Fergus Richardson-Soar

Fergus Richardson-Soar is a PhD candidate in International History at the LSE. He works under the joint supervision of Professor Joanna Lewis and Dr Tim Gibbs (Paris-Nanterre). He holds a BA in History from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in the History of International Relations from the LSE. As a historian of underground music in Africa, his research often involves tirelessly tracking down and interviewing members of bands from fifty or sixty years ago. Fergus continually lends his expertise to the music industry, working with record labels interesting in re-releasing this music to a new audience. Choosing to selectively work with partners who conduct this process fairly, equitably and with the utmost respect to the original creator. In Compiling, researching and writing liner notes for select releases one of Fergus’ priorities is making his research accessible and available in the country of origin.

Provisional thesis title

‘Shebeen Kings and Strange Dreams’: A History of Rock Music in Zambia, c.1969-1980’

Supervisors: Professor Joanna Lewis and Dr Tim Gibbs (Paris Nanterre)

This thesis marks the first history of the ‘Zamrock’ movement in Zambia. It emerged in the early 1970’s across the country’s major cities yet had declined by 1980. The research has built a primary source archive that consists of over 25 in depth interviews with surviving members of the movement, over two hundred songs, multiple LP covers and family photographs. These are complemented by official archival sources which relate particularly to the wider cultural, political and morality-based state obsessions of Zambia’s first ruling party after independence. It sets out this history through six frameworks: distinct urban points of origin, outward style and sound, Zamrock’s contributions to post-colonial nation building, the reinforcement of gender norms, local economies of music and the movement’s end at the hands of local and global factors.

This thesis is built on the premise that a study of music can lead to important and new insights about culture, politics and society and the relationship between them. It also argues that in the context of a post-colonial period, a study of music can reveal how these relations are especially complex, difficult and at times contradictory. By drawing on a number of disciplines including anthropology, musicology as well as social, urban, political, gender-based and biographical histories, the thesis aims to reconstruct as far as possible, the many contexts in which music is ‘made.’

Expertise

Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cultural History, Post-colonialism, Identity Formation, Social Change, Oral History