Gospel singer Lionel Smith, of Parkwood, is celebrating 41 years in the music industry and he will be performing at God’s Angels Organisation at Boxer, Town Centre, Mitchell’s Plain, on Thursday December 8, at 1pm.
God’s Angels, a non-profit organisation, will be giving the disadvantaged community a lunch and entertainment and Mr Smith welcomed the invitation to perform.
Mr Smith started his singing career in the 70s with a group called Peace.
“I was introduced to the group by the late Stanley Williams from Cafda.”
Mr Smith remembered the first time he sang at a nightclub.
“The first songs I sang were Soley Soley, Ben and a few other songs by Michael Jackson, with the late Ronnie Joyce at the Key Nite Club, in Grassy Park. Nobody on this earth can do a Michael Jackson song better than Ronnie Joyce.”
Mr Smith said Michael Jackson was his “number one singer with the Jackson 5”.
“I used to sing most of their songs,” he said.
His career has taken him all over the city.
“Over the years I have practised at many, many places in Cape Town. We also practised in the old Mary Atlee centre, in Cafda. My brothers and I formed a group called Smith 5 and we started a music school called Charles Segal.”
A few years later Mr Smith said he used the stage name LC Smith.
“I decided I wanted to go solo. I performed in many variety shows with singers such as Cecil Mitch, Rico White, Eddie Star, Maxim Brown and many other local artists.
“I started singing gospel in the 1990s which taught me a lot about life, and how to live God’s way of life. Many of our ‘coloured’ singers turned to gospel.”
Mr Smith writes and composes his own gospel songs, “which I love doing”.
He said he would advise “upcoming singers, not to wish for it but to work for it”.
“It will never come to you unless you go and get it. The key words are ‘never give up’,” he said.
