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| George with Jocelyn Allet and Pierre Naya |
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| The girl in the picture with George was called Anne Collette. I taught her to play guitar and she was sensational. |
George De Souza
Have guitar, will rock
George De
Souza was an eight-year-old in Dar es Salaam when his big sister Ivy bought him
a 20 shilling (in 1954 that was nothing to be sniffed at, if you had a shilling
in your pocket you were considered rich) box guitar. His sister had seen that
George was really interested and made the big sacrifice.
From that
moment on, George began the sometime tortuous journey, but always borne with
great determination, of learning to play the instrument. “I was self-taught. I picked up some books
from the library to help me learn. I listened to records and music on the radio
to sharpen my ears to be able to pick up keys and cords quite easily.”
Four years
later George took up the bass guitar seriously. He had already preferred
playing rhythm instead of lead. Inspired
the kings of Rock N Roll at the time: Elvis Presley and Bill Hayley and the
Comets (the unforgettable signature song that launched Rock N Roll worldwide,
Rock Around the Clock), George played in his debut gig at the age of 13 at the
Goan Institute in Dar es Salaam. It was a local group.
George
recalls that there were quite a number of bands making a name for themselves. Among
them were the De Mello brothers and lots of African bands. “They were doing
covers of mostly British acts, early Rock N Roll and other popular music. These
bands were amongst the best I had heard. Their rhythm was fantastic,” George
says.
“Some
of the places that I played are Splendid Hotel, Ivos Nightclub, Kilimanjaro
Hotel, New Africa Hotel, Twiga Hotel, Goan Institute, Italian Club, Greek Club
(Atheans). My big break was having my own radio show, played there for nearly
two years. Played on saturday afternoons. Played with top African bands, they
must have learned it from James Brown. The African bands were just amazing. I
helped a lot of them, the only thing that held them back was that they couldn't sing in English to be more
commerical.”
When he was 14 and while playing with a band, George realised that he
was better than most of the bassists around and that he was also quite
different from the traditional bassists and musicians. “I would go and listen
to other bands and I could see that one thing (the X-Factor) was missing: they
had zero personality. So, as a gimmick ,I started playing the guitar with my
teeth, smashing a guitar on stage. Soon I was getting offers from Europe.
“In those
days playing music was frowned on by a very conservative community but I made
it my own in spite of what people said,” George recalls.
“Here's are
a few insights into what the scene was like. When I played in Zanzibar we blew
the house down, that was the first time they had seen someone play guitar with
his teeth. We did a lot of Cliff Richards and Elvis covers. I wasn't making any
money that way so i decided to go out on my own and form my own band, the
Geogre DeSouza Show.
“There
were only 4 bands playing in Dar and none of them were really anything special.
When we first started we blew the roof off, I was playing lead with an Italian
backing band. I got a Goan band made up of Lionel, Leo, Johnny Rock, and Milton
to open for me. I made headway for a lot of bands by making friends with hotel
managers and convincing them to have live music.
“We played
at Margot’s night club from six to six. We would provide musical back up for
strippers in the club which aas also frequented by visiting sailors. A lot of
Goans were quite upset about that. I would play for embassies and quickly
became the go-to act. Many other bands would come to me to see if I could book
them a gig.”
The girl
in the picture with George was called Anne Collette. “I taught her to play and
she turned out to be quite sensational.”
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