Chimbombay b/w Imagine (picture sleeve)

Mashiya was the name Montreal musician Brian Redmond used for a 1972 single on London Records, a Canadian recording of a song that had come out of South Africa. Redmond had been working the city’s English-language rock scene since the mid-1960s, first with The Red Cats and then with The Sound Box, who made two singles for Regency before he moved into Marble Hall in 1970.

By 1972 he was working with producer Hank Squires and songwriter Martin Martin. ‘Chimbombay’ b/w ‘Imagine’ was made as a Trax recording, like Marble Hall before it, and issued by London in Canada as M. 17440. Squires produced ‘Chimbombay’, Hugh Dixon directed, Phil Vyvial arranged and Jim Bentley was executive producer. The flip was Martin Martin’s own ‘Imagine’, which he wrote and arranged, with Squires producing and directing, and Bentley and Redmond as executive producers.

‘Chimbombay’ was credited to Chris Kritzinger and Julian Laxton. Laxton was a South African guitarist, engineer and producer, later known for his work with Rabbitt, and Kritzinger co-arranged ‘Sabre Dance’ with him, the 1972 single by Julian Laxton (One Man Guitar Band) with ‘Chimbombay’ on its flip. The title had already appeared in 1971 as the flip of The Gentle People’s ‘It’s Summertime Again’. Squires came from the same scene. Born in Johannesburg, he led The A-Cads there before moving to Montreal in 1966, and he later worked as a talent scout for the Johannesburg label Highveld.

Redmond’s version also reached Greece and Peru. In 1973 the Squires group Shaka recorded it in French as ‘Chimbombay Amene Moi’, again arranged by Vyvial, with Redmond’s ‘Penser’ on the reverse. Squires produced and directed, with Bentley as executive producer.

Redmond eventually moved into a long career as a DJ.

-Robert Williston