Wasn't it somewhere in August 1982, after spending nine months without performing while waiting for the instruments that they bought in Europe ? Because it was said that Verckys confiscated their instruments, when Nyoka Longo decided to sing SOS Maya live, as reaction to Verckys, who apparently had an affair with his ex'wife and also wanted to prove him a point that he had money and could destroy him, after creating Langa Langa Stars.
Anyway, this event was a big turning point for our music. Choc Stars would be the second band to recruit an atalaku (Ditutala, Bebe atalaku's big brother). The funny thing is that there were also many people against Zaiko using atalaku's. They said that it was killing the music and that Zaiko lost his aesthetic because that. There even bandleaders that weren't liking them and would for years not using incorporating atalaku's even making interviews to denigrate them (Papa Wemba, King Kester Emeneya, Koffi Olomidé, Tabu Ley, etc.)
Petit Poisson replaced Roxy Tshimpaka well, who decided to join Langa Langa Stars, being fed to wait that long for the instruments. I feel like late Nono and Bebe aren't giving enough credit for the first atalaku's. Also, in my opinion the mourning and tributes to Nono weren't on the level how it, seeing how people in Cameroon and Ivory Coast even started to call themselves "dj-atalaku's", in the first years of the Coupé-Décale revolution, even arguing against each other about the name "atalaku", not knowing that it's just from Congo. Also not knowing it's origin.
