I was sitting on the lawn at my school one hot summer’s day when I was approach by my good friend Kay Olivier. We were about sixteen.
He suggested we start a band. He could play guitar and sing, I would play drums and if need be play keyboard, and as it is with so many garage bands, we figured our mutual friend Ronald could just “quickly learn” the bass guitar. Kay came to me later on all excited and said, “we should call the band et-Katera. It means ‘and so on’.”
And so it came to be that we named the band after Kay’s mispronunciation of the word et-cetera. We got permission from the school principle to use the facilities at school to practice.
At school during break times (recess), we would come up with songs and practice. Then came the day when we were to play our first gig.
We sat at KFC next door to The Big Easy in Kensington, Johannesburg where we would be playing. Kay (far right in the pic above) was always nervous and would go to the toilet no less than three times before most gigs.
As Kay came out of the toilet after his third crap, Cliff Crabb from Agro gave us a pep-talk, told us not to be nervous, not to stop if we make mistakes, and then on stage gave us a brilliant introduction. Cliff is at the mic in the pic below…
The odd looking drums on the top right of the next picture are called Roto-Toms. They made SUCH a difference to my sound and if the neighbors hadn’t called the cops and eventually the department of health and safety (yes, representatives from that dpt rocked up at my house), I would still be able to play.
If you’re thinking of buying drums, make it Yamaha. They’re awesome awesome awesome drums.
As good as those days were, I can’t call them the good ol’ days because these are the most fulfilling, exciting days of my life.
But this story is not over. We played together for a few years. Bassists and guitarists came and went, but Kay and I stuck together. Then one day, I don’t know what came over me, but I just decided not to show up for a gig. I guess my best reason is that I was young, innocent, stupid, 100% inconsiderate of other people, and didn’t have the guts to tell him I wanted out (the truth is I just wanted a break, just didn’t realise it at the time). So I just didn’t show up. He had to play an acoustic set that night.
It’s something I truly regret to this very day. As you might imagine, even after apologising twice, our friendship never really recovered. Kay and I meet up once a year or so and ponder the good old days, laugh ourselves half to death, swear that we’ll see each other more often, and say goodbye, usually ’til the next year.
And so on this international medium I want to say again, “Kay I am truly sorry my brother!”
Here are a couple of the songs we performed…
Kay wrote the lyrics and melody and then him and I would arrange the instruments. In the songs Kay is singing and I do backing vocals and drums…
Let me know what you thought in the comments below…