John Theodore Kongos (born 6 August 1945) is a South African-born singer and songwriter of Greek ancestry, best known for his 1971 Top 10 hit single "He's Gonna Step on You Again", on which Happy Mondays based their hit "Step On". His other big hit was "Tokoloshe Man", which was featured on the TV show Life On Mars and the CD soundtrack. His second album, Kongos, made the top 30 of the UK Albums Chart; but his subsequent singles, "Great White Lady" (1972), "Ride the Lightning" (1975) and "Higher than God's Hat" (1975) did not chart.
Having had success in South Africa in the early 1960s with his band Johnny and the G-Men, as well as a solo artist, Kongos went to the UK in 1966, to pursue his musical career. His first UK based group, Floribunda Rose, formed in April 1967, comprised the British musicians, Pete Clifford (guitar) (born Peter William Frederick Clifford, 10 May 1943, Whetstone, North London) and Jack Russell (bass, vocals) (born 29 April 1944, Caerleon, South Wales), who had come to South Africa in June 1965 with The 004; drummer Nick 'Doc' Dokter (born 24 July 1945, Kampen, Overijssel, the Netherlands), a latter day member of 004; and the Cyprus-born keyboard player Chris Demetriou from John E Sharpe and the Squires. After one single, "Linda Loves Linda", Clifford returned to South Africa to join The Bats and Dokter moved to Canada and worked with Five Man Cargo. Drummer Henry Spinetti joined and the remaining members recorded three singles as Scrugg.
After 18 months of gigging in Britain and Europe with his bands Floribunda Rose and Scrugg, and five singles later, he released his first solo album, Confusions About a Goldfish (1969), on the Dawn record label.

Return to Johnny Kongos Autograph Profile