Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse and his saxophone, playing at Kippies again

RELATED LINKS: Kippies to blow jazz across Newtown again NEARLY two years after it was closed for safety reasons, the world-famous - and much missed - Kippies is to reopen at a new venue in Newtown. Read more Cracked Kippies ends on a sad note JOHANNESBURG'S world-famous jazz club, Kippies, is to be demolished in the coming months - because cracks in the walls have put the building at risk of collapsing. But the City wants to find jazz lovers another home. Read more Kippies, the club that wasn't always there MOST people know that jazz club Kippies in Newtown was named after saxophone player Kippie Moeketsi. But what most people don't know is that the building that houses Kippies was never there in the first place. Read more

Sibongile Khumalo welcomes Kippies back again, with her great voice

Kippies is back in full swing To the sweet sounds of Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse and friends, Kippies was reopened in a shiny new venue. But the old building may still be saved. November 3, 2006 By Lucille Davie AFTER being closed for almost two years, Kippies has been resuscitated. It re-opened in the former Songwriters' Club in Newtown last night, with its manager, Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse, on the saxophone. A clearly delighted Mabuse, the long-time manager of Kippies, invited on stage a number of great Joburg musicians to welcome the 60-strong crowd - Sibongile Khumalo, Don Laka, Judith Sephuma and Selaelo Selota. In addition to his great sounds, the performers had the audience shouting for more - but each performed only one number. After a brief welcome from the Johannesburg Development Agency's chief executive, Lael Bethlehem, the provincial MEC for sport, arts, culture and recreation, Barbara Creecy, said, "We want the community to build this province as a home of cultural industries." The world-famous club closed in January last year because of structural problems in the building. Investigations revealed that it was constructed on a geological fault line. Creecy said engineers had estimated that the cost of repairing the damage could be between R1-million and R2-million, although she stressed that the City would have to do a thorough costing of the project. The provincial government would contribute towards to the City's budget to fix the club. She said she would ask the provincial heritage body, whose task it is to assess the viability of the project, to consider not just the architecture of the building but its heritage and emotional associations. The original venue is a copy of an earlier Edwardian toilet and was built in the 1980s. The cosy club has had most of South Africa's jazz greats perform on its stage. The new venue, although an older building, is very different: it is more spacious and finished with a modern feel of corrugated iron sheeting over windows and on walls, rough, bag-washed walls, solid, black steel beams and a black concrete floor. Thursday night was Mabuse's birthday. It was also the birth of a new phase of Kippies' existence, and by the look of the vibey crowd at the re-opening, many people are happy that the club is back in business. The first public opening of Kippies will be on Saturday, 4 November, when Mabuse will take to the stage with jazz giant Hugh Masekela. Entrance will be R80. Kippies will be open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, and is on the corner of Carr and Quinn streets in Newtown. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za