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'There were two Ralph Rabies'
13/11/2002 10:27 - (SA)
Martie Swanepoel, Beeld
There were two Ralph Rabies.
One was Johannes Kerkorrel, whom the public knew, and the other was Ralph, our pal.
I will never forget the evening in the mid-eighties when the late Koos Prinsloo introduced me to the shy, polite lad from Cape Town.
That evening was the beginning of a friendship between Ralph and myself, which, I have to acknowledge shamelessly, consisted mainly of delicious gossiping.
Ralph was a good gossiping partner. He had a sharp brain and a sense of humour. Hy despised pretentiousness and unjustness.
The mid-1980's were the days when the most of us young journalists lived in Berea and Hillbrow and the Black Sun in Tudhope Street was our favourite hang-out.
We sat and philosophised through the night until the club was empty, then Ralph would play the piano and sing until you got goosebumps.
Brilliant journalist
One Friday, we partied right through the night, and the next morning the Helderberg crashed.
Green around the gills - the aftermath of too much red wine and no sleep - we had to work at Rapport until late the next evening. Those were the rough, heady days of our youth.
Ralph was a brilliant journalist, but the call of his talent as a musician was stronger.
One of his first big performances was in the Sterrewag Theatre in Bloemfontein.
Our group of friends piled into a car and set out for Bloemfontein on the Friday afternoon to support him. He sat behind the piano, his face ashen with nervousness - and gave us a frightened glance. But, once he started playing, he was in a world of his own.
That was the beginning of the Alternative Afrikaans music movement that spread like wildfire and made Ralph Johannes Kerkorrel.
Johannes Kerkorrel was quite different from Ralph.
He was a professional, talented musician, but Ralph was a dear friend with a soft voice.
Johannes Kerkorrel didn't make Ralph rich financially. Once, his silver Golf gave its last gasp somewhere in Hillbrow. Ralph couldn't afford to have it fixed and left the car right there. Months later, someone towed it away.
In Ralph's Hillbrow flat there was just a bed, a piano and a bicycle. But, when he took his place behind the piano, he was very rich.
The writer is a member of Beeld's editorial team.
- Beeld
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South Africa
