Maroon Town live at Schüür Luzern 1993

Rock Against Racism with Maroon Town, D.J. Ras Claude & Friends, Friday, January 29th 1993 at Schüür, Luzern

Maroon Town is quickly one of my favourite bands in the early 90’s. A mix of ska and hip-hop plus woman sings. I’m proud to be able to invite this band to Luzern. Vin the manager of World Beat tells me to promote this event under the label of “Rock Against Racism”.

This takes me to do more but a simple concert.

Show program

Found a program of the time. 9.30 it started with The Cimarons “Rock Against Racism”. Followed by Steel Pulse “Ku Klux Klan” with my performance as a Klan. Linton Kwesi Johnson “Fite Dem Back” and with The Trojans “Ska-Ta-Shock” René is coming on stage. The Beat “Jackpot” and after Benjamin Zaphania “Religious War” there is Rashid coming on stage with his own composition from tape. Soul II Soul and Boogie Down Productions (BDP) introducing the Crazy Force Crew. Special AKA with “Racist Friend” and “Free Nelson Mandela” finishing the program. Livius is doing some TV show is not memorised in my mind. There is a playlist on my YouTube-channel.

René my best friend can organize a Russian uniform and I prepare a Ku-Klux-Klan cap. I’m the D.J. on stage and I will play the Steel Pulse hit “Ku-Klux-Klan” while I dress myself as a Klan-member and walk over the stage. Then I change my outfit go back to the turn-tables and let some Russian marches into the place. René is marching on stage with a big poster where it’s something written in Cyrillic. Some Russian student helped writing it.

The third special guest appearance is made by another friend of mine: Rashid. He is coming as a sheik in full arabic dress with his prayer carpet and is praying on stage heading to Mekka, while I play his own composition that he recorded exclusively just before the show.

The last special guest is the Radical Break Dance Crew or Crazy Force Crew (as written on the program). They are not performing on stage but in the audience. I can’t see them break dancing, but after the show it was told that they were brilliant.

With this introduction to the show, it was very special. And a little side fact is, that many years later I found out, that my wife was at this show. And some people who weren’t dancing at concerts, they have been dancing for the first time in years. Everybody was happy. This playlist is from my YouTube-channel and plays the tracks as on the program.

Band members

Maroon Town is a London based Ska-Reggae-Combo with different line-ups. Stevie B. is the lead singer and Caroline McCookweir plays the alto saxophone and sings the lead in a few tunes. On bass there is Jeff Lucas (founding House Of Rhythm). Ralph Lamb on trumpet is great and still around. Mike Fern on tenor saxophone, Steve Williams on drums, Willy Dowling on keyboards and Devan German on guitar. Plus the great Charlie “Prince Charles” on percussion.

Music

Welcome to the show. This is a little sample from the show in Schüür in 1993, where a little bit of the atmosphere is in it. As it was the beginning of the show, the party was set on fire right away. Because I was the managing director of this event, I let my DAT recorder on stage and recorded the whole show. But when I wanted to listen to it, I was shocked. The tape was already used and had some real problems. I’m sorry for this shocking noises and empty spaces. Never use used tapes for recordings.

Upcoming shows with Maroon Town were at the world fair in Sevilla, where the band played as the very attraction in countless shows.

Bassist Jeff Lucas became a good friend, when I met him several times again with his other band: House Of Rhythm.

• House Of Rhythm, live at Reithalle, Bern
• House Of Rhythm, live at Sedel, Luzern 1995
• Skasplash tour with House Of Rhythm 1996

The news

Peacestreet guestbook

As The Roots Connection presents, I was managing many different events, but I never had a guestbook or something to keep the memories with the artists. I have almost no pictures as well. But my friend René Frey (bass player with Peacestreet and Der Transformer and others and natural doctor and masseur) was the boss at Friedenstrasse 5 in Luzern. We called it Peacestreet and in 1992 we founded a band with this name.

I remember well, that friends have cooked at Peacestreet. We had a big pot with pot on the table. They enjoyed a lot. Can’t remember what hotel they were located.

Promo

My original typewriter text for the press.