Ag Pleez Deddy

While I was grow­ing up my sis­ter and I always knew we were in for a spe­cial treat when my dad brought out his gui­tar and song­book. One of our favour­ite songs and which has become an anthem of sorts in our fam­ily was Ag Pleez Deddy.

For those of you who have not heard this 'bal­lad of the Southern Suburbs', here is a snip­pet of the song that has provided my fam­ily with many happy memories ...

Ag pleez deddy won't you take us to the drive-in
All six, seven of us, eight, nine, ten
We wanna see a flick about
Tarzan and the Ape-men
And when the show is over you can bring us back again
Chorus:
Popcorn, chew­ing gum, pea­nuts and bubble gum
Ice cream, candy floss and Eskimo Pie
Ag deddy how we miss
Nigger balls and liquorice
Pepsi Cola, ginger beer
and Canada Dry

And so starts the bal­lad of the Southern Suburbs, my dad used to sing it with great gusto and an accent that would make any Capetonian child proud. The verses range from plead­ing to go to the fun fair, watch a wrest­ling match and take a trip to Durban and you can only ima­gine this is what every par­ent must hear come week­end or hol­i­day time. My sis­ter and I would giggle uncon­trol­lably when my dad would sing the line of the father telling the chil­dren to "voet­sek" and sus­tain the laughter through the final verse in which the chil­dren tell their father that if he doesn't help them in the quest for some­thing to do they will have no other option but to go and pick fights with the chil­dren next door.

This song that holds so many happy memor­ies was not writ­ten by my dad, as I had naively assumed while grow­ing up, but by Jeremy Taylor in 1961, long before I was born. Taylor was born in the U.K., but spent most of his life in South Africa. He was ori­gin­ally an English teach in Johannesburg, but is since famed as a folk singer and song writer. Taylor was an enter­tainer not only through his music, but also as a stand-up comedian. His per­form­ances and artistry usu­ally had some social com­ment­ary included and he had per­fec­ted the dra­matic pause in crit­ical points in his songs, which aided in mak­ing his songs so humorous.

Through his songs Taylor allowed audi­ences to laugh at them­selves while delving into deeper under­ly­ing issues in soci­ety. This how­ever did not make him pop­u­lar in apartheid South Africa and many of his songs were banned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the government.

Now why on earth am I telling you this you might be won­der­ing, well while at din­ner last night my mom men­tioned that they were very keen to go and see Jeremy Taylor who would be per­form­ing at the Baxter in the upcom­ing week. "Who???" was my response and I was pleas­antly sur­prised to find out that the singer of this old favour­ite would be in my home town. I will most def­in­itely be join­ing my par­ents at this show to relive happy child­hood memor­ies and I thought I needed to share this with you incase you would like to do the same.

Jeremy Taylor will be per­form­ing at the Baxter Theatre in Rondebosch. I feel this is most cer­tainly a fit­ting venue as Ag Pleez Deddy is the bal­lad of the Southern Suburbs and Rondebosch is in the heart of the Southern Suburbs. The show pre­views on Tuesday 13 October 2009 and runs until Saturday 24 October 2009 with the per­form­ance begin­ning at 19h30.

Tickets are R85 for the pre­view on Tuesday 13, oth­er­wise R110 from Tuesday to Thursday and R120 for Saturday and Sunday, Monday night offers a dis­coun­ted price, how­ever, con­di­tions apply.

I thought I would leave you with my own bal­lad:
(sung in the tune of Ag Pleez Deddy — Jeremy Taylor)

Ag pleez Cape Town won't you please book your tick­ets
Jem will enter­tain with a song or two
He'll make you laugh and cry and smile
And roll around in the aisle
I am look­ing for­ward to a giggle or two ...

Or per­haps we'll leave the singing and song writ­ing to Mr Taylor himself!

See Jeremy Taylors web­site at http://www.jeremytaylormusic.com/

Dates and Times:
Preview on Tuesday, 13 October, at 19:30
Opens on Wednesday, 14 October, at 19:30
Thereafter Monday–Saturday at 19:30

Useful Links:
Things to Do in Cape Town
Cape Town Nightlife & Theatre
Rondebosch Accommodation
Cape Town Accommodation