Peter Tosh
Someone had been murdered at a Black Uhuru show in this venue the week before. There had been riots in the neighbourhood as well as in Brixton and St Paul’s in Bristol in the previous months. It was just a month since the death of Bob Marley. As might be expected the theatre was filled with heightened tension and emotion that night. So much ganja was being smoked that you could get stoned just breathing.
It was a stunning concert. Peter Tosh played a blazing set ranging from his early Wailers tunes to the best of his solo work from ‘Legalize It’ and ‘Equal Rights’. His protests against the Babylonian rulers seemed particularly relevant to the times and his heart-felt lyrics seemed to have a cathartic effect on the crowd.
Sadly though he was a champion of the dispossessed and downtrodden, Peter Tosh was murdered at his home on September 11 1987 during a botched robbery.
