BlackSmith Has it's roots in Port Elizabeth, and the Four Winds Folk Music Club. The original folk band in Port Elizabeth was called Crookshank. It was formed in the early 70's by members and musicians from the Four Winds Folk Club in Port Elizabeth, who's chairman was Neil Harvey from 1973 to 1975. Neil and Richard had played as a duo for some time in Port Elizabeth at the Stage Door in Chapel Street for R6.00 each and a hamburger. They were joined by Henric on the fiddle and vocals. These were the early beginnings of Blacksmith. Uncle Jack joined us for the odd rebel song, and his piece de resistance was The Sting, with a single flat note on the honky tonk piano. As a special favour for Henric, and in honour of his Swedish descent, Uncle Jack would occasionally treat us to his rendition of Wonderful Copenhagen. The band was joined by Glen Mew, and played as Blacksmith at folk festivals and concerts organised through the Four Winds Folk Club. When Neil left to go to Cape Town, the music continued with Richard, Glen Mew, Donald Flint and Keith Clayton. Keith, a champion skydiver, was tragically killed in plane crash. Cape Town By 1974, Patrick (Paddy) Booth-Jones had relocated to Cape Town and was studying engineering. In May 1975, Neil Harvey moved to Cape Town, and after a few months moved into 7 Queen Street, Mowbray, a communal house owned by Jenny Mallet, where Paddy lived. It didn't take long before the early Blacksmith was formed with Neil, Paddy and Andy Fourie, a UCT buddy of Paddy's, who played the 5 string banjo. Glen Mew moved to Cape Town, and the four piece Blacksmith was formalised, and took on gigs around town, playing at the Barleycorn Folk Club (Neil was at various stages co-chairman with Bob Denton, and later Chairman after Bob left). At the end of 1975, Andy Fourie left Cape Town to work out his UCT bursary. Jenny Mallet had for some time been telling us that someone in the house next door (No. 5 Queen Street), played an awful lot of first class banjo music. One Saturday (Andy's last night with Blacksmith), Paddy went over to investigate, and Lo!, it was Nielen Prinsloo, who was not playing banjo records, but actually playing the banjo itself. Nielen had moved down to Cape Town from Pretoria, and lived with his brother at No 5. He'd been planning to visit Wylde's restaurant in Simon's Town that very evening, to see a band called Blacksmith, who he'd heard played bluegrass. Obviously, Nielen was a natural replacement for Andy and his first gig with Blacksmith was that Saturday evening. So, with the line up Paddy, Nielen, Glen and Neil we had a four piece band that concentrated on building a repertoire of bluegrass and country music, with British traditional and every other sort of music that appealed to us and to anyone who'd listen. Paddy took up the fiddle, and in record time was an accomplished fiddle player.
On a typical night, the instrument line up would look like Nielen Prinsloo (Banjo, Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, Spoons) Glen Mew (Guitar, Bass, Mandolin, Whistles, Recorder, Harmonica) Paddy Booth Jones (Fiddle, Guitar, Bass, Mandolin) Neil Harvey (Guitar, Mandolin, Bass, Harmonica)
A great force in the band was four strong voices, and many of our songs were unaccompanied traditional British numbers and American field hollers. Glen's wonderful capability with whistles and recorders, Nielen's great melodic banjo playing and Paddy's fiddle playing meant that the band could mix instrumentals with songs, and having four strong voices sharing the singing allowed the band to handle four 50 minute sets of powerful music with ease, sometimes five nights a week. Blacksmith took gigs at the original Hard Rock Cafe in Rondebosch, at Gentleman Wylde's in Simon's Town, at the Chelsea Arms in Wynberg, Bourbon Street in Cape Town, and various clubs and pubs too murky to remember. The band's long stint at the Chelsea Arms is probably the period when most people got to hear the band. For years we played Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Many guests would join the band on stage, and we used to have pipers from the Cape Town Highlanders join us on joyous occasions. In 1979 Nielen, Neil and Paddy left to travel overseas, played a few gigs, toured Ireland, spoke to the Holy Goat, and after a few years had returned via various paths to Cape Town and Johannesburg. | |
1975 Four Winds Folk Club (l to r) Nielen - Banjo, Paddy - Double Bass, Glen - Whistle, Neil - Guitar |  1975 Four Winds Folk Club (l to r) Nielen - Double Bass, Paddy - Fiddle, Glen - Banjo, Neil - Guitar |
Renaissance Blacksmith was reformed in the early 1980's and Paddy (who'd moved to Johannesburg) was replaced by Terrence Scarr on fiddle, mandolin and bass. Blacksmith was also joined by Dave Nissen on guitar (electric and acoustic) and mandolin, and the five piece band thrived once more. Terrence arranged a recording session at the SABC during this period. The band enjoyed a hiatus from about 1990, and seldom played during this time. When it did form it was lucky to have musicians like Terrence Scarr and Caroline Blundell, and Sez Adamson, a pedal steel player and guitarist of note. Stefan Malherbe (Double Bass and Vocals), currently the third member of Blacksmith, played on and off with the band through the association of the Barleycorn, and Bob Denton's many fine bands. The current permanent Blacksmith line up is Nielen Prinsloo, Neil Harvey and Stef Malherbe. If we're lucky, Terrence joins us, and if we're extremely lucky, we might get to play with Caroline and Sez (when he's in town), Richard Haslop and other itinerant and visiting musicians. We recently had Swedish Henric Thornberg join us for an evening.
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< No. 7 Queen Street (l to r) Paddy Booth-Jones , Neil Harvey, Nielen Prinsloo, Glen Mew