My Broken Heart (1984) by Bernoldus Niemand (a.k.a James Phillips)

Описание: From the legendary South African, anti-establishment album "Wie Is Bernoldus Niemand" (1984) by Bernoldus Niemand (a.k.a. James Phillips).

Buy full album: http://bernoldusniemaand.bandcamp.com
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ph...)

James Phillips was one of the core members of the Voëlvry anti-establishment musical movement that broke down many walls in 1980s, late Apartheid-era South Africa.

He first made a name for himself with the punk band, Corporal Punishment and later The Cherry Faced Lurchers. In 1984, he released what he thought of as nothing more than a novelty Afrikaans album entitled "Wie Is Bernoldus Niemand". However, fellow future Voëlvry members, Koos Kombuis (a.k.a Andre Letoit) and Johannes Kerkorrel picked up the album and were inspired to make their own music in colloquial Afrikaans rather than the stuffy style of the then-current Afrikaans music establishment, exemplified by artists such as Bles Bridges, who they thought embodied the worst of the Apartheid-era Afrikaans mentality.

Phillips became an integral part of the Voëlvry movement but, after the movement's members went their own ways, he lost his way, essentially becoming a bum, living a semi-nomadic existence and drinking heavily.

He always felt that he had become famous for a joke album and no-one ever took what he considered his real musical output seriously. He released a couple of albums ("Soul Ou" and "Sunny Skies") though that he thought better represented his true artistic voice before he died due to a car crash in the early hours of the morning near a friend's farm outside Grahamstown in 1995. He lay in the crash for several hours before being found. He eventually died 3 weeks later from complications due to pneumonia brought about by the crash and its aftermath.

He leaves a musical legacy that is quintessentially South African and criminally under-appreciated.