Charles and the window kids
Nearly 45 years ago, at an open-air concert in Los Angeles, Neil Diamond welcomed not only the 5 870 fans in the audience but also the “tree people”. He was referring to the pirate viewers who’d climbed the trees surrounding the Greek amphitheatre and obviously hadn’t paid for their “seats”.
“And you tree people out there,” he can be heard saying very clearly on a recording of the concert, “God bless you. I’ll sing it for you too.”
Every time I listen to that recording, I am once again a child in a small town in the Karoo. It was the Sixties, and no South African youngster knew of Neil Diamond back then. Before the dawn of television only one singer’s name
