A plan for One Love
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the One Love Peace Concert. The Jamaica Observer presents a series of stories leading up to its April 22 staging.
WITH 1977 being another year of political and gang turmoil in Jamaica, weary interests were determined the new year would not follow suit. But supporters of the governing People’s National Party (PNP) and Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) were still at each other’s throats.
In January 1978, impresario Tommy Cowan got a telephone call from one of gangland Jamaica’s most influential figures — Claudius “Claudie/Jack” Massop. He was tired of war, had a solution for peace and thought the best person to make that happen was Bob Marley.
“I got a call from Claudie Massop, and he said to me that Bob is coming home and thought it would be a good idea to do a show and I should produce it,” Cowan told the Jamaica Observer recently. “Then Bob called me (from England) and said he’d like to be a part of it and I should go to Hope Road and have discussions with (lawyer) Diane Jobson.”
It was the charismatic Massop’s latest push for peace. On January 9, he and PNP heavyweight Aston “Bucky” Marshall ‘signed’ a peace treaty between factions at the intersection of Oxford and Beeston streets in West Kingston.
At the time, Marley was one of the biggest names in pop music and respected by backers of the JLP and PNP. Yet even he was vulnerable to crime. He had lived in England for the past 14 months, after being shot at his Hope Road home just two days before the December 5, 1976 Smile Jamaica peace concert at National Heroes Park in Kingston.
After meeting with Massop and other enforcers in London, Marley decided he would end his exile and headline another initiative to restore calm in his country. Cowan, then head of Talent Corporation, said plans for the show evolved during regular talks with the reggae superstar.
“He kept making his changes; he spoke about unity among the youths and unity of Rasta, that was very significant. Whether it was Twelve Tribes or Bobo Shanti…And he wanted the church (Ethiopian Orthodox) and The Wailers to be involved — Bunny (Wailer) and Peter (Tosh).”
Marley returned to Jamaica on February 25 to a hero’s welcome. Cowan remembers “people from all classes” meeting him at the Norman Manley International Airport, but even then the concert was on his mind.
He instructed Cowan to move his base to Hope Road and focus fully on the show which was scheduled for April 22 at the National Stadium in Kingston. One of the first order of business was getting artistes to perform, especially Wailer and Tosh who left Marley and The Wailers in 1973 for solo careers when the group was on the cusp of an international breakthrough.
Cowan met with Wailer in St Thomas where he lived, then he and Massop visited Tosh at his home in Spanish Town. They were sceptical.
“Let’s put it this way, they weren’t smiling. Bunny was very concerned about doing a peace concert because he thought it would be commercial and wanted to talk to Bob first,” said Cowan. “Peter looked at Massop and said, ‘Peace? The only peace yuh going to get is six-six — the grave.’”
After meeting with Marley at Hope Road, Wailer and Tosh agreed to be part of what was dubbed the One Love Peace Concert. Many of the acts signed to Talent Corporation, including Inner Circle, Junior Tucker, Zap Pow (with Beres Hammond), Dennis Brown, and Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus.
The next step was reaching out to the political leaders — Prime Minister Michael Manley and his bitter rival Edward Seaga of the JLP — as well as getting the support of Dudley Thompson who was minister of national security.
“There was absolutely no problem. We sent letters to Mr Manley and Mr Seaga and they both agreed to be part of it,” said Cowan.
The Wailers had backed Manley’s first campaign for prime minister in 1972. They were part of a musical bandwagon that toured Jamaica helping to spread his message of black pride and self-reliance.
It was the PNP that approached Marley in late 1976 to perform at Smile Jamaica, a move that prompted talk that he was helping to prop up the party’s re-election bid that December.
With artistes and politicians pledging their support, the next move was to pitch the One Love Peace Concert to the war-weary public.