For more information, email
can be sent to Fran
Hart at: bpd@tiac.netAll Material © copyright Independent Newspapers 1996.
All the way from his cattle ranch in LA, in fawn stetson with matching cowboy boots, denim
jeans and a buckin' bronco belt, comes David Gates.
He's the band leader of late-60s and 70s has-beens Bread, who gave us wrenching numbers such as Make it with You, If, Look What You've Done, the guys whose albums hit the billion-seller mark and made it to double platinum.
He has never done drugs and nor will he tolerate cursin' in front of Jo Rita, his wife of 37 years.
Yes, I said, no drugs, not a single hit of a marijuana joint. Straight up-and-down-the-line is Gates.
Soft rock is what he calls his melodic love ballads, not to be confused with soft porn or aught that could shatter the moral code he learnt in his Midwestern American home.
Morality is the key word in this conversation. He's into good ol' family values, Republican style.
Oklahoma is where he hails from and although he believes he has rid himself of the Texan dialect, it's there all right.
He's here in Joe-hannesburg on a pre-tour promotion of the band's world tour, which will start in this neck of the woods early next month.
The reason for the concert? The one thing Bread have not done is tour the world. They started in 1969, disbanded in 1978 and got together again between 1976 and 1978. In the meantime Gates, who wrote the lyrics and music for all their songs, made solo albums, ranched cattle and reared four children.
Now, almost two decades later, they've added two members to the band. And although they have nothing to do with bands like Maxi Priest, Cool and the Gang, the Stylistics and Randy Crawford, also due here next month, they seem to be feeling the same pull of what they think is Africa.
Radio Highveld, under the cloud of IBA hearings that will determine its new owners, hosts a press conference where Gates closes his eyes and makes sweet, sweet moans into the microphone. The hippest, the slickest, the coolest among us all agree that the song Gates wrote for his late father, Everything I Own, is superb. The music, with its harmonies, its string section lifting the soft emotional lyrics, is reminiscent of the music of the Carpenters and of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Gates says Bread never made it as big as these groups. He identifies with the "good basic music" of Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and The Eagles. It was the LA scene of the 70s that really got Gates going.
Earlier, in a Rosebank hotel, he tells me: "I was pretty straight, conservative, making music that mainstream people could enjoy and be proud to listen to. There was no philosophy. The idea was to make good music for the sake of making it, without any ulterior motive."
David Gates is a nice guy. He has none of the edge of, say, Graham Nash, who visited Johannesburg last year, telling about spectacular love affairs with the likes of Joni Mitchell and his close friendship with Bonnie Raitt.
Gates is humble. He is sincere in his belief of the right way, he lets you in on the secrets of the good life, stopping just short of sermonising. He is a man of no small conviction in the right way. Yes, there are religious beliefs but he ain't a major churchgoer. He doesn't buy Rolling Stones records but he does like their music and he doesn't "stand in judgment" of their behaviour, and you know what that means.
At home, he listens to Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Yes and Bonnie Raitt.
He seems surprised to hear that English is not the only language spoken in South Africa, that indeed, Afrikaans is spoken as well as a language the black hotel staff seem to talk to each other.
"It's kinda neat," he says.
Although he has always been a Republican, he assesses the credentials of candidates before he votes. Bob Dole, at 73, seems past it.
"They took a poll which showed that people think Dole is a nice, moral person, but they are not going to vote for him. Morality is not what it's about; it's all about economics and jobs."
Abraham Lincoln wouldn't get anywhere in today's political world, what with all the spin doctors and the emphasis on looks, on talking, rather than doing, says Gates.
Bill Clinton will take the next election, he says, especially after bombing the Iraqis that will earn him at least a couple of extra notches.
Gates tells me he is apolitical. He has no desire to meet President Nelson Mandela or any other politician, for that matter he'd rather get to talk to Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel any day.
He points out that he has a reputation for being straight.
Yes, he's conservative, but he ain't "a goodie-goodie"; why, he even has the occasional beer when he feels he really needs to let rip.
All Material © copyright Independent Newspapers 1996.
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For more information, email can be sent to Fran
Hart at: bpd@tiac.net