A  FLASHBACK  TO  THE  SIXTIES!! THE AVRIL-BERNARD-DAVID TRIO. 2014-08-24:  HEARD THIS MORNING THAT DAVID KOTZE PASSED AWAY ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO:  RIP DAVID!! While I was on leave some time in 1965/1966 a young woman named Avril Clifton had joined the Old Mutual.  She was also working in the particular department (of the Pensions Division) to which I returned from leave.  The 2 of us soon "clicked" as friends. I was totally fascinated by Avril - a "thoroughly Modern Miss" she was highly intelligent, attractive, witty, friendly, caring, was great fun to be with - and wore mini-skirts (she had legs "to die for"!!)   I soon discovered that Avril was heavily into cabaret, plays - the performing arts generally.  She was also an incredible dancer and a great singer!! By then I had sold my Les Paul guitar and Amp (to 2 separate parties) and I had bought a Levin Model 113 Spanish guitar and had been taking Flamenco and Classical lessons, with the focus on Flamenco, with Uliano Marchio, also then in Cape Town. I had started learning Castillian Spanish, and I planned to spend some time with Uliano concentrating on learning Flamenco. After a year or two I had hoped to travel to Spain and maybe hitch hike round the country, perhaps with a Gypsy group or two?  I also had plans to wear a solid gold ear-ring.  All these plans were discussed with Uliano who encouraged me - he had done something similar a couple of years previously!!  Alas, I had to shelve these plans:  when playing Classical or Flamenco, one (usually) uses the NAILS to pick or pluck the strings - and my nails kept tearing!!  I tried nail hardeners and tried supplements but to no avail!!!  In the meantime I had been given the nickname "El Gitano" - Spanish for The Gypsy.  But, this Gypsy ended up wandering only in the wide open spaces of his imagination!!! One of my colleagues in the department was David Kotze, whose father, Theo Kotze, was a Methodist minister, always in trouble with the then-current (Nationalist) government because of his anti-apartheid views and protests etc. David was far more gifted musically than I was and we discovered we both liked and played the guitar.  Soon, we were getting together in the "Training" wing at lunch times, me with my Spanish guitar and David with his 12-string guitar.  Avril joined us from the beginning.  Although we used to play all the pop music of the time, we kind of ended up focussed on "the Beatles", "Bob Dylan", "Peter, Paul & Mary", "Francoise Hardy", "Crosby Stills and Nash". Depending on the song we were doing, we would take turns with the lead and harmony voices.  For instance, whenever we did "Peter, Paul and Mary" numbers, Avril would do the lead as most of their songs that we did featured "Mary Travis" as lead.  I was able to work out some of the harmonies but it was David's "genius" that enabled us to do the songs with 3 voices. I was also very realistic about the quality of my voice, so, I was never keen to sing "lead", preferring to sing harmony/backup.  Occasionally, David could not make a session and Avril and I would mess around with the music.  It was during these sessions that she eventually managed to get me to do a few Bob Dylan numbers, and what used to "throw" me completely was that she absolutely loved me to do these songs!!  (Still a mystery today!!)  The favourite number here was "Visions of Joanna" from the "Blonde on Blonde" album. While Avril and I obviously did have areas in music where we did not have similar tastes, we were remarkably "compatible" in a broad range of music.  She also loved it when I played Flamenco stuff. One lunch time session, after lunch in the Canteen, Avril joined us in the training room and asked us what we were doing on a particular Friday evening some weeks in the future.  David and I both answered "Nothing!" and she said "You are now!!"  She then told us that she had entered the 3 of us for the annual "Music evening" at the Mupine Hostel (the residence for Old Mutual staff) in Pinelands.  (I stayed there at one stage). David and I were okay with this and for the next few weeks the 3 of us spent time polishing our "act".  The night of the Concert, I was as nervous as hell just before we went on as some of the performers ahead of us were professionally trained musicians and the standard was very high.  However, the moment we stepped up to do our "set", I was okay. We did a couple of "Beatles" numbers, a couple of "Bob Dylan" numbers a couple of "Peter, Paul and Mary" numbers and David accompanied Avril on his 12-string guitar while she sang "Francoise Hardy's" "All over the world". We received an incredible response from the crowd and many people afterwards told us we were the best item of the evening!!  Many of these wanted to know whether we did this professionally - and were extremely surprised when told that we did not.  The common reaction then was "Why not?"  I must admit, I almost felt like I was part of "Peter, Paul & Mary"!!  To this day I cannot answer the question that I've asked myself thousands of times over the years - why did we three NOT continue with the group??? I think I recently discovered one of the possibly many reasons for this lack of "follow-up". After over 30 years out of touch with David Kotze I managed to track him down in late 2002 - he is staying in London and in his first reply to my eMail messages he mentioned that he had left Old Mutual 30 November 1967.  I saw David again for the first time on 15th July 2003 at the memorial service for his late father, Rev Theo Kotze. Below are a few photos taken in those days: The first one was taken by David with my camera during one of our lunch time sessions in one of the training rooms.  I had started giving Avril some elementary guitar lessons. The next photo of me with my Levin guitar was taken one lunch time, March 1967, by Avril, not too long before the sessions with David and Avril started.  I'm in the doorway to the Old Mutual sports Hall. The next one of Avril was taken in Sept 1969 during a photographic session in which she modelled for me.  I know this has nothing to do with the guitar but, this particular photo is my all-time favourite shot of all my "models" and certainly my favourite one of Avril!! For some reason we never did take any photos of David - to this day I cannot recall why!!  The photo below is a photocopy done for me by David's Mom early 2003 and shows him as part of a trio singing at a Church Service.  David is on the right playing his 12-string acoustic guitar and was taken in the mid-to-late Sixties.  David was very active on the Gospel Music scene in those days!! The next one of me was taken some time late in 1968 - again with my Levin Spanish guitar. 2017-02-15:  This pic was of course was taken at the height of the "Psychedelic" craze. Below are some Psychedelic versions of the above pic: The next photo of David and me was taken on 23rd July 2003 at the Complex where David's Mom lives in Diepriver. Previous Era Next Era

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