The annual Peter Tosh Symposium, in keeping with the spirit of the fiery artist, was this year not without controversy.
The singer’s former manager, Copeland Forbes, debunked comments by two of last year’s presenters — Evah Gordon and attorney Miguel Lorne.
“I am here today to dismiss some things that were said here last year, which were all fabricated,” Forbes told the gathering inside the Multi- Functional Room at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus.
“I wasn’t here last year, but I saw the video that has now gone viral with one of them [presenters] coming here to tell you that when Bob [Marley] invited Michael Manley and Edward Seaga on stage to shake hands at the (April 1978) One Love Peace Concert, that it was planned by politicians. I was there; that’s fabrication,” Forbes declared.
The veteran tour manager and booking agent used a non-audible video to enhance his hour-long presentation.
He explained that the driving force behind the concert was West Kingston strong man Claudius Massop. The other contentious issue Forbes addressed was Gordon’s claim that he’d had an affair with Marlene Brown, Tosh’s common-law wife.
“That is a disrespect to Peter Tosh to come here and say that.
Evah should apologise to the members of his [Tosh’s] family,” said Forbes. Gordon was an associate of Tosh. He also claimed to be instrumental in hiring Forbes as the singer’s manager.
During his 2014 presentation, Lorne said Tosh’s September 1987 murder was a result of his fiery speech at the One Love Peace Concert (held at the National Stadium in Kingston) in which he blasted Jamaica’s politicians.
“Peter and (disc jockey) Free I (who was killed along with Tosh) wanted a radio station that would have predated IRIE FM. Babylon killed them.
Tosh speech was what flipped the script. Everything else was planned…Bob calling Manley and Seaga on stage to shake hands was planned,” Lorne said then. Forbes’ discourse focused on The Wailers, the legendary group in which Tosh and Marley were original members.
The symposium was held under the theme, ‘Peter Tosh: The Early Years From Kechy Shuby To Legalize It.
Staged by the UWI’s department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work and the National Heritage Month Committe, it also heard from Tommy Cowan and Ras Iyah V. — Basil Walters
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