Jeremy Taylor was born in Newbury, England, on 24 November 1937 and attended St Bartholomew's Grammar School after which he obtained a master’s degree in languages at Trinity College in Oxford. He came to South Africa in 1959 and accepted a post as an English teacher at the St Martin's School in Rosettenville in the south of Johannesburg. At that stage he also started singing in clubs and coffee bars, e.g. the Cul de Sac in Hillbrow. With him having a specific interest in languages, he found the accent of the Afrikaans speaking people intriguing when they spoke English and wrote the song “Ballad Of The Southern Suburbs”, which was soon changed to “Ag Pleez Deddy”, about this subject. He first sang it in the stage show “Wait A Minim!” which was performed at the Intimate Theatre in Johannesburg in 1962, and it proved to be so popular that it was released on 7” single. The song reached #1 on the LM Radio hit parade but was banned by the SABC due to him mixing Afrikaans and English in the lyrics, and surely also due to his use of swearwords, and together with the political commentary in his songs he was asked by the government of the day to leave the country.

Back in England in 1964 he continued performing in the local version of “Wait A Minim” in London’s West End, and also accepted a teaching position at Eton College. He remained involved in music and theatre, however, writing many songs and performing in many plays during in his career. His song “Piece Of Ground” was recorded by Miriam Makeba in the USA, and he shared the stage for 2 years with well-known British comedian Spike Milligan in the play “For One Week Only”. They also released an album that was based on these performances. In 1972 he contributed to the lyrics of the Cat Stevens song “O Caritas” which was included on the album “Catch Bull At Four”. He appeared in several television series, including “At Last It’s Friday”, was the presenter of the series “Songs From The Two Brewers” in which he interviewed famous singers, and even had his own television series on BBC2.

In 1980 Jeremy Taylor returned to South Africa and settled in Broederstroom from where he started presenting one man shows such as “Back In Town”, “Go For The Gap”, “An Evening With Jeremy Taylor” and “Broederstroom Diaries”. He also released at least 4 albums, of which I’m aware, during the eighties. He returned to Britain in 1994, has since retired and lives in Wales, as far as I could determine. He is 85 years old at present.

This song was released on 7" single in 1962.

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