In years gone by, hordes of young men, who happened to be descendants of the coloured cultural group in the vastly populated province of the Cape Province in South Africa, made it their sole occupation invading the then South West Africa (SWA) en masse in search of greener pastures, preferably in the lucrative fishing industry as fishermen on the coastal harbour town of Walvis Bay.
Others would follow suit but with a different interest in the area of providing entertainment in the shape of live music performance to hundreds of recreationally starved music revelers, with the city of Windhoek their favourite rendezvous. Top musical live performing bands led by the Crusaders, Flames, Free Ride, Flamingoes, Tulips, The Rockets, Jacky, Mighty Bridge (Bayete), Richard Jon Smith, Bloodshed, Jonathan Butler, Little Ronny Joyce, Lionel Peterson and Prumes took turns in touring this country South in the mid 1960s and late 1970s. In fact, a significant chunk of these migrants could not resist the easy go life style in the beautiful land of the Brave, with its unique landscape and natural dunes, and opted to stay put never to return to their country of origin.
In the laxity and sometime lapse of strict immigration restrictions, visitors from across the Orange River would freely settle down in their adopted motherland without having to shed an ounce of sweat. Dozens of visiting musical ensembles from that neck of the woods would involuntarily undertake the path of the dinosaur upon completion of their Namibian safari, with some of the band members resolving to remain behind after falling for the irresistible charm of local beauties. One such band was The Puppets. This particular pop group of afro-haired young men from the Cape found themselves holed up in the country for a series of live shows but when their turn to retreat to their native land dawned– only band manager and a handful of members departed with a set of musical instruments.
The rest, prominent members of the band, found refuge in the Katutura residential area where they became friends with the well-to-do Hanstein family. Astute businessperson, Dennis Hanstein, took the band under his wings, and with an additional set of brand new musical instruments, as they say, the rest would be history. The band was renamed Poppets and had in its lineup Chris Absalom (lead vocals), Willy Saunders (organ), Cobie Adams (guitar) and Preston Malan (bass). Soon afterwards, bassist, Preston, left but the band continued to make waves with its newly found musical repertoire. Members from the three-piece Voodoo, a resident rock band from Cape Town at the South West Star Hotel in Khomasdal, were roped in to fill the void – culminating in the arrival of Ronny Adams (lead guitar & harmonies), Moegsien “Punk” Isaacs (bass & vocals) and Antony Andy de Vries (drums). It was not long before highly gifted drummer, Winston “Toffies” Amos, was recalled from Cape Town to replace the departing Andy in the skins department.
The Poppets were the very first local pop band to have their music recorded on album titled In the Eyes, with the hit songs, Crownless Affair, and in the Eyes of Love dominating airwaves on the local radio stations for long spells.
In the intervening years, a change in playing personnel was necessitated by the departure of Ronny, Toffies and Cobie, who all left the band for an assortment of reasons, including marriages – leaving Chris, Punk and Whacks the only remaining founding members of the pop musical ensemble. Locally acclaimed guitarist, and incumbent NBC radio news sub-editor, Richard van Wyk, also known as Sakuman in musical circles, was recruited with Ernie Lambert (drums) and John Scholtz (flute/saxophone). The band never lost its musical touch, and continued to entertain music revelers with great aplomb with their musical repertoire, containing cover versions by Doobie Brothers, KC & The Sunshine Band, Rabbits, Commodores and Isaac Hayes, in popular night clubs such as the Desert Inn (Narraville, Walvis Bay) Katutura Community Hall and Hot Spot Night Club (Khomasdal, Windhoek) holed up in the notorious Laeveld residential area.
The Poppets finally succumbed to the looming economic crises that invaded the corridors of live music entertainment in the 1980s, and eventually folded with some members opting to serve the All Mighty by spreading the gospel through music.