I am starting this category off with a young man from my “hood”… the Cape Flats of South Africa’s Mother City:

Cape Town.

His FaceBook Profile reads (sic):

Im a crazy guy who loves making muziq…thats right im a MUZO!  Its in my bones and i cant shake it…  Im a nomad,gypsy whateva you wanna call it…

Im Proudly South African…But now live wheva i can set up a stage!

Charl “BabyBoy” Pilwan is probably most known by those of you who used to frequent a quaint champagne bar in Central’s SoHo district called Soiree.

When I first got to know Charl, he was part of the resident band at Soiree called Choklit Soul comprising of Charl and Denver Damons from Cape Town as well as Rickie from Indonesia.

While the outfit has since disbanded with the departure (from Hong Kong) of Denver and Rickie, Charl Pilwan is very much partying up a storm, these days as part of a musical outfit playing at various party venues around Macao including the world-famous Venetian.

Choklit Soul’s Rickie, Denver and Charl partying up a storm at Soiree (Pic: Mike Jansen)

While they played mostly covers at Soiree, Choklit Soul has since recorded a successful album of original songs in Hong Kong.  Here is Charl singing their song “My Home” included in the Choklit Soul CD.  The video is made up of footage of his recent trip back home:

My Home. Charl & Zoe Pilwan on a recent trip back home to Cape Town.

Zoe & Charl atop Table Mountain with Camps Bay in the background (Pic: FaceBook)

Musical rebel with a Cause: Charl Pilwan and his Missus Zoe (Pic: FaceBook)

Here is a more recent video clip of Charl with an outfit he performed with at Soiree called The Mark Chapil Project:

The Mark Chapil Project consisted of Charl on vocals, Troy (hidden) on keyboards, Fernando on drums and guest artist Michal on trumpet.

Check out more of the Mark Chapil Project in England here

Charl Pilwan singing “No Woman,No Cry” here

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South Africa, and indeed Cape Town has so many talented, experienced and highly trained musicians and artists.  Unfortunately, their ability to perform and make a living is very limited and many of them choose to seek employment abroad.  This is a record of those musicians and singers who chose Hong Kong as their home-away-from-home.

For the love of Music.

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