Café Society was a South African group from the 1980s best known for their two cover songs "Somebody to Love

Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)

"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick and originally recorded by 1960s folk rock band The Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane...

" and "Woodpeckers from Space".

Early years

Café Society consisted of various artists singing cover version and original songs under the watchful eye of multi-instrumentalist and producer Costa Anadiotis. Costa Anadiotis was also the synthesizer player in the disco-rock South African group Buffalo with Peter Vee during the late 1970s as well as the group Fantasy.

"Somebody to Love"

In 1984 the first song to be produced was a cover of Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

's "Somebody to Love

Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)

"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick and originally recorded by 1960s folk rock band The Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane...

" using the vocals of Julia Jade Aston. Aston was also a member of Working Girls, Face To Face and Wizard with Rob Russell Davies. The song was received well internationally because of its Hi-NRG

Hi-NRG

Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...

 driven baseline popular at the time.

"Relight my Fire"

Next up was the Dan Hartman

Dan Hartman

Daniel Earl "Dan" Hartman was an American singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for such songs as: "Free Ride", "I Can Dream About You", "Instant Replay", "Love Sensation", and "Relight My Fire", all of which had world-wide success.-Career:Born in Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg,...

 song "Relight My Fire

Relight My Fire

"Relight My Fire" is a popular song which was written and released by Dan Hartman in 1979, when it topped the U.S. dance-music charts for six weeks...

" utilizing the vocals of Lolly Peterson and Anneline Malebo. Malebo was the singer in the Patrick van Blerk outfit Joy. They had an international hit with ‘Paradise Road’ in 1980. Sadly Anneline Malebo died of Aids related complications in 2002. The song received mediocre response and featured on some compilation albums including South-African ‘High-Energy Double Dance Vol.3’.

"Woodpeckers from Space" and the album

Then in 1985 when the Video Kids refused to release their song "Woodpeckers from Space"’, due to the political situation in South Africa during that time, Costa Anadiotis decided to release his own unique version of the song under the banner of Café Society. 'Woodpeckers from space' was a Number 1 hit in South Africa in July 1985 and stayed on the Top 20 for 19 weeks of which 8 were at the Number 1 position. The album Relight My Fire was released in 1985 but could not help this mainly studio outfit to reach a higher level and soon everybody went their separate ways.

Relight My Fire – 1985

Side 1

1. "Relight My Fire"
2. "Take Me"
3. "I'm on the Loose"

Side 2

1. "Woodpeckers from Space"
2. "Somebody to Love"
3. "Night Rider"
4. "So-o-much in Love"

External links

• Discogs listing
• Album Information 1
• Album Information 2
• Costa Anadiotis in Buffalo 1
• Costa Anadiotis in Buffalo 2
• Julia Jade Aston in Wizard