Real on verge of title after late drama

MADRID, June 9 (Reuters) - Real Madrid were left on the verge of winning the Spanish title on Saturday after staging yet another dramatic comeback to grab a 2-2 draw at Real Zaragoza while Barcelona surrendered a lead to draw 2-2 with Espanyol.

Sergio Ramos and Pablo Aimar
DenisDoyle/GettyImages
Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid lands on Pablo Aimar of Zaragoza.

Real's title hopes looked to have gone up in smoke as they trailed Zaragoza 2-1 with just over a minute to go, while Barca led 2-1 at home against city rivals Espanyol.

But a late scrambled goal from Ruud van Nistelrooy earned Real their 2-2 draw and at almost exactly the same moment, Raul Tamudo scored his second to equalise against Barcelona.

The results mean that Real will win their first league title in four years if they beat mid-table Real Mallorca at home in the final game of the season next weekend.

With one game left to play Real and Barcelona are both on 73 points, but the nine-times European champions lead because of their better head-to-head record. Sevilla are two points behind on 71.

Juande Ramos's side were held 0-0 at Real Mallorca, but still have an outside chance of taking the title if they win their final match at home to Villarreal and both Barca and Real slip up.

If all three sides finish level on points Real will take the title, if Real and Sevilla have the same total then the Andalucians will be champions and if Barca and Sevilla are tied at the top then the Catalans will win through.

'It was a mad night, it was unbelievable with all those goals coming at the same time,' said Van Nistelrooy. 'But this side has shown it has got great spirit.'

In an evening of high drama, Real drew first blood when Barcelona fell behind after Tamudo stroked the ball into the top corner following a deft through pass from Ivan de la Pena on the half hour.

But at almost exactly the same moment, Real went 1-0 down to Zaragoza, Argentine striker Diego Milito smashing home from the penalty spot after Ivan Helguera had handled the ball.

Barca equalised when Lionel Messi emulated Diego Maradona's famous 'hand of god' goal just before halftime, launching himself at a cross and using his hand to steer the ball past Espanyol keeper Carlos Kameni.

Messi struck again early in the second half, this time with a legitimate goal, sweeping the ball home after a neat turn and pass from Deco.

Van Nistelrooy equalised for Real at almost the same time, but their title hopes appeared to have unravelled when Milito fired under Iker Casillas after a virtuoso run from Pablo Aimar.

Real were still behind in the title race when Van Nistelrooy scored his 25th goal of the season, poking home from a metre with a minute to go, but there was still one last twist to come.

A shaky-looking Barca back four left Tamudo free down the right after misjudging the offside trap and the Espanyol striker drilled a low angled shot past Victor Valdes to earn his side the 2-2 draw that put Real back on top.

On hearing of the goal in Barcelona, an ecstatic Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon ran down on to the pitch at La Romareda and gave a lap of honour to salute the travelling Real fans.

'It is going to be very difficult to digest this result,' said Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard. 'We missed a great chance, but we have to keep fighting while it is still mathematically possible. Tonight could have been so different.'

Exodus' book focuses on Bob's 1977 exile

Exodus' book focuses on Bob's 1977 exile

superted by:http://www.bobmarley.com

It is impossible to talk about Bob Marley's monumental album Exodus without an account of his own flight from Jamaica after the assassination attempt made on his life at 56 Hope Road on the night of December 3, 1976. Exodus: Bob Marley and The Wailers, Exile 1977 is a collection of rare photos and probing essays that contextualize Bob's time in exile, the two classic albums he produced in London, Exodus and Kaya and the politically charged times that left Bob in need of recuperation.

Contributor Lloyd Bradley, whose running essay "The Story of Exodus," serves as the book's thread, provides the story of the post-colonial, post-Independence period in Jamaica's history. Britain made its official exit in 1962, but not before essentially locking down the tourism, banana and bauxite industries. Within a decade, poverty enveloped the island; the murder rate per capita was triple that of New York and Kingston became so lawless that drivers were instructed to disobey traffic lights lest they get caught in the crossfire of midday gunplay. Bradley argues that Bob and the Rasta community essentially won Manley the 1972 election, believing his campaign promises to legalize marijuana and to assist in repatriation to Ethiopia. But by the 1976 election, those promises remained unfulfilled and so "Bob and other Rastas stayed away from the politricks of Babylon."

Still, Bob hoped to offer a reprieve to Kingston's masses, held hostage by the often politically motivated violence, with his "Smile Jamaica" concert. He ignored warnings via anonymous phone calls to his home to cancel his performance and even after he was shot, performed two nights later with a bullet lodged in his left arm. After the show Bob, the Wailers and his entourage chartered a late night flight to the Bahamas. Two weeks later they were in London.

Poet Kwesi Linton, whose essay "The Poetry of Exile" takes on Exodus' lyrical import and finds the assassination attempt essential to reading even the more spiritual songs on the album. "'Natural Mystic,' 'Three Little Birds' and 'One Love' only become significant in the light of the assassination attempt," she writes. "It is in Marley's Rastafarian faith, and his implacable belief in a 'natural mystic' that we locate the thematic thread, as we are taken through songs about faith, betrayal, persecution, defiance, resistance, recuperation, love and hope."

In the introduction to the book, Chris Blackwell argues that while Bob directly addressed the shooting on "Guiltiness" and "So Much Things to Say," Exodus as a whole contained "fewer political songs and a greater proportion of love songs [because] things were good." Though the accolades for Exodus would come much later (music critic Robert Christgau points out that Kaya charted better in the U.S.) the album that Time magazine named "Album of the Century" at millennium's end was recorded at what Blackwell calls a time of "confidence." Far from being derailed from his musical mission after the attempt on his life, the recording of Exodus was more than productive, it was a regenerative time, one where he was able to re-commit, relax and revitalize.

Longtime collaborator Vivien Goldman, who also authored a definitive book about the making of Exodus, remembers Bob's unique working style, one that saw him drifting between the collaborative jam sessions that his creativity required and the deep solitude in which he was able to retreat despite a crowded studio, where, she says, one could find him "locked in his own concentration."

Football (or soccer), Bob's other great passion, is duly documented by inside photographer Dennis Morris. Editor Richard Williams penned "The Football Match" about the many games Bob played as seriously as he would an arena concert. It was in London during one such match that Bob injured his toe and as girlfriend Cindy Breakspeare remembered, failed to "give it a chance to heal." It was also in London, after four concerts that marked the end of the European tour in support of Exodus that Bob was diagnosed with melanoma, a cancer that would eventually claim his life. Exodus, Exile 1977 captures a year that would not only forever alter Bob's life but the entire global musical landscape for decades to come.

Peter Tosh

Born Hubert Winston McIntosh on October 9, 1944, Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill (Church Lincoln District),

then moved to Belmont as a young child. His mother recalls his taste for music developing at a young age, playing music for the villagers to earn a few shillings. Peter left the peaceful country of Westmoreland parish for the deadly slums of Trenchtown, Kingston at the age of 15. Along with teenage friends Bob Marley and Neville "Bunny" Livingstone, he formed the Wailing Wailers.

After several years of practice, the Wailers began releasing records through Coxsone Dodd's Studio One. These included such hits as "Simmer Down", "One Love", and Peter's first lead vocal, "Hoot Nanny Hoot". As Peter recalled, "First tune hit, second tune hit, 3rd tune hit. We never sung no tune that miss." The Wailers soon found out that in the Jamaican record business, a hit record didn't necessarily mean fortune.


Frustrated by the lack of what they felt to be proper compensation, the Wailers left Coxsone Dodd and over the next several years worked with producers including Leslie Kong and the legendary Lee "Scratch" Perry. The Wailers also founded their own record label, Tuff Gong Records for Wailers output and Peter formed his own Intel-Diplo HIM record label for his solo output.

The Wailers were soon courted and signed by Chris Blackwell's Island Records. Giving them a chance to work on their own, Blackwell gave the Wailers 4,000 pounds and in return was given Catch a Fire, what many consider to be one of reggae's defining moments. Although Blackwell did overdub some rock guitar and organ to appeal to an international audience, Catch a Fire was a major achievement in that it was the first complete album by a reggae act and it established the music as much more than a novelty. Indeed, Catch a Fire was no novelty record; the anger and pain of the lyrics and the reality that they painted were burned into the grooves of the vinyl.

Even though the album was a critical success and the Wailers seemed on the verge of breaking through internationally, tensions within the band were high. Peter did not trust Blackwell (who he referred to as "Whiteworst") and was resentful that Bob was being pushed to the front of the band and he and Bunny were relegated to background singer status for much of the album. This tension continued to build through the recording of their next album, Burnin', and after an aborted tour, Peter and Bunny quite the Wailers.

Marley would continue on as Bob Marley and the Wailers and recruit the female trio I-Three to replace Peter and Bunny on background vocals. As Peter reflected later,



After splitting from The Wailers, Peter secured a recording contract with Capitol Records and released his debut album, Legalize It, a controversial call to legalize ganja. Cut with most of the Wailers band, it featured re-cuts of older tunes("Burial", "No Sympathy", "Brand New Second Hand") and new songs("Igziabeher", "Why Must I", title cut). Establishing a trend that would continue throughout his career, Peter used his musical platform to fight against injustice. While the album was not the international smash hit that Peter had hoped for, Legalize It remains a strong seller to this day.

Peter's second solo album, Equal Rights, is considered by many to be his best work. Replacing the Wailers band is Tosh's own Word, Sound, and Power band, anchored by the famous duo of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on drum and bass. Equal Rights features new versions of classics like "Get Up Stand Up" and "Downpressor Man" and his signature version of the Joe Higgs penned "Stepping Razor" along with instant classics like the tite track, "Apartheid", "African", and "Jah Guide".

Soon after the release of Equal Rights, Tosh performed at the One Love Peace Concert alongside the likes of Bob Marley, Ras Michael, Inner Circle, Culture, and others. Peter lashed out strongly at Prime Minister Michael Manley and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga, both in attendance, about government inaction and the legalization of ganja. He attacked the "shitstem" which he felt was designed to oppress the black race. The retribution by the embarrassed politicians was swift and brutal. Pulled into a police station for smoking ganja, Tosh was beaten by at six to seven police officers for over ninety minutes. According to Peter, it was only because he knew how to roll his eyes in the back of his head that he survived the beating.

Some good did come from the One Love concert, as Mick Jagger was in the audience to witness the powerful performance Peter had given. Impressed with Tosh's magnetism, Jagger signed him as the first act on the new Rolling Stones record label. Tosh released a total of three albums on the label, the first of which, Bush Doctor, was released in 1978. Jagger contributed vocals on the hit "Don't Look Back" which led to international television exposure, including an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Tosh was also chosen as the opening act on the Stones' US Tour. While the rock and roll audiences weren't always receptive of the militant reggae which Tosh performed, the tour was generally well received and provided unprecedented exposure.

Peter released two more albums on the Rolling Stones label, Mystic Man (1979)and Wanted Dread and Alive (1981). Both were solid efforts but, due to lack of proper marketing or promotion, failed to capitalize on the momentum of "Don't Look Back." After a falling out with the Stones, Peter left the label to sign with EMI.

Mama Africa was released in 1983 and featured a remake of Chuck Berry's classic "Johnny B. Goode" which had some minor success and was made into a music video. A show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles from the following world tour was captured on film and released as Captured Live in both audio and video formats. It has also been recently re-released as a DVD, testament to Peter's continued popularity. Much of the rest of Peter's life was spent quietly at his home with common-law wife, Marlene Brown. He released No Nuclear War in July 1987, a strong comeback album which he was planning to tour behind.

The tour was not to be. On the evening of September 11, 1987, Peter was spending an evening with friends at his house in Kingston. Their evening was interrupted by a knock on the door. Dennis "Leppo" Lobban, a street vendor who begged money from Peter frequently, and two unidentified men stormed the house demanding money. Another knock at the door brought popular DJ Jeff "Free-I" Dixon and his wife Joy. The gunmen brought everyone into the living room and demanded money, pistol whipping Tosh and several others. When told that no money was in the house, the gunmen opened fire. "Doc" Brown was killed instantly and Free-I and Peter Tosh died later at University Hospital in Kingston.

Peter Tosh was 43 years old.

Born Hubert Winston McIntosh on October 9, 1944, Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill (Church Lincoln District),

then moved to Belmont as a young child. His mother recalls his taste for music developing at a young age, playing music for the villagers to earn a few shillings. Peter left the peaceful country of Westmoreland parish for the deadly slums of Trenchtown, Kingston at the age of 15. Along with teenage friends Bob Marley and Neville "Bunny" Livingstone, he formed the Wailing Wailers.

After several years of practice, the Wailers began releasing records through Coxsone Dodd's Studio One. These included such hits as "Simmer Down", "One Love", and Peter's first lead vocal, "Hoot Nanny Hoot". As Peter recalled, "First tune hit, second tune hit, 3rd tune hit. We never sung no tune that miss." The Wailers soon found out that in the Jamaican record business, a hit record didn't necessarily mean fortune.


Frustrated by the lack of what they felt to be proper compensation, the Wailers left Coxsone Dodd and over the next several years worked with producers including Leslie Kong and the legendary Lee "Scratch" Perry. The Wailers also founded their own record label, Tuff Gong Records for Wailers output and Peter formed his own Intel-Diplo HIM record label for his solo output.

The Wailers were soon courted and signed by Chris Blackwell's Island Records. Giving them a chance to work on their own, Blackwell gave the Wailers 4,000 pounds and in return was given Catch a Fire, what many consider to be one of reggae's defining moments. Although Blackwell did overdub some rock guitar and organ to appeal to an international audience, Catch a Fire was a major achievement in that it was the first complete album by a reggae act and it established the music as much more than a novelty. Indeed, Catch a Fire was no novelty record; the anger and pain of the lyrics and the reality that they painted were burned into the grooves of the vinyl.

Even though the album was a critical success and the Wailers seemed on the verge of breaking through internationally, tensions within the band were high. Peter did not trust Blackwell (who he referred to as "Whiteworst") and was resentful that Bob was being pushed to the front of the band and he and Bunny were relegated to background singer status for much of the album. This tension continued to build through the recording of their next album, Burnin', and after an aborted tour, Peter and Bunny quite the Wailers.

Marley would continue on as Bob Marley and the Wailers and recruit the female trio I-Three to replace Peter and Bunny on background vocals. As Peter reflected later,



After splitting from The Wailers, Peter secured a recording contract with Capitol Records and released his debut album, Legalize It, a controversial call to legalize ganja. Cut with most of the Wailers band, it featured re-cuts of older tunes("Burial", "No Sympathy", "Brand New Second Hand") and new songs("Igziabeher", "Why Must I", title cut). Establishing a trend that would continue throughout his career, Peter used his musical platform to fight against injustice. While the album was not the international smash hit that Peter had hoped for, Legalize It remains a strong seller to this day.

Peter's second solo album, Equal Rights, is considered by many to be his best work. Replacing the Wailers band is Tosh's own Word, Sound, and Power band, anchored by the famous duo of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on drum and bass. Equal Rights features new versions of classics like "Get Up Stand Up" and "Downpressor Man" and his signature version of the Joe Higgs penned "Stepping Razor" along with instant classics like the tite track, "Apartheid", "African", and "Jah Guide".

Soon after the release of Equal Rights, Tosh performed at the One Love Peace Concert alongside the likes of Bob Marley, Ras Michael, Inner Circle, Culture, and others. Peter lashed out strongly at Prime Minister Michael Manley and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga, both in attendance, about government inaction and the legalization of ganja. He attacked the "shitstem" which he felt was designed to oppress the black race. The retribution by the embarrassed politicians was swift and brutal. Pulled into a police station for smoking ganja, Tosh was beaten by at six to seven police officers for over ninety minutes. According to Peter, it was only because he knew how to roll his eyes in the back of his head that he survived the beating.

Some good did come from the One Love concert, as Mick Jagger was in the audience to witness the powerful performance Peter had given. Impressed with Tosh's magnetism, Jagger signed him as the first act on the new Rolling Stones record label. Tosh released a total of three albums on the label, the first of which, Bush Doctor, was released in 1978. Jagger contributed vocals on the hit "Don't Look Back" which led to international television exposure, including an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Tosh was also chosen as the opening act on the Stones' US Tour. While the rock and roll audiences weren't always receptive of the militant reggae which Tosh performed, the tour was generally well received and provided unprecedented exposure.

Peter released two more albums on the Rolling Stones label, Mystic Man (1979)and Wanted Dread and Alive (1981). Both were solid efforts but, due to lack of proper marketing or promotion, failed to capitalize on the momentum of "Don't Look Back." After a falling out with the Stones, Peter left the label to sign with EMI.

Mama Africa was released in 1983 and featured a remake of Chuck Berry's classic "Johnny B. Goode" which had some minor success and was made into a music video. A show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles from the following world tour was captured on film and released as Captured Live in both audio and video formats. It has also been recently re-released as a DVD, testament to Peter's continued popularity. Much of the rest of Peter's life was spent quietly at his home with common-law wife, Marlene Brown. He released No Nuclear War in July 1987, a strong comeback album which he was planning to tour behind.

The tour was not to be. On the evening of September 11, 1987, Peter was spending an evening with friends at his house in Kingston. Their evening was interrupted by a knock on the door. Dennis "Leppo" Lobban, a street vendor who begged money from Peter frequently, and two unidentified men stormed the house demanding money. Another knock at the door brought popular DJ Jeff "Free-I" Dixon and his wife Joy. The gunmen brought everyone into the living room and demanded money, pistol whipping Tosh and several others. When told that no money was in the house, the gunmen opened fire. "Doc" Brown was killed instantly and Free-I and Peter Tosh died later at University Hospital in Kingston.

Peter Tosh was 43 years old.

Bob Marley gave the world brilliant and evocative music; his work stretched across nearly two decades and yet still remains timeless and universal. Bob Marley & the Wailers worked their way into the very fabric of our lives.

"He's taken his place alongside James Brown and Sly Stone as a pervasive influence on r&b", says the American critic Timothy White, author of the acclaimed Bob Marley biography CATCH A FIRE: THE LIFE OF BOB MARLEY. "His music was pure rock, in the sense that it was a public expression of a private truth."

It is important to consider the roots of this legend: the first superstar from the Third World, Bob Marley was one of the most charismatic and challenging performers of our time and his music could have been created from only one source: the street culture of Jamaica.

The days of slavery are a recent folk memory on the island. They have permeated the very essence of Jamaica's culture, from the plantation of the mid-nineteenth century to the popular music of our own times. Although slavery was abolished in 1834, the Africans and their descendants developed their own culture with half-remembered African traditions mingled with the customs of the British.

This hybrid culture, of course, had parallels with the emerging black society in America. Jamaica, however, remained a rural community which, without the industrialisation of its northern neighbour, was more closely rooted to its African legacy.

By the start of the twentieth century that African heritage was given political expression by Marcus Garvey, a shrewd Jamaican preacher and entrepreneur who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The organisation advocated the creation of a new black state in Africa, free from white domination. As the first step in this dream, Garvey founded the Black Star Line, a steamship company which, in popular imagination at least, was to take the black population from America and the Caribbean back to their homeland of Africa.

A few years later, in 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia and took a new name, Haile Selassie, The Emperor claimed to be the 225th ruler in a line that stretched back to Menelik, the son of Solomon and Sheba.

The Marcus Garvey followers in Jamaica, consulting their New Testaments for a sign, believed Haile Selassie was the black king whom Garvey had prophesied would deliver the Negro race. It was the start of a new religion called Rastafari.

Fifteen years later, in Rhoden Hall to the north of Jamaica, Bob Marley was born. His mother was an eighteen-year-old black girl called Cedella Booker while his father was Captain Norval Marley, a 50-year-old white quartermaster attached to the British West Indian Regiment.

The couple married in 1944 and Robert Nesta Marley was born on February 6, 1945. Norval Marley's family, however, applied constant pressure and, although he provided financial support, the Captain seldom saw his son who grew up in the rural surroundings of St. Ann to the north of the island.