The Byrds Party at the Roundhouse in London

25 February 1967

The Byrds were always high on our list of Top Bands. One cold morning, just about 39 years ago, I got an official letter from The Byrds inviting me to a party at the roundhouse in London. They must have sent them to any UK fans who had tried to contact them, because the usual suspects from school had them too. I had only been to London once before, for a day with my family, but that didn’t deter us, nor did the small matter of our age nor the lack of funds. Plots were hatched in school and by telephone. We decided to travel down the night before, by train (we were too scared of the stories we’d heard about hitching), because it’s easier to go missing at night. With any luck, we’d be in London before we were missed. There was a complicated plan involving pretending to stay at each others’ houses, but in the end it was me and Jade at her house and plans to meet Cat and Bra in the Central Station in time for the mail train south which went through so many little stops on its way that it didn’t arrive until daylight. We didn’t have money for the fare, but reckoned we could get on and hide.

On the Big Night we went to bed and waited until the house was quiet. Our escape route was through a window. The window was about a foot square and above the toilet bowl. Jade was a) thinner and b) more adventurous so she went out headfirst and prepared to guide my feet as I emerged. Naturally we wanted to look our best, so, to set off my long curly ginger hair, I was wearing a high waisted short seersucker dress in an orange/red/green/yellow psychedelic swirly print with red tights (perfect outfit for keeping a low profile). We crept out onto the road and caught a bus into town. It was full of pitmen returning from late shift. There was standing room only and we swayed about trying to avoid getting coal dust on our finery. When we arrived the station was bustling with people: some out for the night; some plying their trade with price displayed on their shoe soles; sailors returning home. What there wasn’t was Cat or Bra. We waited as long as we could then went back to Marlborough Crescent to catch the last bus home. Breaking back into a house is more difficult than breaking out and Jade had to climb and wriggle through first then open the door for me. We had tried.

Cat and Bra had gone down the following morning on the train. They went to the party. The Byrds were brilliant. McGuinn himself gave Cat money for her fare home. We were more than simply envious: we were devastated. Bra’s parents were not too chuffed, they phoned around to find out where we were etc.

Back at school a couple of days later the fun started. The head, Bag South, had been tipped off about the adventure. As a classical scholar she knew how these things worked and her main line of enquiry concerned what a couple of 14 yr old girls may have done in exchange for the train fare money. We were summoned and denied all knowledge (so much for solidarity). Bra was grounded.

Looking back, I remember telling my mam when I got the letter, which means she must have been on the alert for escape attempts. Perhaps she thought that when she said no to a 13yr old I’d accept it. If it happened now we’d have made it – text messages would have kept us coordinated, sigh.

postscript from MikeB on the love site
Ah, found it now in my Johnny Rogan Timeless Flight Revisisted 720 page tome now you have got me looking earlier. Some more details if you have not got them:"The following afternoon (which is 25 February as you say) the Byrds attended a 250-strong fan club gathering at the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm. This was a special thank you to the fans who had collected 1,700 signatures urging them to return to England. For the best part of two hours, the group autographed albums and chatted to fans while their records were played as background music. One fan had the foresight to ask Crosby if the Byrds were likely to split up. "Not a chance" he retorted, convincingly. McGuinn, meanwhile, captured part of the event on his new movie camera."