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Peter Lotis
Music maestro and resident in Frances Street
Think the 70’s hit Walking in the Sunshine and you’ve guessed another famous Observatory resident: Peter Lotis, pop star, music maestro, record boss, Springbok radio DJ – and nowadays chairman of the community radio station Radio Today AM1485. Still not sure? How about Honey, Peter’s other Number 1 song on the hit parade? Or his 1978 Number 2 hit Heidi, from the TV series?  Or maybe you remember him from the upmarket nightclub, Ciro’s, in town, where Peter sang nearly every night.
He’s no stranger to crooning with big bands: he sang with the famous Ted Heath band in the late fifties on equally famous stages like the Royal Albert Hall and the Palladium. “But I had to change my name,” Peter remembers. “When I arrived in England in ’55, my brother, Dennis, was already known as an actor and big band singer, so another Lotis was out. I sang as Peter Lowe for the next four years.” Back in South Africa he became a director of Gallo Records and put many stars on the map: Gene Rockwell, Judy Page and Allan Garrity. Remember Garrity’s big hit Put Your Hand in the Hand? Peter Lotis chose that song for him. And Peter didn’t stop with pop music: he made many Afrikaans singers like Mynie Grove, Jannie du Toit and even Min Shaw household names. But for many South Africans Peter Lotis IS Springbok Radio. As a DJ his show The Radio Record Club was by far the most popular. He had live shows where he would perform with rockers like The Silhouettes (their big hit was Scoobie Doobie), June Dyer and South Africa’s rock king Al Bentley. And Peter’s name is synonymous with another Springbok Radio hit show: Pick-A-Box, which he co-presented with quizmaster Bob Courtney every Monday night. Peter was instrumental in launching the Johannesburg community radio station Radio Today, which changed its name last year to 1485AM Gold. And he cares deeply for communities. He has been an Observatory resident since the early sixties. “We lived for nearly fourteen years in a big house in St Georges Road, right on the golf course, but when my three boys left home, we scaled down to a townhouse - still on the golf course.” Golf is another passion: his boys excelled in the game – the youngest was even Junior Transvaal champion. “In fact, my three boys at some stage had a collective handicap of a single digit,” he remembers. And yes, he has a string of grandchildren, but retirement? Not as long as he is living his passion: Radio Today. Not as long as he is one of the many presenters like Anne Powers, Bob Courtney and Alec Hogg. Not as long as he can sit behind that microphone, eyes closed, clicking his fingers to Steve Tyrell’s version of Ain’t Misbehaving… - You’ll find Radio Today on AM1485 or MW1485
Posted August 2005
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