The Emergency Bouzouki Player: Two years at war with the Apartheid Army - Tapa blanda

The Emergency Bouzouki Player is the true story of a teenager railroaded into the South African army for two years of national service at the height of the Border War. My story begins in the small Cretan village of Sfakia, continues through Johannesburg where I was born in 1960, through growing up in seventies Apartheid society, before one dark and dusty year in Kimberley and another in Pretoria where it all ends with a new beginning on a rainy morning at Heathrow. “The cruelty, the absurdity and the mindlessness of life in the South African army are candidly described in this first-hand account by a young conscript who, to escape the infamous Diskobolos Infantry Training Camp and its murderous instructors, claimed he could play the bouzouki in a subterfuge that was to have unforeseen, sometimes comical and sometimes life-threatening consequences. Most of all, the Emergency Bouzouki Player depicts the way in which hope can carry a young person through the worst of times”

Andrew Brel was born in 1960 in Johannesburg. He lives between London and Los Angeles occupied mostly with words and music. He has two sons, twenty years apart, almost always gives money to buskers, skis on water and snow, cares about and for the homeless, practices kindness and yoga, rides bikes and horses, continues a lifelong study of ethics, religion and depression, plays tennis, lives in the moment and in gratitude, mostly for being Greek. Andrew is an accomplished dog trainer and collector of stringed instruments. He has previously; performed thousands of gigs as a professional musician, emigrated penniless from Johannesburg to London, owned recording studios and a record label, made and lost money in share trading, developed property, organized meaningful fund raising concerts, lived on very little, played a lot of tennis, indulged an appetite for fine dining, married once, watched his home flood twice, visited many great vineyards, raised Wallace of Riverbank, for 15 years the worlds finest Schnauzer, written songs, performed, written and recorded music with extraordinary musicians and realised loyal friendship as life’s great gift and betrayal its greatest disappointment. Andrew is an accomplished composer of meditation and wellness music albums which can be found by googling Andrew Brel Music.