Linton Kwesi Johnson & The Dennis Bovell Dub Band live at Volkshaus Zurich Thu, 26-September- 1985.
This show is my first live contact with LKJ and Dennis Bovell. Many years later I’ll meet both of them in personal way. But that is another story.
In 1985 I take Romantsche my good friend from those days. We take the train to Zurich and stand just at the border of the stage. We both smoke quite a lot and I believe I understand everything Linton Kwesi Johnson is telling us. Romantsche doesn’t understand english at all, but he tells me after the concert, that he thinks, that he understood everything.
Dub poetry is not only a language thing, but also a feeling. The transportation of words with music. And english is not really necessary to understand the poems.
After the concert there was no train back to Luzern, so we stay just in the park beside the Volkshaus. Today, it wouldn’t be possible, but in 1985 we two just lay down on a bench in the park. Romantsche had his pillow with him. It was quite funny.