Sir Collins & the power of music

 Quite a story about an album I rarely spin. I almost feel some kind of shame when I listen to it because to me this album is a document of somebody elses very deep personal emotions. I decided to bring it out here because to me it is a precious piece in my collection by showing me the power of music. Maybe I shouldn`t but I do it with sincere and deep respect to all people who were somehow involved in the tragedy behind this album. At the time I picked up this record I had no idea what I was buying. It was certainly the sleeve that triggered me to buy it but I wasn`t aware of the story behind this album. At home I gave it some serious listening and I digged into the history of the New Cross fire. A disaster that happened on the night of Saturday the 17th and Sunday 18th of January in 1981. Something about this album touched me very deeply.

Some years ago I discussed this album with an other reggae lover. He stated to me that this album wasn`t interesting in his opinion. All he heard was some "happy catchy reggae" he said. How can you hear happy catchy reggae on an album which is a tribute to all the victims of the New Cross Fire, I thought!? So I tried to explain to him how I experienced this album. What happened to me when I listen to the songs in which Sir Collins used the voice of his son that passed away. How I tried to put myself in the position of Sir Collins who made this album in a proces of deep mourning. What touches me is not the voice, it's the mix. The emotions that Sir Collins put in certain songs are very strong. If you want to be touched by that you have to place yourself in the frame in which the artist created the album. And on those rare occasions that I spin this record I still feel Sir Collins full emotions from those days; goose bumps! Is the music interesting? Musically technically maybe not, but who cares? Music is so much emotion and can help you in every part of your life. When, where, how and which music does help you is something that just happens. So let it happen and describe your experience. So you can inspire others to appreciate the music by making them listen through your ears. And so I asked my friend to try to listen with different ears to this album. The power of music that is what this album is all about!

Flying D

A Upsetting journey?!

It must be in the eighties that I picked up a copy of the album “Dave Barker meets the Upsetters – Prisoner of love” on a record fair in the Netherlands. It was the original release from 1970 on the Trojan Upsetter label with a nice laminated sleeve and the vinyl in immaculate condition. On the back of the sleeve I found this stamp of a record shop saying; “Music Center, P.O. Box 3068 Shar-I-Nua, Kabul Afghanistan”. That made me wondering; how on earth did this Upsetter record ended up in Afghanistan? For years now I do have this record in my collection. A collection of records gathered from all over the world, with many stamps or stickers of record shops overseas. Most of them from shops in England, US, Jamaica, Canada and some European countries. But this stamp from Afghanistan is far the most intriguing one. Plenty times I wondered about the journey this record made before it ended up in my collection. How did it travelled? Where and on which occasion had it been played? And who had listened to it?

For people from my generation Kabul is mostly known because of the war in against the Taliban, when American troops invaded Afghanistan after September 11 2001. But what was Kabul like in the early seventies? When you read about that you will find out that Kabul developed to a cosmopolitan city during the sixties. With the increase in global air travels more and more foreigners start to come to Kabul. The tourist industry picked up rapidly and the mood of the city became more and more liberalized. A lot of foreigners lived as expats in Kabul in those days. And it is said that in the late sixties and early seventies it was easy to buy high quality cannabis and other types of drugs in Kabul. This was just before the King Zahir Shah was moved by a coupe in 1973. Then the stability in the country changed, and most of the expatriaites went out.

Those were also the last days of the Afghanistan – Kathmandu – Amsterdam ganja trail. A trail which supplied the rising Smoke shops in Amsterdam. And as far as I could trace the Shar-I-Nua district, that is mentioned in the stamp, was especially a neighbourhood were foreign people and tourists stayed. And even today it still seems a bit of a trendy hippy quarter of Kabul assigned to cater for the foreign tourists.

So maybe my Upsetter record was imported in Afghanistan by some English expartiates at the time. Or some hash smugglers brought it in?! It is still nice to dream about the journey this record made while you listen to the intense tracks of the Upsetters. Is there anybody out there who has a better clue about the story of this record?!

Flying D