Friends and relatives of jailed Nigerian musician FELA KUTI have begun the campaign to have him freed, with a series of rallies and benefits and the release of last recordings. Kuti was jailed last October after being arrested at Lagos airport trying to leave for the USA with his band. It appears that the £1600 currency charge was simply the Nigerian government's way of putting the outspoken, politically active Kuti out of circulation. The new record is 'Army Arrangement’, a typically blunt diatribe against repression in his own country. The master tapes of the record were sent to hot New York producer BILL LASWELL, who completed and remixed them, adding SLY DUNBAR and AYIB DIENG on drums and percussion and BERNIE WORRELL (ex Parliament, Talking Heads big- band) on keyboards. But even if attempts to have him freed fall, Fela can take some comfort in the fact that on past form this Nigerian government probably won’t last five years without being overthrown.

Rip It Up, Issue 91, 1 February 1985, Page 2

Friends and relatives of jailed Nigerian musician FELA KUTI have begun the campaign to have him freed, with a series of rallies and benefits and the release of last recordings. Kuti was jailed last October after being arrested at Lagos airport trying to leave for the USA with his band. It appears that the £I6OO currency charge was simply the Nigerian government's way of putting the outspoken, politically active Kuti out of circulation. The new record is 'Army Arrangement’, a typically blunt diatribe against repression in his own country. The master tapes of the record were sent to hot New York producer BILL LASWELL, who completed and remixed them, adding SLY DUNBAR and AYIB DIENG on drums and percussion and BERNIE WORRELL (ex Parliament, Talking Heads big- band) on keyboards. But even if attempts to have him freed fall, Fela can take some comfort in the fact that on past form this Nigerian government probably won’t last five years without being overthrown.