Roots Archives Forum

TELL YOUR STORIES!!!

Prince Alla...I met him in Switzerland, while he was waiting in a small vintage Japanese car about 2 years ago, totally by chance as I was walking down MY street! He was with Asher, a Swiss based sound system producer (bless him), on his way to tour Europe I believe. Prince Alla is, indeed, a very nice & humble man. We chatted for 5 minutes, and that was it! I had met him 4 years before, probably in 2003, in Asher's Raspect shop. Prince Alla was just seating in the shop, unnoticed by any of the shoppers. Not that he is a big "face" in reggae, but he certainly is a big heart, and warm & gifted reggae artist. Much respect. Funny how life goes...

Second story is walking down in Cambridge, Boston, back in Winter 1996/1997 (sometime between November 06 and April 07 if I remember correctly). I was shopping for records, and see a familiar face standing on the street....Flabba Holt? I ask: "are you Flabba Holt?". He replies "yes" and we had a short conversation. ""why are you here?" I asked. "Am playing with Israel Vibration in this club tonight". 4 hours later I was in this club, and the concert started. I remember well. All 3 Israel Vibration were there with a solid Roots Radics line up. Intro by Dr Dread, very excited to be on tour with the band across USA. What a nice memory. Now, this is not it. 4-5 years later, I am in Switzerland again, in the backstage room for another Israel Vibration concert, without Apple. Who's in the room (besides Wiss and Skelly)? Flabba. We have another chat, longer. I tell him about this "Night Nurse in dub" CD I saw in Vancouver (yes, I travel a lot). He goes all crazy..."I heard about this one. Is a bootleg. This is my music. I did this! Send me a copy, will you?". He writes his address on a paper on plate. Unfortunatly, I never came across this CD again and, hence, could never ship him the material...

Your turn!

I've got at least a couple more gems to tell down the line.

I live in San Diego - USA and for the past few years we have had plenty of concerts with old school artist like , Lil John, Wayne smith, Triston Palma, Michael Palmer,Johnny Clarke,
Horace Martin, Sammy dread , Cornel campbell,Earl zero, there's to many to name.
And the best part about them comeing to my town is that, the day before the concert they hang out at a local record shop. So I get to have them sign my records and spend time with them.

I was in Prague last year with my parents celebrating my mum who had turned 50. During the whole trip I had my eyes open for any kind of reggae but to no avail. It was a nice trip but I felt a little disappointed when we were returning the last day and went to the airport.

When standing at the airport I noted a familiar face ... »Excuse me sir, are you Fully Fullwood?«

http://www.reggaepedia.net/misc/praguefully.jpg

... and just some seconds later Tony Chin turned up.

http://www.reggaepedia.net/misc/praguetonychin.jpg

That was a nice surprise indeed.

Damn... Wouldnt have recognised them, especially ina airport... Its different than ina reggae shop where you expect every old dreaded blackman to be a foundation artist...

While waiting near the desk at the Lausanne station, I realised the guy who was just front of me was Family Man Barrett... I was so much on my ass that I couldnt ask any of the thousand questions I had... just a greet. Better for him

i think it was about 6 or 7 years ago i was driving to a festival
to get there you had to take a big road and i saw one man all alone, by himself standing there on the side of the road... greetings bushman... feeling irie?

one of my mates knew him personnaly and bushman kept repeating "hey give me your details i got some dubplates for you" very humble and friendly person

Litelet wrote:Damn... Wouldnt have recognised them, especially ina airport...

Fully I just recognized for some reason. Dunno why since I haven't really seen too many photos of him. Tony I think I only identified because he was in company with Fully.

Great story, Vinnie!

@ Herm-one

Is that record shop King of Kings? I never knew they visited a record shop day before. I've been almost to all recent concerts in San Diego lately and my favorite one has been the Johnny Clarke concert!

I've met Ranking Joe, Lloyd Hemmings (as he is all around Diego)and Little John one-on-one...

Yup! Trade roots or kings of kings

i've met lots of singers and players, but they werent really unexpected because i was at their shows, but 1 meeting was unexpected.
my first concert, 1989, london, we went to see the mighty diamonds at hornsey town hall. during the show they were joined on stage by dennis brown and nitty gritty. they sang one or two songs and left the stage. about ten minutes later my friend nudged me and nodded for me to look beside me. it was nitty gritty. standing shoulder to shoulder with me. couldnt really have a conversation as the show was still on, but i said hello and got him to sign the back of my ticket, which i still have. next time i heard about him he had been shot dead.
nice guy. no airs or graces. RIP nitty gritty.

ital kemar

A friend of my family is an American Country/Bluegrass artist called Peter Rowan, Peter played with Crucial Reggae a band that included people like Tony Chin, whom I've had the pleasure of interviewing for johnnyclarke.com (as it was. Peter told me the most wonderful story of ebing out for a night in Jmaica and being taken to a Grounation by Ossie's nephew and meeting Johnny Moore.

Weird connections