From the age of sixteen until twenty one, I had learnt and performed with my fathers trusty old 70's USA Ovation. And so for my twenty first birthday, my dear old grandfather (who fought in WWII and survived and lived to the grand old age of ninety three) bought me my first guitar. I was now making music for a living using my dad's Ovation. It was beyond time that I get my own instrument. Because I was already gigging, I needed a professional grade instrument with a decent tone and it had to have a pickup for amplification.
I remember going to the guitar shop in the city, a complete guitar rookie, and playing and comparing all the guitars in the price range I was afforded (around $300). I was most attracted to a Crafter with a Venetian cutaway, solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides. I walked away with that guitar, and she was my precious for a good seven years. I didn't even consider buying another guitar during that whole time. I was most satisfied with this fine and beautiful looking instrument.
Here I am as a youth, looking very pleased with myself shortly after acquiring my very own professional grade guitar.
In 2005 I moved to the city of Johannesburg with most of my band (It was just the bass player that didn't move along with us, and we soon found another bass man we felt was better suited to our music than the old one). I spent two years living in Johannesburg as a full time musician, and during this time I played the Crafter almost exclusively both solo and with my band at the time (Dreamchain).
Here we are in action around that time.
In 2007 I travelled to India for the first time. I bought the cheapest plain Jane travel guitar I could (not wanting to risk travel damage to the Crafter), and when I returned to South Africa some months later I disbanded the band and relocated to the coastal city of Durban. It was in Durban that I befriended and also became something of a guitar and music student to the late great Syd Kitchen. In late 2008, Syd invited me to go on tour with him around South Africa, an opportunity I would never have passed up at the time (Syd was to my mind one of the great songwriters, possibly South Africa's best ever). Syd was one of the most eclectic people you could ever hope to meet, and I will soon write specifically about the connection to Syd as a part of my "Musical Influences" series, but that is another story. At this point however, they intersect...
Syd Kitchen with his Maingard guitar
We set off for Cape Town (1000 miles away) in my red 1991 Honda Ballade and we had performance dates lined up all along the way. Our first stop was a show in Kokstad on the first night and that went off beautifully. The following morning we resumed our travels at around 9am, and we drove along for the next five hours most peacefully. But while travelling the treacherous Transkei route at around 2pm, chaos descended upon us. Out of the blue, a reckless ambulance rear ended us on the highway at high speed. I lost control of the vehicle and it went into a spin, making three full 360 degree rotations before being launched off the roadside railing and literally flying off a low bridge. The motor car landed with a crash on its left side in a dry river bed.
Just after such an impact, if one has been fortunate enough to avoid real injury, there is a surreal moment of realization in understanding that you are not yet in fact dead! I tried opening the door but that was impossible. The windows wouldn't budge either. I looked around, the boot (trunk) had been forced open on impact and I could see daylight. I managed to free myself and crawl out through the boot of the car! Syd was still in the wreckage, moaning and not completely compos mentis. I called to him and got his attention, instructing him to crawl out the boot the same way I had done. I went back in and we finally managed to get out of the haze as I helped to pull the old man out.
At this point I suddenly remembered all that I had been reading at the time. I had become obsessed with studying different spiritual traditions and ultimately understanding death. In the teachings of the ancient Veda's I had read that if one chants the Maha Mantra at the time of death he will be able to overcome the material world and attain the spiritual reality. I had also had a dream a week or so earlier where I had been driving with my father and we had lost control and driven off an abyss, and in that dream I began chanting the Maha Mantra. Suddenly I began chanting the Maha Mantra very loudly, "Hare Krsna Hare Krsna". Syd would remember that for a long time to come and often bring it up. He thought it the ultimate trippyness after a traumatic experience like that, and he actually joined in the chanting as well...
Once we had collected our senses, and realizing we had got off very lightly, we both became completely exhilarated. There were some Rastafarians sitting on a nearby fence who had witnessed the whole scene, and on seeing me crawl out the boot they were shouting "Yoh, you survived!! You survived!!". On seeing Syd emerge from the vehicle, an amazed yell of "You both survived!!!!" echoed through the area. I went back to the car to see what could be salvaged and pulled out our guitar cases. Syd's custom Maingard guitar was fine, the case had taken the impact and the guitar was perfect. But my guitars case was broken, and on inspection I saw that my precious Crafter's neck was twisted and crushed. In that moment, however, I truly didn't care in the slightest. I picked up that mangled guitar and danced around pretending to play it in exhilaration, much to the amusement of the gathering crowds of local rural African folk.
The ambulance who hit us were kind enough to stop and make sure we weren't dead, but then they quickly scuttled off while we were still dazed, so we never did bring them to book for their reckless driving. Another ambulance eventually arrived, loaded us up and took us to the nearest hospital in the township of Butterworth. It was a genuine nightmare there and typical of what you would imagine a township hospital to be. There were no real doctors around, so when Syd's luthier (guitar builder) friend Ian Corr arrived to fetch Syd and I, driving 2 hours from his home in Morgan Bay to help us, we wasted no time in getting out of there.
We rested for two days at Ian's place in Morgan Bay, and then we were ready to continue the tour. There was an American filmmaker who was making a documentary on Syd set to meet us when we got to Cape Town, and at his insistence the tour was not cancelled. Syd had a few broken ribs, I was comparatively better off with just the whiplash to deal with. Our next stop was East London, and Ian was good enough to take us there.
It was in East London that a local musician friend of Syd's by the name of Ed did one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. He brought out a beautiful Tanglewood guitar in a hardcase that he had bought in England, and presented it to me as a gift. A sign of the genuine kind of man Ed really is...
Here's a pic of Syd and I on stage, back on track after Ed gifted me a beautiful Tanglewood guitar (pictured in the below image).
The time I spent with Syd was never boring, and I ended up doing a fair amount of travelling and performing with Syd, but that is another story for another day...
Sadly, soon after arriving back in Durban, the Tanglewood guitar Ed had given me was stolen (I live in Africa remember, and one of Syd's most famous songs is called "Africa is not for Sissies"). This in turn set off a chain of guitar related events in my life - and these events are what will make up the rest of "The Guitars in My Life" series right here on Steemit.
Thanks for reading friends, and if you enjoyed the story please upvote, resteem and follow me, it will be most appreciated.
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Gone Troppo
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Grand story, ol' Syd :D