John Kongos

John Theodore Kongos (born 6 August 1945) is a South African singer and songwriter of Greek ancestry, best known for his 1971 top 10 hit single "He's Gonna Step on You Again", which has become a standard and spawned multiple successful cover versions, including by The Party Boys, the Chantoozies, and the Happy Mondays (under the shortened title "Step On"). His second album, Kongos, made the top 30 of the UK Albums Chart; but his subsequent singles, "Great White Lady" (30 June 1972), "Higher than God's Hat" (29 June 1973) and "Ride the Lightning" (11 April 1975) did not chart.

Career Having had success in South Africa in the early 1960s with his band Johnny and the G-Men, as well as a solo artist, Kongos went to the UK in 1966, to pursue his musical career. His first UK based group, Floribunda Rose, formed in April 1967, comprised the British musicians, Pete Clifford (guitar) (born Peter William Frederick Clifford, 10 May 1943, Whetstone, North London) and Jack Russell (bass, vocals) (born 29 April 1944, Caerleon, South Wales), who had come to South Africa in June 1965 with The 004; drummer Nick 'Doc' Dokter (born 24 July 1945, Kampen, Overijssel, the Netherlands), a latter day member of 004; and the Cyprus-born keyboard player Chris Demetriou from John E Sharpe and the Squires. After one single, "Linda Loves Linda", Clifford returned to South Africa to join The Bats and Dokter moved to Canada and worked with Five Man Cargo. Drummer Henry Spinetti joined and the remaining members recorded three singles as Scrugg. "Tomorrow I'll Go", which appeared on Kongos, was covered by New Zealand band The Human Instinct on their 1970 album Stoned Guitar, while "Ride the Lightning" (1975) was covered by Sylvie Vartan as "Qu'est-ce qui fait pleurer les blondes?" in France and was No. 1 on that chart for several weeks in 1976.

"He's Gonna Step on You Again" is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first song to ever use a sample. However, according to the sleeve note of the CD reissue of the Kongos album, it is actually a tape loop of African drumming.

Kongos continued to work in his own London studio as a record producer, sound engineer, TV jingle and theme music composer, and songwriter, as well as handling the programming of the Fairlight CMI synthesizer on Def Leppard's 1983 album Pyromania.

He gained notice with a new musical generation in 1990, when Madchester pioneers Happy Mondays reworked "He's Gonna Step on You Again" into their baggy era defining hit "Step On", which reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart. In the same year, they also covered his "Tokoloshe Man", for the compilation album, Rubáiyát.

Discography His 1966–1969 work (including his recordings with Floribunda Rose and Scrugg, and his solo album Confusions About a Goldfish) was released on a compilation album, Lavender Popcorn (2001).

The album Kongos (Elektra, 1972), plus his remaining singles first issued on Fly, appeared on the CD Tokoloshe Man Plus, released by See for Miles Records in 1988.

Personal life Kongos is married to Shelley and has four sons; Johnny, Jesse, Dylan, and Daniel, who are members of the rock group Kongos.