Selwyn meets Selby and Thandi: [No.3 Elizabeth flats]

About 1990 Selwyn moved to No. 3 Elizabeth flats where he met a band from "Mdantsane" who had a quarrel with the previous band owner. They met him just when he was leaving to Johannesburg to do recordings on "Free Me". He told them to come again on his return from Johannesburg. They did, and asked Selwyn to work on a deal with them. They needed his band equipment. They agreed to stay in the outside garage, which was the only alternative shelter at that time. This again let to a dispute with the municipality. Heavy talks followed between Selwyn and the health inspector. He explained that they were musicians, not working and trying to make a living. Besides, the band had no other place to stay. Meanwhile the neighbors was responsible for all this, because they feared that a new squatter camp was about to mushroom next to them. Besides all this they continued practice in Selwyn’s lounge.

He gave them a chance to practice their songs. He and "Thembisa" was the only two remaining members at that time. He would then long to play with his own band, and decided not to interfere with this group. "Selby Tsoyi" the drummer was not at good terms with the keyboardist. Selwyn tried to talk to them both but eventually they decided to rather split. "Selby and Thandi" the bassman grew-up together and was close to each other. The girl that did backing went back to Mdantsane and the guitarist also left some time after that. Selby and Thandi then decided to join Rainbow.

When Selwyn moved to Buffalo Road just across the road, Selby and his team was still with him. He and Thandi was then the only two that stayed behind. Thembisa and Xoliswa who was still staying with Selwyn was all still together. Selwyn than once again stayed in the same building with old time friend from old town and who stayed with him at the farm, Johnny Geldenhuys. a good welder and well known for his long beard. He also played drums in his days and was well known by his nickname, "Johnny Be Good". He was also the driver at the farm. He was the guy that got the key to a farmhouse in 1984. Selwyn seriously was looking for a farm at that time to do proper practices without disturbances. He was very glad when he and Johnny on that very same misty morning managed to buy a very good old Renault car for a bargain, because they needed transport.

Back at Buffalo Road the space was more and most of the band members was staying together. This was a great opportunity for the band to get into the real thing. Lots and lots of time was used to groom the music. Selwyn and Selby had a close relationship and spend many ups and downs together. Lot of hours was spent between Selwyn and Selby when they worked on the album "2 Good 2 B True". Selby could not at first understand some little tricks that Selwyn wanted him to do. As time went and with lots of practice and dedication he managed to overcome it until they had a better understanding. The same happened with the keyboardist "Cory Toko." He and Selwyn also spent hours trying to get the "waka" guitar sound right. This was the kind of groove that needed to be played with the left hand. He had the habit of doing it the other way around but eventually also mastered it. Not too much time was spent with the bassman because he seemed to know his thing. Unfortunately he had a liking for girls and this meant that he did not attend practices and shows. Lead guitarist "Zwanele", stayed at zwelitsha close by and sometimes also stayed with the other members. "Percy Benjamin", the percussionist, was around almost everyday and spent most of the day with the group. He use to walk from close by schornville where he stayed.

While staying at Buffalo Road Selwyn had many encounters with the police. Two band members got arrested for possession of herb. Selby got arrested at the taxi rank when he was coming back from Mdantsane. Selwyn actually sent him for herb for them all. He took the blame on himself and stood for everything. He was sentenced and spent six months or more in jail. Selwyn visited him regularly. This meant that the group had to go without a drummer. No shows was played then.

Surprisingly Selby got arrested again in the same week that he was released. He was caught for a small amount of herb late at night. A policeman somehow saw him throwing the herb away when the police van lights shone on him. He was taken away and locked up one more time. This was another serious blow for the band because he got sentenced again. He managed to get 800 rand bail which Selwyn had to pay. Somehow Selby got mixed up with the court dates. On that specific day Selwyn accompanied Selby to court. Acourt orderly told him that there was no other cases that day besides the murder case of a vagrant that was committed by scholars from a local school. Only after explaining the reason of their visit, did they realize that day there was a warrant of arrest out for Selby They suddenly arrested him for contempt of court.

No explanation whatsoever could make the authorities change their mind. He was locked up there and then Selwyn even had to appear in court to try and retrieve his bail money. 800 rand went down the drain. Selwyn knew that they were just unfair with their decisions. He even went so far to open a claim against the courts. He was one step away from winning his case. The magistrate, a certain Mr. Nel, turned down his claim for no apparent reason.

Selby got locked up one more time, because of a punitive fine that the band could not afford. As a result, Selwyn was forced to sell unwanted second hand musical instruments to release him from jail. These instruments belonged to him and other members. Adecision was made to sell it. On a Saturday afternoon during normal visit time Selwyn, surprised Selby by affording his release. He and his inmates were totally taken aback at his sudden release.

Selwyn Clashes with the Police: [184 Buffalo Road]

The same detective that opened a case against the group on their way from Stutterheim, once again arrested old band members Caswell Jafta and David Tyesi - [deceased]. He surprised Selwyn at his home when he had the two above mentioned guys with him in a police panel van. Apparently they were arrested for 4x [arms] a certain supply of herb. He and another detective told Selwyn that they’re arresting him for the same herb because his two friends said he sent them. Selwyn told them he would like to hear that statement in front of the magistrate at the courts because no ways was he agreeing with that. When he approached his two friends they said they never said that. It was only the detectives that almost forced them to make this statement. They were all locked up together. Just before they arrested Selwyn they also had a case against him for being in possession of too much beer. Before they entered Selwyn’s house, they were deterred by Cory Toko who was also found to be in the possession of the herb. This gave Selwyn a chance to throw his herb through the back window. The detective wanted to know why he had so much beer in his house Selwyn did not have an answer and told him he had nothing to say and that he should do what he had to do. They loaded all the beer and took it to the police station. Selwyn’s lawyer managed to get bail for them all. The three of them then decided to let one person (D. Tyesi) take the blame the reason for this because he had no previous convictions. David pleaded guilty before the magistrate for possession of herb. He agreed to pay a fine with monthly installments. Selwyn also assisted him with this.

The truth of the matter was that Selwyn did send them for the herb. They insisted that he gives them the transport money he was going to use to pay the driver of a bakkie that usually helped him. At first Selwyn did not want to send them but they insisted and promised that they would be careful. Selwyn learnt afterwards from them that they actually knew the detectives who caught them, was actually earlier seen by them in the same location. David even defied the merchant and said "to hell with them". Although Selwyn gave them taxi fair, David insisted walking to town. As soon as they crossed the bridge they saw this police panel van next to the road. The detectives asked to search the parcel and David replied, "here’s the stuff you can have it". Caswell told Selwyn afterwards that David actually took herb out of every "arm" (a certain amount of herb) for himself, and put it into his own plastic packet. David must have suddenly released that he had to get rid of this parcel. He slowly took it out and tried to throw it out onto the car seats. Unfortunately one detective saw him and took the herb from him. Selwyn also had to pay Cory Toko’s fine for possession of herb.

Selwyn meanwhile had a unique statement for the magistrate why he had so much beer in his possession. He told the magistrate he was busy releasing his first album and some friends and relatives wanted to share his achievement. Although he did not drink alcohol at all he had friends and relatives who did drink. One or two of the band members also had a beer in times. Duck Chowles gave him a letter stating that he was busy with the promotion of the album "Free Me" and that a certain amount of money was allocated to him. Selwyn tried to explain to the magistrate that he was an artist trying to let people and friends buy his album. He actually had his lp and t-shirts etc. in court as evidence to verify his story. Aheated argument followed between him and the detective. After the court adjourned for lunch the detective was nowhere to be seen. The state prosecutor and Selwyn then battled it out. The magistrate had no other option but to release Selwyn and found him not guilty. Caswell was also found not guilty.

Zama, the bassman and Harold Mokoena, a lead guitarist joined Rainbow 1993 just before Selwyn moved to Alice street. Harold only played three shows with the band. He left the band due to money problems. He somehow felt that he needed to get paid more money than the other members, simply because he claimed that he worked out the chords of imitation songs and therefore he needed to be paid more. This happened late night after they performed at a concert for Breidbach high school. The three of them played a great show with drummer, Caswell Jafta. On these occasions Selwyn played keyboards. Late that night after the show Harold decided that he no more wanted to play for Rainbow if he could not get the money that he wanted. He also played lead guitar at Maxis Night Club, and a Checkers/Shoprite and Lewis stores promotion. Harold now recently in the year 2000 was staying with Selwyn for a while but at present no more stays with him. He left for east London some time ago and left some of his belongings with Selwyn. At present {June 2000} Selwyn never heard from him again.

The above four played this show in East London at Maxi’s Night Club. The owner of the club was so excited for this show that he came to King William's Town a day before the show to fetch the instruments. It was a little awkward to get the instruments to the top floor where they performed the show. Because of the situation of things they had no backing vocals. The singing crowd acted as their backing vocals because they were familiar with most of the reggae songs. On this night they mostly performed bob barley songs. Due to some transport reason the band slept at the club and only left for King William's Town the next morning. Awaiting them was another promotion performance at lewis stores. There was no chance to go home so they went straight to the venue to set up again. They also performed well here and at that stage it seemed as if the group was going to be busy with shows.

When Selwyn left Buffalo Road the band was not playing for some time and things only seemed to get better, just when he moved to Alice street. The same team played at a Checkers/Shoprite promotion and percussionist, Percy Benjamin joined them with this show. Selwyn remembered when the manager of Shoprite paid him for his performance that he signed a receipt that was made out to them. Unfortunately the amount received and the amount written down was two different totals and when questioned about it he told Selwyn "don’t worry my friend". but meanwhile he pocketed the money.