The G-Men - Raunchy Twist (1962) video

The G-Men was the backing band from John Kongos and have recorded some great instrumentals. "Raunchy Twist" has a spectacular biting echo sound! John Kongos was born in Johannesburg in 1946 and grew up in Brakpan where his mother owned a nightclub called The Fireplace. When he was 12 he attended one of Tommy Steele's South African shows and was inspired to go into the Rock 'n Roll business. At age 15 he fronted The Dukes taking further inspiration from Hank Marvin of the Shadows. They performed at The Fireplace and were eventually signed to a small local label and had a few local hits with covers of familiar pop songs. The group changed their name to the G-Men and and in 1963 were banned from appearing at the Rand Show as were deemed to attract "too large a crowd". In the same year Kongos made his first trip to the UK. Although trying out for a couple of major labels he did not have much sucess and returned to South Africa. Through his connections with Pye Record's South African distributors, Teal, he had an "in" with Pye and returned to the UK in 1966 and recorded 'I Love Mary'/ 'Goodtime Party Companion' on Pye's subsidiary label Piccadilly. He then hit the road touring with a group called Scrugg which consisted of a number of the G-Men and some British musicians. The group also recorded a few singles which received a fair share of airplay, but did not yield any chart success. The group disbanded in 1968 and Kongos went solo.

John Kongos YouTube music videos

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