Multi-talented Nico Venter set to perform in Dundee

From trapeze artist clown to being mistaken for Cat Stevens, and from apple picker to mechanic – it appears as if singer/vocalist Nico Venter is his own one-man band.
Nico now also has a Dundee connection he can add to his long CV; thanks to his partner, Kelly, being a Dundonian.
Nico will be appearing at the 60s/70s evening at Miners Rest on December 17, along with local band ‘Inner Secrets’.
Now a young 72 and still as ‘strong as an ox’ – to quote Kelly – Nico grew up mostly in Mariannhill with just his mum and two sisters. He also spent time in Vryheid, before trekking to Pinetown.
He’s had formal voice training, but mostly taught himself guitar as a child because he rebelled against the piano everyone else was playing. “After school, I travelled to the UK and Greece, doing odd jobs with long hair, busking with a guitar, playing Cat Stevens and catching a decent gig every so often,” Nico told the Courier. He left the UK for Canada, and hitchhiked and walked the TransCanada Highway 401 over the Rocky Mountains.
“This was in the 70s – long hair and bell-bottom jeans with a butterfly patch; that whole deal!” Nico’s career has included being a car mechanic, one short stint on an oil rig in the North Sea (which he did not fancy and ditched the contract), a trapeze clown (have you ever!), cold storage manager and now a foreman at the Durban Marina.
Nico’s musical career highlights include playing at Durban City Hall as a teenager, being mistaken for Cat Stevens in Greece, having a slot on the cruise ships, and featuring in the stage musical ‘Flight of Fantasy’. He now does regular informal appearances around Durban and mostly the Bluff; ‘nothing terribly exciting’. His other claim to fame is that he and his then wife and four kids travelled across South Africa for years in a converted school bus.
“It was a hell-of-an-existence and a serious experience for four kids growing up!” If you want to meet Nico and listen to the music of the 60s and 70s, as performed by this multi-talented man, make sure you get to the musical evening!