At the end of 2002 Paul Seele decided to contribute to the South African music struggle. After co-hosting a rock show, The Alternative Current, on UCT Radio for a year and a half he chose to fill the gap left by the previous music manager, Nadia Neophetou. Paul replaced Nadia as the station’s music manager and inspired by Nadia’s love for local music decided to push the envelope with SA music coverage on 104.5fm. Paul started working on his new South African music show straight away, Ana-Paula de Almeida conceived the show’s name and the idea of it being Loudly South African and Native Noise was born.

Before the end of 2002 Paul approached the rest of the station’s management team about his desire to increase the station’s local music quota . On returning from the December vacation Paul was delighted to find that UCT Radio’s management had implemented a new programming schedule that now included a 1 hour lunchtime slot dedicated to South African music. The timeslot was named the Loudly South African Lunch and a team of individuals passionate about SA music was gathered to present the new shows. Paul See (his show name) presented the Tuesday & Thursday shows while Shorty Sure and Uncle Bexta hosted Mondays and Wednesdays respectively. The 3 presenters covered a diverse range of local music which was summed up on a Friday when the Double D team came in to count down UCT Radio’s SA Top10.

It didn’t take long for Paul See to build a good reputation for Native Noise. The show promised -and delivered- at least one interview with a local artist every week, current news on the SA music industry along with the week’s gig guide, and the ever-popular Papsak Pick of the Week. As difficult as it was to cram all of this into a very short hour Paul managed to enthusiastically deliver an engaging show twice a week.

In April 2003 another exciting feature was introduced to Native Noise. Andy Lund, vocalist for The Roswell Kings, wanted to try something new to UCT Radio. Andy had been a regular guest on The Alternative Current and Native Noise in the past so Paul was more than happy to try Andy’s idea. Thus on April 24th Andy arrived with band member Dylan Dalton and an acoustic guitar and the two performed the first song on The Native Noise Acoustic Collection. After Roswell Kings proved that it is possible to have good bands perform unplugged in UCT Radio’s minimally equipped studio Paul called in a string of talented artists to perfom live on the air.

By the 16th October 2003 Paul See realised that obtaining a degree from the University of Cape Town would lead his show to an unfortunate end. And so Paul made the neccessary arrangements for his final show. Uncle Bexta was kind enough to donate his 3 hour drive-time show to make it possible for Paul to host The Native Noise Four Hour Finale. Paul had Chiaroscuro, Plush and Freshly Ground in for interviews and towards the end of the 4 hour show The Roswell Kings and Arno Carstens performed live on the air. The show was riddled with previous Papsak Picks and songs recorded during sessions from The Native Noise Acoustic Collection. After a year of interviews with more than 40 artists and such a massive send off Paul struggled to walk away from UCT Radio….

Which brings us to March 2004 and The All New Native Noise. Despite not being a UCT student the radio station was thrilled to welcome Paul back to 104.5fm. Paul See was given 11:00-13:00 on Saturdays to host a bigger version of Native Noise. The show gave Paul the opportunity to focus on artists that are active in Cape Town on the specific weekends and a two hour show enabled bands to perform more unplugged songs on The Native Noise Acoustic Collection.

On the 22nd May, Native Noise was extended by yet another hour. The new show ran from 11:00-14:00 every Saturday. The first official three hour show was launched with unplugged performances by Fly Paper Jet and Boo! The additional hour allowed Paul to play a wider variety of local music and interview two bands per show.

By November 2004 it was becoming clear that Paul would be doing that graduating thing that almost destroyed his show in 2003. This time Paul would be graduating for good and leaving his student life behind. Unfortunately this meant that Native Noise would also cease to exist on Cape Town’s student radio station. So once again Paul planned his final big farewell.

After two years of inviting guests onto the show Paul had built up quite a collection of songs performed live on the show. So what better way to leave UCT Radio than to throw a party and give the listeners a permanent piece of Native Noise Memorabilia. Paul went through the archive of songs performed for the Native Noise Acoustic Collection and selected as many songs would fit on a CD. On the 25th November 2004 The Native Noise Acoustic Collection Free MP3 Album was officially launched.

Two days later Paul See went on the air for the last Native Noise ever on 104.5fm! He invited two very relevant guests onto the show to end of the year. The first guest was Chris Chameleon who was busy dealing with the departure of his former band-mates in Boo!. It was apt that both Chris and Paul were in a stage where they had to make decisions about where their careers would take them… hopefully both will have much success. Next Plush came into the studio and in the same way that they started Native Noise in 2004 they also ended it. Throughout the show Paul gave away pre-made copies of The Native Noise Acoustic Collection. The feedback from the listeners was phenomenal and one listener, Natalie Green, even stopped by the station with a farewell bottle of Amarula Cream.

Paul ended off the show by playing the Native Noise Anthem one last time and with that Native Noise was gone from 104.5fm. www.NativeNoise.co.za will remain online for people to download The Native Noise Acoustic Collection, listen to past interviews, learn about the show and view photos of the live music scene. Paul See says that his work for the SA music industry is not done, watch this space to see what else is up his sleeve.