Did you Know? Issue 5

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BUNNY MATTHEWS
I met Bob Marley at his home in Kingston in 1976. I personally witnessed the supernatural powers of Bob Marley’s intense gaze as he knocked a man unconscious by looking at him. A few nights later, I was invited to Bob Marley’s home for dinner. If my taxi had arrived on time, I would’ve been present for the attempted assassination of Bob Marley. A couple of nights after the shooting, I was on stage when Bob performed a free concert for the Jamaican people wearing the bloodstained shirt from the shooting incident. I was the only person with a camera. And then the CIA got involved.

http://www.offbeat.com/about.html

BRIAN ATKINSON
We (me and Bob) had more of a business relationship, we didn’t really hang out together as such, but he was somewhat of a recluse! One that spent all his time within himself, as a sheep that listen for the masters voice and act upon it, loving, kind energetic and determined to succeed. A very special person was dearly loved who was effective in spreading the light of love, equality, peace and justice to all humanity.

IBIS PITTS
Pitts’s husband Ibis met Bob Marley in 1969 shortly after Ibis opened a gift shop at 24th and Market streets in Wilmington, which was just around the corner from Marley’s two-story row house at 2311 Tatnall St. “He didn’t like it here,” Ibis says “He’s telling you that in his songs. It was a concrete jungle to him, a rat race. … He said he only liked seeing his mother.”
The Pittses later moved to Virginia, but came back to Wilmington after Rita Marley, Bob’s wife, invited Ibis to play congas in the Wailers. Ibis was slated to take part in the tour that followed the release of Marley’s best-selling Exodus album in 1977, but Marley canceled the tour after he was wounded during a murder attempt in December 1976 in Jamaica. The Pittses stayed with the Marleys from September 1976 to February 1977 on Tatnall Street. The couple moved first to New Castle and then to Salem County, N.J., where they have lived since 1979.

Ibis and Genny Pitts founded Wilmington World Music, Inc. in 1994.
During the late 1960′s Ibis had the opportunity to meet Bob. One day Rita Marley found her way into The Ibis Specialty and Gift Shop on 24th and Market Street. Ibis remembers how cool Rita looked, “She was dancing around the shop barefoot!” he says. She began to tell him about her music and husband who was in Jamaica. She promised that she would bring him to the shop when he came to Wilmington. One day Bob did walk to the shop from his mother’s house at 2311 Tatnall St.
This was the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship. Their friendship grew as Bob would invite Ibis to come to his Mother’s home where they would enjoy some of Mother B’s great Jamaican cooking an then go in the basement where they would play music for hours.

Mother Booker often said that Ibis was Bob’s first American friend. Ibis and Bob stayed up and made jewelry all night in preparation for Woodstock. Ibis tried to convince Bob to join him and Deon Wilson on the trip up north for the festival of all time. But Bob chose to stay home. Ibis sold the jewelry within the first two hours! In 1969 Ibis joined Bob on a trip to Jamaica where he met Peter, Bunny and a host of other Rastas. Those two weeks had a tremendous impact on Ibis’s life. Upon his return to America, Ibis sold his shop and moved west.

In 1975 Ibis found Bob again, this time performing at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, California during the Natty Dread Tour. Ibis, his wife and a friend spent the weekend with Bob and company; it was a wonderful reunion! In 1976 Ibis moved his family came back to Wilmington, this time to live with Bob’s family. During this time the two families did grow closer. By early 1977 Ibis moved to a home near by and soon after Bob moved his mother and family to Miami. Mother Booker always said, “No matter how many miles are between us, the Love is always there!”

http://www.peoplesfestival.com/IbisBobStory.swf

1976: Ambush in the night
Island Records spokesman Jeff Walker said the musicians were on a short break from preparing for their headlining appearance at a free outdoor “Smile Jamaica” festival, cosponsored by Marley and the Jamaican Cultural Ministry December 5th at a Kingston race track. It was 9 p.m. on a Friday evening when two cars roared into the driveway of Marley’s home on Hope Road. After sealing the exit with one car, four of the gunmen began firing into the windows of the house. Another man, described by one observer as looking like “a 16-year-old kid, scared to death,” burst in the side and began firing wildly. One of the gunmen entered the kitchen, pushing past percussionist Alvin “Seeko” Patterson, and took aim at Marley. Group manager Don Taylor happened to be directly in front of Marley and took five of the seven shots, four in his upper thighs. One bullet grazed Marley’s chest directly below the heart, and passed through his arm. Also shot were Lewis Griffith, a friend of Marley’s, and Rita Marley, who was shot once in the head as she tried to escape by car with five children who were present.

While the gunmen escaped during a chase by police, the victims were rushed to nearby University Hospital, where Griffith remains with serious stomach wounds. Rita Marley underwent surgery to remove the bullet from her head and was released the next day. Don Taylor, injured the worst, was placed on the critical list and later flown to Miami hospital, where he is reported to be recovering.

Released from the hospital December 4th, Marley was swiftly tucked away in a hide-out in the Blue Mountains. “He was convinced someone was still trying to kill him, not just scare him,” said Walker, who stayed with Marley over the weekend. “There’s not much more to say until the men are found. One of the cars was found abandoned in Trenchtown.” Besides heavy police protection, Marley had the support of his fellow Rastas, who hid high in the surrounding trees, armed with machetes. The “Smile Jamaica” festival began on schedule, even though other expected acts like Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear didn’t show up; early arrivals numbered 50,000. Third World went on first and, according to filmmaker David Silver, who was present at the show, played the “set of their lives” to a crowd unsure if Marley would even show up. In touch with the concert site by walkie-talkie, Marley was unsure himself; his band had scattered after the shooting. While Marley thought it over, all the band members were rounded up except for Aston “Family Man” Barrett, and Marley decided to appear.

According to Walker’s description: “We raced down the narrow roads of the mountain at top speed with police escort. They cheered in the streets as Marley approached the race track. He ran right out of the car and onto the stage, where Michael Manley [prime minister of Jamaica, who had visited Marley in the hospital] hugged him warmly.”
Marley, in full view of the crowd of, by now, 85,000, made a small speech: “When I decided to do this concert two and a half months ago, there were no politics involved. I just wanted to play for the love of the people….” He then proceeded with “just one song” as Manley, also in full view of a possible assailant, stood atop a VW bus beside the stage. Though he was unable to play guitar because of his wounds, Marley and the Wailers performed for an hour and a half. Even Rita Marley, her head bandaged, sang backup.

“It was very, very moving,” recalls Silver. ‘There was no violence at all. Everybody was just swinging with the music, and Bob…Bob was like some wild creature – he was prancing and jumping like some crazy shaman. I’ve never seen him like that.”
At the end of the set Marley unbuttoned his shirt to show his chest wound to the crowd. Next he rolled up his sleeve to show where the bullet had passed through his arm. Then, mimicking the action of pulling guns from two side holsters, Marley laughed, left the stage and was raced back to his mountain hide-away. He left Jamaica December 8th for an undisclosed destination, but plans to return shortly. (taken from Rolling Stone #230 – January 13, 1977)

Malachi Smith
The first time I met Bob in person, I was starring in Stafford Harrison’s “Unsung Heroes out West” with Bob Andy, John Jones, Winston McEnuff, Earl Sixteen, and Zap Pow. During a performance of the play at the Ward Theatre, we heard that Peter Tosh had been arrested at Half-Way-Tree. At that time, I was stationed at Half-Way-Tree Police Station, so two card loads of us drove swiftly to the station. And, just as we pulled in, Bob Marley pulled into the police station and Charmaine Hemmings, who was driving the Miny Minor I rode in, parked beside his car. Bob calmly asked where his brother was. He was told in the guard room by the sergeant and we followed behind Bob as he made his way up the station’s side steps and into the public’s section of the guard room. Peter was sitting down in a corner mad as a lion. Bob tried to talk to Peter, but Peter didn’t respond. Bob called us all aside, said Peter was his brother, “A so ‘im stay so mi nuh waa no body lick him” Bob then signed Peter’s bail bond and then he left.

The second time I met him, it was a bit more personal. I was a member of a special operations team that was conducting a weekend man hunt for a gunman by the name of Hammer who had gunned down a Jamaican soldier. Hammer lived in the Hermitage area of August Town and while we were on the operation, I was driving the vehicle, one of the officers, a Special Constable by the name of Kowell, who was stationed at Half-Way-Tree, asked me to drive down to Tuff Gong so he could see his brother who was in town. Of course, we asked him who was his brother was, and he said Bob. We all laughed at him. At which time, he told us how he grew up with Bob, Peter, Bunny, the others and told us that he was an original member of the group. We still didn’t believe him, but, any way, I decided to drive down to Tuff Gong. As I turned the Toyota Land Cruiser into the drive way, I saw Bob sitting down on the lower steps of the complex’s front door. I stopped right where he was. He looked up, saw Kowell, and left to his feet. Kowell jumped out the vehicle and they hugged and squeezed and sized up each other in a celebration of love. Bob was like “Wha a gwaan mi bredda.” He and Kowell had a long talk and of course, we drove out of Tuff Gong knowing another side of the gong. (from Geoffrey Philp blog site)

Antonnette Marie Haughton, lawer
She has fond memories of good times in the company of the late reggae superstar, Bob Marley, recalling that he once sang to her and referred to her as “my lawyer friend”.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/

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