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A shifty cast of characters


Shifty calendar produced in 1989, featuring many of the key Shifty characters
After putting countess hours and not a little money into getting Shifty into shape. Ivan Kadey decided to seek his fortune in the USA. So Lloyd Ross become the driving force behind Shifty, but not without a little help from his friends.
Lloyd's fellow Happy Ships band member Warrick Sony bought his way into the story early on by bringing a 16-track tape recorder and has remained a key Shifty character ever since. Other musicians from the Shifty Stable also became involved in the business - Mark Bennett and André van Niekerk of the Softies become partners in Shifty Records.
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There were more Shifty characters busy behind the scenes - visual artists like Sarah Hills and Caroline Cullinan, who were responsible for putting together seminal Shifty album designs, and Joelle Chesselet and Craig Matthew shot some of the Shifty videos.

Job descriptions were fluid in the democratic Shifty office. Some of the musicians from the Shifty Stable shifted roles between being musicians, producers, and even helping out in the Shifty office. 

Officially being tasked with the tricky job of getting sounds on the airwaves, Toni Joosten remembers jumping repeatedly on a mining dump trying to clear the Jo'burg skyline in the background with each leap, all whilst dressed in a heavy Voortrekker outfit. Paul Weinberg's photographs of her flying efforts would later be transformed into the iconic cover image of the Voëlvry album. Toni remembers her time as a Shifty character fondly:

Lloyd's offer of a job at Shifty was the perfect culmination of my passions and, rather agreeably, gave meaning and legitimacy to my love of dancing at Jameson's. "Yeoville Days", as those times came to be known, were heady and exciting because we could do what we loved while making a difference...


 

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