King Flashman Players
Kojo (Kwabwo) Tuffour turned out to be a journalist who ran away from the government and he was a good writer. We called the Band Kojo Tuffour and The King Flashman Players. Then we started to get gigs in small clubs and some alternative festivals. Apparently we were the first reggae band in Belgium who tried to really play the roots. When Kojo had to leave the country because his permit was expired, we and the guys from the youth club tried to keep him here legally but it didn't work, so I took the lead vocals in the band. At that time I was already at Saint Luke's School of Arts and my work got very much inspired by rastafarian iconography from people like Ras Daniel Heartman. My dream was to start a living in a chalet between the local nature reserve Saint Ann's Woods and De Plage 5the Beach). There I wanted to start a graphic atelier and live form selling art at exhibitions. My dream was very soon scattered when I found out the company who owned that land wanted to tear down the chalets and swap them for a parking lot. When I had to do my army service I got an administrative function and there I had the time to make a series of very strong rastafarian drawings and the first rastafarian magazine in Belgium: Jah Messenjah. This A5 stenciled magazine was printed on the army presses, delivered in my office from where I sold the magazine's in record shops, reggae clubs etc...After my military service I found a job in a lousy printing plant of industrial packaging. By the time I moved to an apartment in the neighborhood, I lost my job already because I was employed to fill in for somebody who was on holidays, but they never told me that. By that time reggae's golden years in Antwerp seemed to have come to an end. The band split and the reggae shops and clubs closed one by one.
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