Simon Chauke & Pamoja

PAMOJA means 'togetherness' in Swahili. Pamoja is a 5-piece Afrobeat world music band based in London, United Kingdom and is a brainchild of Simon Chauke. Simon hails from the Limpopo Province of South Africa, a stone throw from the famous Kruger National Park. A second-born from a family of 6 [one elder brother, Thomas, and 4 younger sisters], Simon has loved music from an early age. His first guitar was made from a 5-litre can of Castrol oil and fishing strings. It was on this self-made guitar that he taught himself how to play. At 17, the family lost their father (the breadwinner) and the next few years the family had to experience the true meaning of poverty and spending a night without food. Luckily Simon and his brother always did well at school, and this led to Simon going to the University of Cape Town where as expected he did Civil Engineering. Throughout his academic life people encouraged him to pursue music as they thought he had the potential to make it but Simon never took it seriously.
It was only in 1998 that Simon started focusing seriously on his music and made his first demo (containing eJoni) in 2000 which those who listened to thought that it was great song. Ever since then Simon has written songs touching on sensitive issues about life. His music use humour to inform society about key social issues prevalent today such wars, urbanisation, discrimination and xenophobia. Simon believes that it is difficult to sing about love and laughter while the world is experiencing so much problems. Therefore, he believes that music should be used as an instrument to inform people about social ills within them. Since 2002 Simon has been based in London, United Kingdom where he continues to work as an Engineer. Simon teamed up with Dominic Angadi in 2005 to play as a duo. Together they had a number of gigs around London with one spell in France. These gigs entrenched them as one of the up and coming world music acts in London. However, due different aspirations of where the band should go, the duo disbanded in June 2006.

Following the breakup of the duo Simon has teamed up with a London born Sam McGowan, a talented rhythmic guitarist who was met by chance at a recording studio in February 2006. Sam immediately fell in love with African music and wanted to be part of this Renaissance of African music. Sam is a brilliant guitarist, given that he is self-taught - he is certainly going places for sure.
Keith Miller provides the second guitar. Keith is very talented musician who can play guitar, keyboard and flute. Apart from playing the instruments Keith has a great voice and he provides backing vocals as well.
Dave Auguste recently joined the band as the new bass guitar. Our appearance at The Prince George in Thornton is the first time Dave plays live with the band. He is a great bass player and words cannot fully describe how good he is. You will have to see him live to fully understand how much he can play. Dave is also paints and make beautiful posters. Check him out at www.daveexpress.co.uk.
Drums are played by a brilliant monsieur Thierry Deneux. Thierry hails from Toulon in France and he has been involved in music for a long time. Thierry loves and understands African music hence his contribution to these tracks speaks for itself.
PAMOJA is certainly a band going places. You will have to catch us live to share these sentiments. Our ambition is to establish ourselves as one of the most sought after live world music act because we believe that anyone can make records but not everyone can give a great performance. With time we would like to follow in the footsteps of Ladysmith Black Mambazo and win a grammy for Africa.

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