The Ugly Creatures The Ugly Creatures (7inch)

A) The Ugly Creatures 'Creatures of The Earth' 
B) The Ugly Creatures 'Exit To Artist Exist' 



The Ugly Creatures (by Baby Doeseb) 

The band Ugly Creatures was formed as a high school musical outfit at the Martin Luther High School, near Okombahe, a small settlement about 70km west of Omaruru in Namibia in 1971. Interests in music surfaced strong as the entire founding members of the group attended the Martin Luther High School. The band featured in its founding casts, Joni Adams (vocals), August !Uiseb (vocals), Ben Togolo !Naobeb (drums), Moses !Ome (drums), Axali J Doeseb (guitar), Jefta !Noabeb (guitar), Emil Keister (keyboards) and Dantago N !Hoabeb (Bass). Musically things started to move in the right direction and the school band soon started jamming in the city and towns during school holidays, doing gigs on main halls and gospel music on Sundays in Lutheran churches around Namibia. . 

By mid 70's the Ugly Creatures had garnered a well-deserved reputation as the premier local band. By then the Band formation was changed, more founding members gave way to styled players and the Ugly Creatures sound was born featuring Axali Doeseb, Baby Doeseb, Elvis Afrikaner, Jefta !Noabeb, Nicro !Hoabeb, Joni Adams and Jomo !Haoseb. The band started to work on their own compositions and three albums, Generation, !Nosa !Keis (Gospel) and The Ugly Creatures were released. Axali Doeseb and Joni Adams were the main songwriters for the group and at a later stage, Baby Doesebalso added his talent. Some tracks were topping the local top 20 programs on black radio stations. Tracks like "//Khowa am dao-amte"(Creatures) and "Eyes of ice"(Generation) were banned from the local stations. Top hits such as Shirley, Creatures of the Earth, Not Tonight, Sas xa ≠aihase, Friends of Mine, Give your Heart and !Erere had the longest standing on the local radio stations, out lasting imports. The lack of a Recording company and music promoters, together with the inexperience of the band members themselves, contributed towards the band not earning much from their recordings Their songs may have been popular but record sales were not. 

In the late 70's, the Late Thlabanello and Tjongarero took the Band under their wings as the SWAPO Party band. The playing field was broadened, more gigs and more appearances at the SWAPO Party Rallies; the result was the "Peoples Band", but the name Ugly Creatures remained with the band throughout though. This combination also cost the band dearly. Being an up-front Band for a banned political party led to a stand-off with the South African rulers and their dreams of reaching out internationally were dash. No band never would been awarded a passport to leave the country. Over the years some members left for further education, some got job transfers outside Windhoek, some died, etc. and the distinct style, performance, sophisticated sound known and appreciated by the Namibians started to decline. 

The line-up on the Creatures of the Earth album that was recorded in 1978 in Johannesburg, South Africa was: Joni Adams(lead vocals/saxophone), Axali Doeseb – (keyboards/vocals) Peter L. Karon (manager), Baby Doeseb (lead guitar/vocals), Elvis Afrikaner (rhythm guitar/vocals), Jomo !Haoseb (drums/vocals) and Jephta !Noabeb (Bass guitar/vocals).