John Edmond

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John Edmond was born on 18 November 1936 in the town of Luanshya, which at the time of his birth was a part of the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia, and is now presently located in Zambia as a part of the country's Copperbelt Province. Edmond's family is of Scottish origin. Edmond and his immediate family split their time between Edinburgh and Luanshya during his childhood. As a teenager, Edmond received further education at the Christian Brothers' College in Pretoria, South Africa.

Edmond was given a mouth organ as a birthday gift from his grandmother at age three and subsequently mastered the instrument within half an hour. As a Boy Scout, he played the bugle and was in the local Scout bugle band. While at school in Edinburgh, he was chosen to sing in the St John's Boys' Choir. At Christian Brothers' College, Edmond frequently took part in the productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, often being in lead roles in these productions, and was also the lead drummer in the college's pipe band. He went on to win the South African Junior drumming championships at the Royal Scottish gathering at Wembley in 1953. After college, Edmond returned to Luanshya and worked at the Roan Antelope copper mine.

Edmond joined Southern Rhodesia's Royal Rhodesia Regiment at Bulawayo. He served with the 3rd Battalion on the Congo border in Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia.^[3] During this time, he bought a guitar at a trading store and met Bill Coleman while in the army. After learning to play the guitar with Coleman, Edmond formed the Bushcats Skiffle Group in 1958 along with two friends from the army, Eugene van der Watt and Ian Kerr. The group succeeded among its peers and progressed into cabaret and rock 'n' roll.^[4] After his military service, Edmond went to England to study computers and moved to South Africa in the mid-1960s. He became famous in Rhodesia during the Bush War with his album Troopiesongs.^[5] He was also a composer, writing hits like "The U.D.I. Song". After the war and Zimbabwean independence, Edmond recorded albums such as Zimsongs and Zimtrax.

In the 1980's, Edmond founded his own record label called Roan Antelope Music (RAM); since the 1980's the majority of Edmond's music has been published under RAM.^[6] One of the first notable works published under RAM was The story of Troopiesongs and the Rhodesian Bush War, a collection of lyrics for Troopiesongs.^[3] Prior to the creation of RAM, Edmond's music was published under labels such as Gallo and the now-defunct Satbel.

Since 1987, Edmond and his wife, Theresa, have owned and maintained a resort in South Africa named Kunkuru, located in the Bela-Bela area.^[7]

In 2018, Edmond released the album Legends, an album that was written in honor of notable figures of the various peoples and time periods of South Africa, including Paul Kruger, Shaka Zulu, Wolraad Woltemade, and Nelson Mandela. Edmond released his 50th album, Tales of the Birdwatchers.^[8]

• Clem Tholet