Face To Face - I

South African band formed in Johannesburg in 1984. Keith McFarlane, who was from Honeydew, was a student at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) when he came upon the idea of starting a band. He had started playing guitar, singing, and writing songs when he was still as school, and the kids often referred to him as the school’s own Trevor Rabin (of Rabbitt). He approached two of his friends, the Le Fevre brothers Simon and John, also from Honeydew, with this idea. Simon had started playing guitar and writing songs from the age of 11, and it was a natural development for Keith and Simon to start writing songs as a team. Simon had a musician friend, Simon Fellows, whose father had a recording studio in Randburg and this offered the band the opportunity to record a demo tape with some of their songs. They then approached the Gallo Record Company with the tape, but the receptionist referred them to a friend of hers at the RPM Record Company. After the friend had listened to the tape, she asked one of the managers to do the same, and he immediately showed interest. They did not, however, have a drummer at that stage, but Keith had a friend at Wits that knew of a std 9 schoolboy from King Edward VII School, Jarrod Aston, who could play drums, and early in 1984 Face To Face was then formally formed, with: 1. Keith MacFarlane – guitar and lead vocals; 2. Simon Le Fevre – keyboards and lead vocals; 3. Jarrod Aston - drums; 4. John Le Fevre – guitar and flute; 5. Simon Fellows - bass. Their first professional gig was at the Rand Easter Show and the concert was also broadcast live on Radio 5. Due to the boycott that exited in those days, preventing international artist from appearing in South Africa, Face To Face immediately became very popular, and were even referred to as the local Duran Duran. In April 1984 the band signed a contract with RPM and subsequently released their first 7” single, “Here We Are / I”. “Here We Are” reached #22 on the South African Top 30 and charted for 9 weeks, and later that year the song also won a Sarie Award as “Song Of The Year”. In the same year they released their only album, “Face To Face”, with all of the songs that had been written by Simon Le Fevre and Keith MacFarlane. In 1985 the band started recording their second album but broke up before it could be completed due to dissent among the members. This song was released on 7" single in 1984 as the B-side to "Here We Are".