By Emma Olivier
Today, the live music scene has become a big part of student life in Stellenbosch. Die Matie explored the archives and spoke to some Stellenbosch University (SU) alumni about the live music that helped shape their student experience.
Before places like Aandklas in Bird Street became a hub for up-and-coming bands, dances were where live music brought people together. Alida Groenewald (née Burger), who studied Home Economics at SU from 1968 to 1971, said there were “great dances every weekend at the Stellenbosch town hall with bands like Tony Osler’s band, The Swing Set and The Ritmos”.
Anina le Roux (née Janse van Rensburg) recalled listening to artists under the Shifty Records label while she studied at SU from 1991 to 1994. She said Koos Kombuis was an “absolute institution” in the town. “Valiant [Swart] and Koos Kombuis paved the way for people like Karen Zoid,” she said.
Le Roux also remembers attending the “amazing” kwela singer and guitarist Josh Sithole’s concerts. She said, despite apartheid and the “strong Afrikaans culture” in Stellenbosch, “everyone [in the audience] loved him”.
Anchen Burger (née Schröder), a student from 1996 to 1999, enjoyed seeing Valiant Swart, Koos Kombuis and Johannes Kerkorrel play live. She remembers watching them perform in the Hidden Cellar bar above De Akker, where Fool’s Gold is located today.
An editorial commentary by Die Matie reflected on Kerkorrel’s performance in the Neelsie Student Centre for Woordfees 2002, and what it means “to be truly voëlvry [“free as a bird”]. Die Matie said, “In 1989 Johannes Kerkorrel – then one of the big anti-apartheid artists – was banned from performing on the Matie campus by the Rector, Prof. Mike de Vries. 13 years later, SU welcomes the ‘alternatives’ on campus.” (Die Matie, 27 February 2002)
Le Roux recalls Kerkorrel as her “great love” in music, and said that if his song “Hoe Ek Voel” “doesn’t give you chills, nothing will”. She has fond memories of the “pumping atmosphere” at the Dros Cellar, as well as the Upstairs bar at the Van der Stel sportsclub where she saw the Springbok Nude Girls during their first performance. “When I saw Arno Carstens for the first time on stage, I just thought nothing will ever be the same again!” she said.
Among the local artists that became globally recognised, such as the Springbok Nude Girls and Spoegwolf, Die Matie reported in 1998 on the Stellenbosch R&B singer Devin Persens who got a record deal and the opportunity to go make music in America.
Annika (who prefers that her surname is not mentioned), a Matie from 2012 to 2016, told Die Matie about the time she saw Jeremy Loops play live at Wilgenhof: “I remember he had a baby toy with piano buttons and such, and he played ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ and and then he looped it (since he is the loop artist, after all) and then he began with his guitar. I believe shortly afterwards he released his first album.”
Annika said she watched the alt rock group, Zebra and Giraffe, at Rag (fundraising festivities and a float parade that started off the academic year at SU until the early 2010s) and at Aandklas and the Klein Libertas theatre, where she bought a CD from the band. Melktertkommissie was also a group that performed often at Aandklas, as were Fokofpolisiekar and Jackal and the Wind. Annika recalls seeing the latter at Aandklas’s Battle of the Bands for R10 per cover ticket – which would also secure you six Black Labels.
Eben Labuschagne, a BAHons (Philosophy) student and former writer for Die Matie’s Dag & Nag page from 2023 to 2025, told Die Matie, “It would be insane to think that there isn’t a legacy. Many bands would say they started in Stellenbosch as students and they cut teeth at bars like Bohemia. So the legacy is definitely there.”
However, he shared his concern about the economic aspect of live music. “Especially over the past two years or so, things like going out and drinking became a bit more expensive than it used to be,” he said. “So, on the consumer side, that’s a problem, but I think the really hard thing is: it’s terribly difficult for bands to make a living. We never had the most luxurious and funded music scene in the world, but I think it’s even worse than it was.”
Despite the challenges, live music still brings Maties together today. Dorian Ellis, a BAHons (Ancient Cultures) student and a keen supporter of local bands, told Die Matie, “I am, for one, incredibly proud of how many young people have become incredible musicians because of the scene in Stellenbosch.”
He added, “The alt music scene in Stellenbosch cultivates such a sense of community. I’ve met so many new and impossibly interesting people at these concerts.” The Stellenbosch live music community is a “place where music is king and everybody just becomes themselves,” he said.
