It's taken me a while to get around to this, but I said I would, so ... As some of you may know, since it seems to have been one of the most notorious of rock 'n' roll tours, the Byrds visited South Africa in 1968 following the release of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo and some dates in the UK when they were joined on stage by Doug Dillard, if memory serves. I seem to have read on the list recently that live recordings from these gigs are included on a recent Gram Parsons bootleg. Anyway the group, then consisting of McGuinn, Hillman, Parsons and Hillman's cousin, Kevin Kelley (ex-Rising Sons) on drums, were due to tour SA directly afterwards. However, Parsons never got on the plane from London to Johannesburg. History has it that he found SA's apartheid policies too objectionable. I was fortunate enough to interview McGuinn and Hillman a couple of years ago for a radio show on the Byrds and Burritos and Hillman's view was that, while this may have had something to do with it, Gram actually just wanted to continue hanging out with the Rolling Stones. Membership of the Byrds had given Parsons a rock 'n' roll profile, and his friendship with Keith Richards would raise that profile. Whatever the reason, it seems he only told the group on the day they were leaving England. By the way, I found Hillman to be a terrific interviewee, very friendly and forthcoming and, needless to say, a huge Gene Clark fan, which didn't hurt my impression of him either. Of course, South Africa was expecting a four piece, and a four piece was what we got, roadie Carlos Bernal stepping somewhat shakily into the breach, and spending most of the concert I saw - and, according to reports, most of the tour - with his back to the audience. He clearly didn't know all the chords and, according to McGuinn, who recalls the tour as being "very weird", didn't actually play much at all. He appeared in newspaper photos of the band, identified as Gram Parsons - those of us who bought Melody Maker and New Musical Express and knew what Parsons looked like were confused, since Bernal looked nothing like him, but only discovered later what was going on. An older friend of mine met the band and told me that the rhythm guitarist was actually a roadie called Carlos. Whatever happened to him? Does anyone know? I was 15 years old and completely taken with the fact that my clear favourite band - only the Kinks competed - was playing in my town. I was then living in Port Elizabeth and, if SA was isolated, PE was totally off the map. I remember much of the concert, though I was convinced, and remain so, that it was stunning. The reality was probably quite different. Besides the shortage of one member, McGuinn had been ill and Hillman did a fair amount of the singing - I specifically recall him singing The Christian Life, for example, and maybe even You Ain't Going Nowhere. McGuinn's extended Eight Miles High held me enthralled, and I was most impressed that Kelley hit the drums hard enough to break his sticks. The group was panned in the press. English and Australian P2-ers might be interested in the fact that the concert in PE was reviewed by Peter Pollock, then a South African cricket player and journalist on the local paper (his father was the editor) and now SA's national chairman of selectors. He liked the support band, local poppers the Staccatos who had hits with covers of the Bee Gees' Spicks And Specks and Solomon Burke's Cry To Me, and hated the Byrds. He was a bit of a local celebrity, easily recognized by a cricket fan like myself, and I saw him walk out of the show early. The group was hounded by negative press throughout the tour, with dark murmurings of left wing politics and drug taking following them around, and to say they left under a cloud is an understatement. Who knows why they came. Only a few of us knew anything except Mr Tambourine Man and Turn Turn Turn, though You Ain't Going Nowhere got a bit of radio play while they were in the country. I'm glad they did, though. Where else would I find anything to write to P2 about? Richard
