Anton Goosen

Anton Goosen was born in Middelburg in the Eastern Cape on 5 March 1946 and is generally regarded as the father of Afrikaans rock. He was expelled from boarding school in 1963 after being caught in a bath playing guitar, his own guitar confiscated and its case filled with bricks, and formed his school's first rock band the same year. He qualified in special education at the Teachers Training College in Heidelberg, taught, and wrote for Beeld before turning to songwriting full time, supplying songs to Sonja Herholdt, Laurika Rauch, Carike Keuzenkamp and Koos Kombuis. He was the first to produce an album of his own works entirely in Afrikaans: Boy Van Die Suburbs, released in 1979, sold over 80,000 copies, and its irony and symbolism protested the removals to the Bantustans and the injustices behind the Soweto riots.