dennis east
Dennis East, born in durban dennis pursued his interest in music while still at school.
After performing on the professional circuit in various bands in the sixties and early seventies he recorded his first solo single “could you ever love me again” with rpm records in late 1973. He achieved his first top five single in 1974 with “a rose has to die” followed by a successful album. In 1975 he was back in the charts with “a million drums” which became an even bigger hit. He achieved chart status once again in 1977 with “ stone walls “ as well as another successful album. The same year saw him receiving a sarie award as best male vocalist.
After parting ways with rpm records in 1978 dennis east signed to the david gresham record company where he went on to form part of the south african supergroup “ stringray” once again achieving chart status with the hit “better the devil you know” which also made the uk charts. Their first album was also hugely successful both locally and abroad being nominated in billboard magazine as album of the week in the usa.
The band went on to record another album and numerous singles before splitting up in 1982
Dennis resumed his solo career working on a rock project in the usa and producing various acts for the david gresham group. He also served as a director in the company for thirteen years. He was nominated to represent south africa at the chilean song festival in 1988 with his song “genevieve” where he achieved second place against twelve other countries. He was also voted top vocalist of the contest by viewers all across south america , canada , and australia.
As a songwriter he has achieved success both locally and internationally.
His song “trouble” appeared on the album “whispering jack” by australian superstar “ john farnham” which sold in excess of two million copies worldwide. He also reached the billboard hot 100 in the usa with his song “empty beach” recorded by “tricia leigh fisher” ( sister of actress carrie fisher ) he has also written a number of hits locally including his hit “dammit i love you” as well as “tango rain “ and “first kiss goodnight” by local superstar “patricia lewis”. He also co composed the theme for patricia’s highly popular shows “ blonde ambesie” and “bang jan dooie jan”. His song “the first kiss goodnight” ( originally recorded by bles bridges and patricia lewis) has been recorded by local superstar “gerrie pretorius” on his latest album which has achieved sales in excess of fifty thousand copies. It is also featured on his current dvd.
He currently runs a highly successful recording studio , production and publishing comapany producing top selling abums for” patricia lewis”,” steve hofmyer”,” dozi”,” little sister” ,” kreesan” , “bobby angel” , ,“barbara ray”, rock outfit “amersham”, idols star “bianca” “latik” , “nedine blom” as well as the 1995 rugby world cup song “shoshaloza” with “dan moyane” and many more.
He also writes and produces music for m-net , dstv, m-net supersport and e-tv as well as jingles for firestone , coca cola , fanta, wicks , colgate, tastic rice, ricoffy and many more. Was appointed music director for “coca cola pop stars” for south and east africa, composing and producing the respective themes as well.
He is also music director for the popular 26 part tv 2 series “famous” and composed and recorded all music for the “nedbank million dollar golf challenge for the past three years.
In 2005 he recorded his hit “a million drums” as a duet with “steve hofmyer” on his album “ toeka 2 “ which has sold in excess of two hundred thousand copies to date. He has also featured on a highly successful nationwide tour with steve. And appears on the multi platinum toeke 2 dvd which includes a number of his own hits as well as the incredibly popular “creedance clearwater revival medley”
He has just completed a series of sold out shows at carnival city with steve , dana winner, nia nel , karen zoid and many other top local acts.
The show entitled “steve plus eight” was recorded for dvd and immediately achieved platinum status.
Following the success of his album “dammit i love you “ he has recently released his new album “you” with many of the tracks receiving strong airplay.
He is currenly working on albums for emi records with new artists “louis fivaz” and “adri”
Dennis has just completed work as music director on the second season of the sabc 2 show “famous” which features the group “atom”. He also produced the group’s album which contains the hit single “gone by the minute” which is currently in the top twenty.
He was also music director for the sabc 3 show “pump up the volume” sponsered by “body on tap”
Aside from live appearances he continues to produce music for the various tv networks and production houses as well as a number of our top local artists.