How a stranger silenced my music
Roger Lucey is a South African musician whose early career was destroyed when his anti-Apartheid songs came to the attention of the Security Police.
Once a promising young folk singer, Roger Lucey had played to sell-out crowds in South Africa in the 1970s with his songs about racial injustice and police violence. But then strange things started happening: radio stations wouldn't play his songs, his records were removed from shop shelves and one of his gigs was teargassed. His musical career faltered and his life fell apart. For a long time he succumbed to drugs and alcohol and hid his guitar away. But fifteen years later, as Apartheid ended and the country entered a new era of truth and reconciliation, the man who had wrecked Roger's career came forward to confess all. His name was Paul Erasmus and he was a former Security Police officer.
One of his Roger's most provocative songs was about Lungile Tabalaza, a young black student activist who died in police custody in 1978. The truth of what happened to him and how he died remains unresolved to this day.
Roger's book is called Back in from the Anger.
Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Jo Impey
Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707
(Photo: Roger Lucey in 2023. Credit: GaleMcAll Photography)
Last on
Broadcasts
- Mon 4 Sep 202311:06GMTBBC World Service
- Mon 4 Sep 202317:06GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Mon 4 Sep 202321:06GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Tue 5 Sep 202302:06GMTBBC World Service
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