Keith & Caroline Blundell - Gone the rainbow

Keith Graham Blundell was born on 24 July 1927 in King William’s Town. His father, also Keith, was an Anglican priest, and his mother Dorothy (née Graham) was the great great granddaughter of the British Army’s Colonel Graham after whom Grahamstown (now Makhanda) in the Eastern Cape was named. As was the custom in the Anglican church at that time, the family moved every 5 years, first to Grahamstown in 1928 and then to Leicester in England where Keith’s father became a minister at Saint Paul’s Church. Here Keith was sent to boarding school at Westbourne House Preparatory school in Folkestone, some 96 miles away where he participated in boxing and athletics. In 1938, when Keith was 11, the Blundell family moved back to South Africa where they stayed in Yeoville in Johannesburg where Keith sang in the church choir and learned how to read music and how to harmonise. He first attended Parktown Preparatory school before moving to St. Andrews College in Grahamstown. After school he joined the South African Navy shortly before the end of World War 2 and was discharged in 1946 after the war had ended.

He started working for the Public Utility Transport Corporation (PUTCO) in Johannesburg and in this time met Pamela Brathwaite, a music teacher at the Ridge Primary School, who became his wife in 1951. Five years later he left PUTCO and bought a sports and travel shop called Gullivers in Rosebank. He then became involved with stage productions, such as “The Beggars Opera” and “The Gypsy Baron”, which introduced him to some of South Africa’s best known folk singers, including Jill Kirkland, Jeremy Taylor, and Des Lindberg, with whom he regularly performed and recorded, and even formed a folk group, the “Bottle Tops”. Due to the absence of a dedicated venue for hosting folk music shows, they then opened The Troubadour in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, in 1964. The club quickly became a sought-after venue for aspiring folk musicians to perform.

Keith and Jill Kirkland first performed together in 1965 at the National Folk Festival, after which they formed a folk duo and recorded the album, ”Folksome”, with their collaboration lasting throughout the 1960s. In 1966 Keith released his first solo album, “Square Folk Songs”, started workshops for amateur folk singers and formed “The Balladeers”, which consisted of 18 members between the ages of 11 and 40, including his 4 children. He also formed the first folk festival steering committee together with his wife Pamela and Des Lindberg, which in turn resulted in the founding of the South African Folk Music Association (SAFMA). The Balladeers became very popular in the years that followed, appearing often at various clubs, during concerts and festivals, and releasing their first album “Dick King’s Ride” in 1966, following this up in 1967 with “It Was A Very Good Year”. Keith also released his second solo album, “Keith Blundell Sings”, in that year and his frequent collaboration with Andy Dillon resulted in them releasing the album “Keith And Andy Bring Down The House” later that year. His popularly led to him being asked to judge the first folk-singing competition for amateur musicians from in July 1967 and in him being elected as chairperson of SAFMA in 1969, although he resigned later that year.

After selling Gulliver’s in 1970, Keith toured the country with The Balladeers, performed in several stage productions, produced folk music shows and festivals, presented SABC radio shows, such as “Song and Country”, hosted the television show “Keith and Kin” on SABC TV, and became involved with barn dances as the folk music scene in South Africa began to show signs of a definite decline. On 9 February 1989 he was involved in an accident that crushed his spinal cord and left him paralysed from the neck down. Although he gradually regained some of his strength over the next few years and started performing again at barn dances, he never fully recovered from the accident and was wheelchair bound. He also contracted cancer towards the end of his life, finally passing away peacefully on 13 October 2002, aged 75.

Caroline is Keith's daughter.

This song is off the album "Square Folk Songs", released in 1966.

I WISH TO CREDIT MARION WEBBER, WHOSE MA THESIS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH I USED TO COMPILE THE BIOGRAPHY, AS WELL AS HER SUPERVISORS, PROF LAMBRECHTS AND DR EHLERS.