Out of Soweto: BCUC
Following the South African band BCUC from their hang out in Soweto to Glastonbury festival, Thabiso Mohare finds out how they’ve forged their sound and their outlook
BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness – sound like no other band. Bringing together polyrhythms, prison songs, chanting, electronics and heavy bass, they're incredible performers. They remember the end of apartheid, and they feel the weight of their inheritance as South African musicians, living and working in an iconic site in the political struggle: Soweto, outside Johannesburg.
But they constantly defy expectation, and have found success well beyond Soweto - after a few years of touring globally, last year they achieved their ambition of playing Glastonbury. This programme, presented by South African spoken word poet Thabiso Mohare, follows them over the course of three years from their hang out in Soweto - a container on a roadside verge - to backstage at the festival, and finds out how they’ve forged their sound and their outlook.
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Broadcast
- Thu 19 Mar 2020 11:30³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4