Radio talk shows inspire 'back a yaad'

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Everybody talking bout dem rebels in South Africa

Led by Yagga Rowe

West Indians touring the land of Apartheid

Led by Yagga Rowe

- First verse of Rebel Tour, written by Errol Lee

While it celebrates the West Indies cricket team's unprecedented dominance of team sport from the late 1970s into the early 1990s, the recently screened documentary Fire in Babylon also reopened the issue of the rebel tours to Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. English, Sri Lankan and Australian teams also toured South Africa, then under a worldwide sports boycott, but it was the West Indies tours with black players which attracted the most attention.

There were two tours, in 1982 to 1983 and 1983 to 1984, both captained by Jamaican Lawrence 'Yagga' Rowe. Richard Austin, Faoud Bacchus, Sylvester Clarke, Collis King, Alvin Kallicharran, Ezra Mosley, Franklyn Stephenson, Alvin Greenidge and Albert Padmore were among the players who bucked the ban and paraded their skills against South African teams for hefty fees.

The tours led to an intense backlash against the participating West Indies cricketers in the region, but also sparked the hit song Rebel Tour (popularly known by the refrain "back a yaad", Errol Lee and the Bare Essentials Band first foray into soca. The band opened the 'Tribute to the Dragon' concert at the Pegasus Hotel's gardens with the song two Saturdays ago.

Errol Lee, who wrote the lyrics, told The Sunday Gleaner that Rebel Tour was written at a band rehearsal in 1983.

Formed in 1971, the band was moving to break into recording after working consistently throughout the 1970s at the Epiphany Club and three hotels in St Ann.

"We were professionals playing for the fun of it and we were lucky. Those '70s were very turbulent years. There were nights we went to country and coming back we had to go through two or three police roadblocks," he said.

The band started writing songs, holding rehearsals at the Kingston Young Men's Christian Association specifically to go through their original lyrics and music. It was at one of the creative sessions that Rebel Tour broke its ducks.

"That particular day there was nothing else on the radio in terms of talk. Talk radio was just coming into its own. The biggest talk that day was that Lawrence Rowe - who was what Brian Lara came to be - had gone to play cricket in South Africa," Lee said.

To say that many people were outraged is the equivalent of simply saying that Vivian Richards was a West Indies batsman - a travesty of understatement. People were livid, Lee said, "to hear that our black people had sold their souls to the devil to play in South Africa".

He points out that "Jamaicans in the 1980s were far more aware. People listened to the international news and kept up with what was happening". However, there were those who were saying "make them go eat a food".

The chorus of Rebel Tour came to Lee first, summing up the variety of viewpoints:

"Back a yaad, some a cuss dem

Back a yaad, some a praise dem

Back a yaad, some a ban dem

Back a yaad, some planning their welcome home"

Then, he says, "The journalist part of me chipped in for the verses and we wrote the lyrics. The second, third and fourth verses go:

"Flying to South Africa via Miami

Like a tief in the night

Signing contract in the air over Soweto

Made an honourary white

I hear say is a lot of money

An offer they could not refuse, no

One writer say, dat it blood money

And dat mean we all stand to lose oh

There will have to be a referendum

To see if they can come back home

And Carl Stone will do a poll

Ah wonder whose head gwine roll"

That fateful rehearsal was on a Tuesday and he says "by Thursday we had the storyline. By Saturday we had the record in our hands".

Jamaica batsman Lawrence Rowe cutting a David Holford delivery past Seymour Nurse at slip during his innings of 72, the top score on the Jamaica scoresheet, on the opening day of their Shell Shield cricket fixture against Barbados at Sabina Park. Holford was Barbados' top wicket-taker, bagging five for 99 with his leg spin. The non-striking batsman is opener Samuel Morgan, who contributed 40 to the Jamaica total of 293.