Syd Kitchen

Sydney Stanley Kitchen (14 February 1951 – 22 March 2011), was a South African guitarist, singer-songwriter and poet.

Because of his uncompromising attitude towards the music industry he became an iconic figure in his native South Africa, and also around the world, albeit in relatively small circles.

Up until his death he was the only artist to perform at every single Splashy Fen festival.

In 1967 his band Parkinson's Law came second in the Durban Battle of the Bands.

In his teens Syd began performing with his brother Pete as "The Kitchen Brothers".

His musical involvement with Pete lasted seven years during which they performed their own brand of acoustic folk music.

They appeared at folk festivals around the country and were recorded as festival guests by David Marks' SAFMA label and in their own right by the SABC's World Service for external broadcast to North America, Europe, Japan and North Africa.

Around this time David Marks, a local music veteran (who in 1968 had written "Master Jack", the first South African recorded song to reach the US Top 20), released the live album, Warts 'n All, on his Third Ear Music label in 1992.

It was an honest and captivating demonstration of the attraction of a Syd Kitchen gig.

By the late 1970s Pete Kitchen had moved on to a career outside of music, and in 1978 Syd formed jazz-rock band Equinoxe.

Kitchen says of City Child: "It was also difficult to do in so far as the subject matter I was writing about was concerned. Some of the songs had been written as early as 1975, and some while the album was being made. I was going through a seriously tough time of personal shit that all helped shape the course of the work. This introspective spin, and the quality of the (mainly jazz) musicians involved, contributed to the album’s eventual ambiance; 10 tight little quirky “jazz” tunes."

Then in 1979 Kitchen formed the experimental acoustic outfit "Harry was a Snake".

In 1980 Kitchen embarked on a solo career and began working on a number of musical revues which included his own "S'No Good and the Reason Why" and two successful Bob Dylan revues.

During this time he continued writing not only songs, but also his own uniquely personal poetry and prose that had already sold more than 3000 copies when published as an anthology titled "Scars That Shine" a few years earlier.

In the late 1980s, live performance, low key and relatively infrequent, remained the only reliable way to hear Syd Kitchen.

In 1982 Syd opened "Syd Kitchen's Guitar Saloon", a guitar shop in Durban which soon became a mecca for local musicians, serving as a venue for both concerts and clinics that featured musicians from all over the country.

While Syd was working in his guitar shop he focused on honing his skills across a large array of musical styles.

The rapid blooming of his guitar playing was reflected in the steady stylistic growth of his writing, as he began to feed rock, country, jazz, blues and African music into his now trademark lyrical quirks and musical detours.

Kitchen, who had meanwhile closed his guitar shop, spent the second half of the ‘80s leading his band named "Syd Kitchen & the Utensils", with male backing singers known as the Kitchenettes.

Their self-released 1987 album "Waiting For The Heave" was Kitchen's first commercial recording aside from tracks on a few hopelessly rare ‘70s folk festival compilations.

The album reflected Kitchen's increasingly politicised songwriting, while living in a repressive apartheid regime.

Due to lack of radio play and South Africa's strict international boycotts, "Waiting for the Heave" was a commercial failure.

Started in early 1988, the album went through several stop/start phases before its eventual completion.

The rhythm section was recorded live in February 1988 before it went into storage for a period of years.

1990 marked the first annual Splashy Fen, a folk festival which has become one of the most celebrated festivals on the African continent.

For a number of South African music fans, the enduring memory of Syd Kitchen will be his performances at Splashy Fen each year from 1990 to 2010.

Music was added slowly between 1991 and 1994, before finally emerging to excellent countrywide reviews in 1995.

Initially recorded with a Fostex 16 track analogue machine, the album was digitally processed before being mastered in Stuttgart Germany.

In 1995 Kitchen released his second album entitled City Child.

The creation of City Child was a lengthy process.

In 1999 Syd Kitchen released Amakoologik.

The title itself is a parody on the many names beginning with "ama" that South African's give to their sporting teams to galvanise national support and create a feeling of racial integration.

He was known for the socio-political messages of his lyrics, while the title of his 2001 album, Africa's Not for Sissies, became one of the most popular one-liners in South Africa.

A documentary film was recently released on his life entitled "Fool in a Bubble".

Kitchen's career of over 45 years as a performing musician gave him a richly varied musical background.

He was involved in a host of musical ventures that included Harry was a Snake, an experimental acoustic outfit, Curry and Rice with guitarist Steve Newman, the seven-piece jazz outfit Equinoxe, Bafo Bafo with Zulu guitarist Madala Kunene, The Aquarian Quartet with fellow aquarians Tony Cox, Steve Newman and Greg Georgiades and of course his own solo career.

Syd was born in Durban, South Africa.

At a young age he started singing in the local church.

His parents ran a weekly Saturday night session at the local football club and one Saturday Syd sang with the local band called The Kittens.

The crowd so loved his performance that every Saturday he would join the band to sing a few songs.