Sixth day of the Ball Of Fire 1997 tour
At the breakfast I was talking with Lester Sterling about Peter Tosh. Lester told me, that Peter Tosh used to call him “Mr. Sterling”. Later, when Tosh was famous, Lesters brother Keith Sterling was in the Tosh band, so they met again. Tosh didn’t recognized Lester, so Keith introduced him to Tosh. And Tosh said: “Hello Lester”. That’s how things are chaning.
From Rennes to Tourcoing it is quite a long trip:
Le Grand Mix in Tourcoing still exists: legrandmix.com.
Tourcoing Jazz Festival still exists as well: tourcoing-jazz-festival.com
I don’t know, if the french promoter are not working carefully or whatever, but Tommy McCook was never be planed to be on tour. Knibb and not Knibbs. Schaffer and not Schafer. Will Clark and not Bill.
I don’t know why, but in the nothern France I don’t have luck. The people are trying to steal the merchandise or trying to dump the prices. Inside this busy non-business activities all the batches are falling down into the big merchandise box. I really turn to get angry. I don’t sell much, but have more work than elsewhere. It’s a clean but a rough place with a lot of security and violence.
We’re sleeping in the Hotel Ibis and the next morning welcomes us with fresh fruits and a nice breakfast table, this is the best so far on this tour. Before we’re leaving Tourcoing, I take a little walk and see a very beautiful church. It’s called Saint Christopherus and is from the 14th century. I saw a painting inside that church that was fascinating, because there was a sitting dog looking upwards to god almighty.
It is very close to our hotel, so I went back to the hotel to ask Rolando Alphonso if he wants to come with me back to that beautiful church. Lloyd Brevett was in the lobby and wanted to come as well. Rolando was back in bed. And then Shay came to pick up Brevett and Knibb to catch the train to Paris for an interview. Later I went with Rolando Alphonso to that church. I planned to take some pictures inside the church. Holy Rolando in that holy place. But when I saw the pictures for the first time a few weeks later, I was touched how beautiful they are. Holy Rolando!
Later this morning I went with Bill Smith to buy some cigarettes.
