Bright Blue is a sporadic South African band that was prominent on the progressive scene in the final years of apartheid. The band's name "reflected the paradox of being bright in a very blue time" but was also a tribute to Chelsea FC.

They are best known for the protest song "Weeping

Weeping (song)

"Weeping" is the name of song written by Dan Heymann during the mid 1980s. It is a protest song, the lyrics of which refer to the apartheid system still active in South Africa at the time .- Covers :Various artists have performed versions of 'Weeping' :...

", written by keyboard-player Dan Heymann, that the band recorded incorporating strands of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

"Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" , was originally composed as a hymn by a Methodist mission school in Johannesburg teacher, Enoch Sontonga in 1897, to the tune 'Aberystwyth' by Joseph Parry...

 at a time when public performance of the ANC

African National Congress

The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...

 anthem could lead to summary arrest. However the powers that be seemed to notice neither the reference to a banned tune nor that the song was an allegory

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

 about then State President PW Botha and the state of emergency that he'd imposed.

In 1999, Weeping was voted the "All-time favourite South African song" in a poll by SA Rock Digest/Amuzine. In 2000, Weeping was voted the Radio 5 'song of the century'.

An early forerunner of the Rainbow Nation

Rainbow Nation

Rainbow Nation is a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to describe post-apartheid South Africa, after South Africa's first fully democratic election in 1994....

 or crossover sound, that blends rock, pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and mbaqanga

Mbaqanga

Mbaqanga is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style originated in the early 1960s.-History:...

 with occasional lyrics in indigenous languages, they were contemporaries of Juluka

Juluka

Juluka was a South African music band formed in 1969 by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Juluka means "sweat", and was the name of a bull owned by Mchunu.-Career:...

, éVoid

ÉVoid

éVoid was a 1980s rock band in South Africa.éVoid were formed in Brakpan in 1977. They had their first success in Rhodesia where they had a residency during the dying days of Rhodesia and the birth of a new country...

, Mango Groove

Mango Groove

Mango Groove is an 11-piece South African Afropop band whose music fuses marabi, kwela, and pop music. They have sold more than 700,000 albums in South Africa....

, Johannes Kerkorrel

Johannes Kerkorrel

Johannes Kerkorrel was an Afrikaner singer-songwriter, journalist and playwright from South Africa....

, and Kalahari Surfers

Kalahari Surfers

The Kalahari Surfers is the moniker of South African composer and musician Warrick Sony. It began as a solo recording project in the early 1980s to subvert the total media and propaganda onslaught of P. W. Botha’s Apartheid South Africa...

.

Musicians

• Ian Cohen - bass, vocals
• Peter Cohen - drums, vocals
• Tom Fox - guitar, vocals
• Dan Heymann - keyboards
• Robin Levetan - vocals (first album only)

• Basil Coetzee
  Basil Coetzee
  Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee was a South African musician, perhaps best known as a saxophonist.Mountain Records describes Basil thus: 'His distinctive raunchy tenor sound and the untiring commitment to his cultural roots made him one of the best known jazzmen to come out of South Africa...
  
  - saxophone on 'Weeping'
• McCoy Mrubata - saxophone on 'Yesterday Night'
• Peter Barnett - percussion on first album
• Scorpion Madondo - saxophone on 'Time On My Own'
• Terri Cohen: backing vocals (1996, 2001)
• Tonia Selley: backing vocals (1996)
• Mark Goliath: keyboards (2001)
• Buddy Wells - saxophone on 'Madiba 1990'

Albums

• Bright Blue (1984)
• The Rising Tide (1988)
• Every Now And Then - The Best So Far... 1984-2001 (2001)