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David “Mountain” Keitzman, the original rhythm guitarist to South Africa’s supreme power-metal act Agro, might not have lived up to his name in terms of physical size, but from my very few encounters with him, I could tell that he was as a human being, his nickname was as accurate as it could be. Although mountain passed away almost seven years ago, he lives on in the memories of many. In this brief tribute, I would like to share my very few memories with all of you.
The first time I saw Mountain was in 1995, at the original Doors Nightclub (in Marshall Street, Jhb). Up on stage that night were Destrage, Agro, Retribution Denied, and Golgotha (for which our bass brother Colin Deacon used to play). I can’t remember the exact date, but I know it was rather cold that night, and that I was supposed to study the next day for some school exam, so I assume it was around June. The place was packed so to get to meet Agro was rather impossible.
But I have a clear memory of standing outside at like 2 or 3 a.m. the next morning in that freezing concrete cold, and Mountain was standing there, holding his Flying V’s guitar case (which was almost as big as him), talking to Destrage’s drummer. I was but 17 years old, just starting up a band, and too scared to talk to ‘the guys’. But the feeling I got was that he was not ‘one of the guys’ (and by that I mean people that assume importance over others). And this feeling turned out to be 100% accurate.
Although it may be due to AIA (Alcohol-Induced Amnesia), I have no recollection of seeing Agro again for the next 16 months after that. By this time, my band was starting to get established with two or three gigs (real gigs, not counting debaucherous parties, etc.) ‘under the belt’. So as a cocky-as-hell 18 year-old I called Danny, then the owner of Wings and still the drummer of Wonderboom, and asked him if he couldn’t organise something for us with Agro. Danny came through and promised us a gig opening for Agro on the 11th of October (1996), which got pushed back to the 18th.
Shortly after this was arranged, Agro’s manager called me and asked if we didn’t want to play another gig with them. So obviously we agreed and on Friday the 4th of October we were off to the Magpie Inn in Alberton. Before playing, we got to sit down with the guys and talk all kinds of shit, which, for an 18-year old school kid was awesome. I didn’t get to talk to Mountain much, but I remember him being really cool with my guitarist, helping him rig up and stuff like that. And while we played, he was on the floor (with Cliff and like two other people) swinging his head. And afterwards, while doing the things bands are supposed to have roadies for, I asked Mountain the question on every (male) kid-in-a-band’s mind: “So, now that I am in a band, how do you get women?”. And he laughed and all he said to me was “You play at the Doors”.
Two weeks later we pitched at Wings – we almost had to cancel due to matric finals but luckily we decided that education is highly overrated. There weren’t all that many people there that night but no-one in my band cared, all we ever wanted to do was play, and obviously playing with these guys added so much more to it. And I truly had a blast that night, hell, if memory serves I think I actually got on stage with the guys to do their old song “Yo Baby Yo” with Cliff. And all was well.
Until I found out that Mountain was in a car accident a short while after the gig. I threw my copy of MacBeth across the room, and phoned my band. And then, something that I have always regretted, we missed his funeral because of our Afrikaans Literature paper.
So maybe this is just my way of paying homage to a great guy I didn’t know too well. These are only a few memories, but they are mine.
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