Photography by Neil Tandy IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHERS 079 077 4955

ARTIST PROFILE 

The crowd is skanking in unison, bouncing up and down like an irie earthquake of rhythm. The maestro with the guitar stops blowing his harmonica and leans into the microphone and shouts: 'Original Music! For Original People!' The crowd screams back in togetherness. The maestro smiles and hits them with another song.

Tidal Waves are widely regarded as the hardest working reggae band in South Africa, playing gigs from Oppikoppi to Pretoria, Cape Town to Potchefstroom and beyond. The band is made up of five very gifted musicians, the core of the group being held together by Jacob 'Zakes' Wulana on guitar, vocals, harmonica and vuvuzela and Sam 'Drumbo' Shoai on vocals and drum kit. The rest of the band is made up of Shadrack "Charlie" Mathopa is on the bass guitar; Johannes "Charlie" Papasha on keyboards, while Jaco "Mr." Mans wields the lead guitar.

Singer, multi-instrumentalist, and group founder Jacob "Jakes" Wulana, along with fellow founder and drummer Sam "Drumbo" Shoai, hails from the western dustbowl mining town of Klerksdorp (the rest of the band came together in Yeoville, Johannesburg). Growing up in the township, Wulana and Shoai were surrounded by a range of languages, cultures, musics-Zulu, Xhosa, Setswana, Tshivenda, Afrikaans-as well as by the music of Bob Marley, Sly and Robbie, and Curtis Mayfield.