J
ohn Kongos – now 68 – moved around a lot when
he was younger. The musician/composer/ producer was born in Johannesburg, South Africa,
where he put together his own popular early -'60s outfit called Johnny and the G-Men. But by the late '60s,
he’d relocated to Britain, where he continued on with
other combos, like Floribunda Rose, then Scrugg, until
he finally flew solo with his 1970 debut disc, "Confusions About a Goldfish." Constant touring throughout
Europe solidified his reputation, and in 1971, for Fly
Records, he scored his first chart-topping UK hits –
"Tokoloshe Man" and "He's Gonna Step On You Again,"
which in the'90s would find its way into a Happy Mondays single, "Step On."
Kongos kept releasing albums, plus singles like
"Ride the Lightning," "Great White Lady," and "Higher
Than God's Hat." None of them charted. Gradually, he
recalibrated his career, and instead concentrated on
production in his increasingly-busy home studio in
London, where members of Cat Stevens' and Elton
John's bands would often hang out, chew the fat, and
jam. He continued to write songs though, as well as
commercial jingles and TV themes, and he even
wound up hosting Def Leppard in 1983, when he
aided their producer Mutt Lange in programming the
complicated Fairlight synthesizer for the group's "Pyromania" album. Then he packed up his gear and left
for South Africa again, before finally settling in America, in Phoenix, Arizona, the hometown of his wife,
Shelley.
There have been various retrospectives and repackagings of the man's work over the years. But none of
his accomplishments, you might say, stack up to what
he achieved with Shelley – four equally-talented sons
who followed him into the music business, almost as
22 illinoisentertainer.com july 2014
if they had no choice in the matter. And with dad's
blessing, they formed a family band named Kongos
(no 'The,' just Kongos) that's finally breaking in the
States with its sophomore "Lunatic" effort and stomping, celebratory singles like "I'm Only Joking" and
"Come With Me Now." Accordion player Johnny Kongos is the oldest at 32, and guitarist Danny is the
youngest at 25. And in between are bassist/vocalist
Dylan, 28, and powerhouse drummer, percussionist
and official group spokesman Jesse Kongos, 30.
Were the brothers simply handed their instruments
at birth? Jesse chortles. "Not quite," he says. "But funnily enough, my dad put a set of speakers in our pram
– I guess you'd call it a stroller. So right when we were
infants, he started playing music for us. He was playing us Bach cell suites in our pram while we were riding around the London suburbs! And since then, there
have been all these studies about listening to classical
music as a child to develop new brain pathways. But
this was before all that, so I think he just had faith in
playing good music for his kids."
The drummer isn't exactly sure what to blame for
his instrument selection – nature or nurture. He and
his siblings each, in turn, had piano lessons when they
were old enough, and that plunged them into their father's rock and roll world. "And I was attracted to
rhythmic piano, like boogie-woogie and blues and
stuff," Jesse recalls, trying to trace the lineage of his
Thor-thundering style. "Then when I was a teenager,
we had an old drum set lying around from my dad's
studio, and it was kind of incomplete because it was
missing a hi-hat and stuff. And when my dad saw that
I was playing around on it, he bought me a new drum
set in South Africa. And I just loved it. And when I
was about 16, I started getting more serious and prac-
ticing and listening to jazz drummers and stuff like
that."
The Kongos children missed their father's earlier
outfits. His solo efforts, too. They were all very young
when he flew the family back home to Johannesburg.
But they just took it for granted, having the run of an
instrument-filled house. "For us, it was just normal
back then," Jesse says. "But when you look back on it,
you realize what a lucky and amazing childhood it
was. I still have memories of his studio, which was in
the basement, and going down there and playing in
the studio. Or just being around when he had sessions
going on, and musicians coming in and out. Just being
in that environment felt natural to us from a very
young age."
Jesse Kongos was around when Def Leppard
dropped by with Lange, asking pop's help to program
their drums via the daunting Fairlight. He met countless other stars, but he can barely remember their
names, since he was four or five at the time, he sighs.
And he admits that it was something of a culture
shock, suddenly being whisked away on a whim to
South Africa. But in retrospect, the move made perfect sense.
"When we were born in London, our parents
started to feel like they wanted to get out of London
with young kids," Jesse explains. "Because of the pollution, and just because they wanted an environment
more suited to raising young kids. Also, at the time,
my dad's mom was unwell in South Africa, so we
went there to be with her. We were only supposed to
stay for a year and then make our way to the States,
but we kind of got locked into it, we were enjoying it
so much. So we started going to school there, and we
stayed in South Africa for eight years."