Bob left Ireland in 1975 and returned to South Africa where he was rapidly integrated into the South African Folk Music scene. Bob was a regular at the Mangles Coffee House in Johannesburg and was invited to perform at the National Folk Festival held annually in Port Elizabeth shortly after arriving in country. Bob met David Marks, founder of 3rd Ear Music, a local producer of South African music including the Zulu Group Amapondo, and eventually, Johnny Clegg and Julaka. Through 3rd Ear, Bob did a number of recordings for Warner Brothers and Electra/Asylum including the sound track for a TV series on gold mining, and mandolin and Banjo on an award winning album by Brian Finch, a leading musician based in Durban. While in Johannesburg, Bob became friends with Johnny Clegg. Johnny is a white South African that embrace Zulu music and culture.  Bob would accompany Johnny on late night visits to Johannesburg apartment buildings to visit “flat boys”, Zulu musicians working as cleaners in those buildings. Bob heard some amazing music on these forays. While in Johannesburg, Bob became friends with Sage, a local Irish band. Although never a permanent member, he would often sit in with Sage at local gigs. Jim McFarland returned to Ireland, to become All Ireland singer and Frank Cassidy moved to Canada and has produced a number of CDs featuring the tin whistle. Bob later moved to Cape Town where he met Volker Tormer, an exceptional bluegrass banjo player from Germany, and they formed Dogge Bagge. In addition to Bob and Volker, Dogge Bagge featured Zambian born Stef Malherbe on bass and Scotsman Ian Sampson on fiddle. Dogge Bagge was South Africa’s Premier bluegrass band for many years, and played regularly at the Pizza Den in Cape Town, the first American style pizza place in south Africa. Dogge Bagge was also contracted to Kentucky Fried Chicken, and played at the opening of every new restaurant. They were temporarily renamed “The Kentucky Colonels” and were contracted to eat fried chicken on stage. Dogge Bagge ended the relationship after visiting one of the chicken farms in South Africa. The Dogge Bagge “world tour” happened in 1976 with gigs in Seattle, Vancouver, The Dog House on Vashon Island, WA,  New England, Ireland and Mahogany Hall in Bern Switzerland. The band did a concert at McCord Air Force Base in Washington State. They were so well received they were offered an additional date the following night. When the band mentioned they had to fly to the East Coast the next day, they received an offer of free passage on an ordinance flight. They respectively declined. Dogge Bagge continued with regular reunions until Volker’s death in 2009.

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