FROM ROCK 'N 'ROLL TO HARD CORE PUNK - UKZN ...

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The streetrockers played a commercial and accessible (otherwise
known as 'Middle-of-the Road' brand of rock, and were firm
favourites with Durban audiences. Their climb to relative local
success was spurred by their exposure as support act for British
pop star, David Essex at his concert in Durban. They also won two
Battle of the Bands competitions in Durban in the early 1980s,
and recorded their single 'Going to War' in March 1985.
The Platform for Rock Music in the 1980s: Concerts and Music
Festivals.
In the early 1980s a move towards a 'mass' concept for concerts
may be discerned. This trend differed greatly from the small and
intimate, self-organised concerts of the punk era, and signified
a mobilisation of Durban musicians into some form of organised
protest which went beyond an individual one.
The Durban campus of the University of Natal was usually the
centre for such events, although at the University of the
Witwatersrand similar events were organised to which Durban bands
and musicians were invited. This era of musical mobilisation had
a distinct political motivation and mirrored the growing mass
protests against the apartheid state which occurred from the
early 1980s onwards.
These concerts also differed from those of the past in that a
greater spectrum of South African musicians were invited to take
part, including bands which played ethnic-rock, jazz-rock and
folk-rock. Thus, the era of music festivals brought musicians of
all interests together with a common cause, a development which
was interpreted as a threat by the authorities.
In May 1983, an open air Academic Freedom concert was held on the
Durban campus of the Natal University to protest against the
government's university quota bill which forced university
authorities to base student admissions on a racial instead of