales in South Africa alone, the group has truly captured the hearts of South Africans and brought the marabi pop sound to Benoni for the first time.

John Leyden, founder of the group, met with City Times before their electric performance that had most attending on their feet.

How did you decide on the name Mango Groove?

It is sort of a silly name, man-go-groove, like a sexist pun in a way, it is a funny tropical name that we as young students thought of and it stuck.

How was the group started?

I started Mango in varsity, a few of us were from the University of the Witwatersrand. It started with penny whistlers and drum machine, and from than we just grew.

We performed at a lot of clubs, companies and shows in the late ’80s, and in 1989 we released our first album, Special Star, which went ballistic.

We thought we could sell it to a few friends and family, but it took off and we feel very honoured, touched and disbelieving, as that album has nearly three quarters of a million sales in South Africa. It has been a great journey since then.

How would you describe your music style?

It is a blend of ’50s urban South African style, penny whistlers, and African jazz with pop.

You need to see Mango live to understand our style; it is like a funny, chaotic family on stage.

What would you say is the highlights through the years?

We have quite a few:

• Live attendance records that still stand for any SA artist today, which include six sold-out shows at the Sun City Superbowl, six consecutive sold-out shows at the Standard Bank Arena and over 20 000 people at Greenpoint Stadium, Cape Town.

• The use of Mango Groove’s music in NBC’s worldwide broadcast of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, and the group’s subsequent headlining of the concert celebrating our country’s first democratic inauguration.

• Setting new standards for representative airplay across all stations in South Africa.

• Taking SA music to the world: among other things, this included Mango Groove being the only South African act invited to perform at the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, being the only SA act featured on The Freddy Mercury Tribute concert (broadcast to over a billion people), appearing in front of 200 000 people at the SOS Racisme concert in Paris and receiving three encores at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

• Active involvement through the years in a host of social awareness and fund-raising initiatives, in such fields as Aids, literacy, conservation and education.

• Over the last three years, garnering legions of new, young South African fans with barnstorming headline appearances at SA’s iconic Oppikoppi, Splashy Fen, Rocking the Daisies and Park Acoustics festivals.

What would you say are your top five Mango Groove songs that anyone must hear?

I would say Special Star because people know that song, Dance Some More as it was big for us, Home Talk, Moments Away, and Another Country. We recently released an album called Faces to the Sun of which we worked with a lot of artists and the title track Faces to the Sun is important to us because in a way it is about being South African now and how you make sense of that; it is an important song for me.

Do you think your music is appealing to the old and young generation?

Our music has been carried over through generations.

There were people who were not born when we released our music and they know our songs.

We couldn’t believe it when we performed to a young crowd with an average age of 22 and we did moments away and the crowd sang it back to us.

Music is the sound track to our lives and I believe music is timeless because it is about what moves you.

How do you deal with conflict in the group?

Conflict is inevitable, we are all divas in our own way, but we are now driven by if it’s fun we will keep doing it.

We really are friends and yes, we have conflicts about the line-up and song choices, but that is what happens when creative minds clash.

We are in a space where we are grateful to be here and we love each other like family.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists?

What is important is self-belief, even when other people tell you to give up or get a day job.

You have to believe in what you do and don’t let anyone bring you down with their own issues.

In terms of music and art, be yourself, be different, don’t imitate because that is the best shot you got – competitive difference.