Concerts on the Pier (Pier 84, NYC)
Among the great reggae and new wave shows I saw at the Pier was Peter Tosh on the Mama Africa tour.
Below are photos I took on this night of Tosh and the great Donald Kinsey on lead guitar. Around this time, I picked up a copy of a single that Donald released on his own, “Music Makes Me Feel Alright.” A great blues/rock guitarist, Kinsey is an American who played with Albert King and others, and whose tone and vibrato echoed the unique sound of Mick Taylor to me. Mama Africa included Tosh’s reworked version of Johnny B. Goode, which provided Mr. Kinsey with a good backdrop for one of his many great guitar solos on his Gibson SG.
Also featured in the band and in one photo below (taken during the percussion jam) was Constantin “Vision” Walker, who had been associated with the Wailers in the earlier days, and who appeared in Ithaca and other places in upstate NY where we got to catch him often, while he teamed up with another fine guitar player, Carlton Bryan (see my posts for Carlton Bryan and Crossroads, and for Steel Pulse). Carlton sports a “Peter Tosh World Tour” shirt in the photos I took of him with Steel Pulse at the Pier.
Tosh boldly smoked a large spliff during the performance, which he would relight from time. A difficulty keeping it lit resulted from the dreadlocks over his face as he danced and sweated.
Only a month later, this band recorded a live album in Los Angeles, and the Captured Live video shows an hour of sonic and visual treats similar to this show in NYC.
(More text below the photos.)
There were many great shows at Pier 84 in those days and I remember one (it may have been this show, or maybe an earlier date - possibly in 1982) at which a brand new sound technology was demonstrated for the audience before the show. JVC was a cosponsor of these shows and, on the stage before the show they described something called a "compact disk" (CD) which, they claimed, would revolutionize the way people listen to music. To my knowledge, this was the first time that anyone there had ever heard of a CD, as well as the first time they actually heard a CD. One was popped into a JVC CD player and cranked up on the PA sound system. Of course, in the subsequent years, CDs overtook vinyl much faster than had been expected.
Speaking of vinyl’s last stand before CDs took over, around this time many reggae artists were releasing (in small batches) 12 inch “extended play” vinyl singles with dub or extended versions (“EPs”). EPs were the size of regular vinyl albums, but there was more room for the grooves to be cut on the vinyl, since total time was less than an album, and they played at 45 rpm. They sounded incredible (still do). With Mama Africa, Tosh released some 10 inch EPs, which was an unusual format.
