sound of the suburbs

I Must confess to being very much a product of '77 and as such reggae has eversince played a role in my life, only a few weeks back I scooped up 10 old rasta masterpieces while the price was good on Amazon. It therefore didn't take me long in 1993 to say yes when I was proposed a date on Third World's Committed tour, and so it was that the band stopped off at 20 rue de Verdun in April that year. In France when we sign the contract we also advance 50% of the agreed sum, the balance of which is usually paid by cheque to the bands road manager after the gig, occasionally a band will request part of the balance to be paid in local currency. By the time I promoted Third World I was well used to this arrangement. Imagine my surprise when the day before the concert their French agency called to let me know that the band were insisting on being paid in US$ before the gig or they would not play. Now I'm not going to divulge the bands fee but it was obviously a sizeable sum which proved difficult to find in Montpellier in at such short notice. After going to our bank we were informed that such a sum could only be obtained from the Banque de France if required the following day. We did not manage to get our hands on the dollars before the end of the afternoon on the day of the gig. I must say I felt rather like a gangster walking around town with all of those green backs in my brief case. The band were happy and the gig went ahead and every one enjoyed themselves. For catering the band had chosen a buy out arrangement whereby we gave them a fixed sum for each person instead of providing a meal. Just before the band went on their road manager asked me if I could book them into a good Chinese restaurant for after the performance. This was no easy task as a) they would be eating late and b) they were numerous. As already mentioned the gig went well and the band were in high spirits and invited the Luna Tick team along to the restaurant with them. We enjoyed a good meal, despite spending a long period translating the menu for each member, apparently Rasta's don't eat crab! The band proved to be very good company despite being maybe a little too much on the sexist side, and recounted many an amusing anecdote. After the meal the road manager asked me to help him with paying the bill, and yes he wanted to pay in US dollars, eventually this was accepted though the band did loose out! I'm sure there is a lesson to be learnt from this story.

Today's music is two tracks taking from Third World's classic 1977 album '96° In The Shade'.