Did you Know? Issue 1

60´s: RECORD SHOP
Joe Mansano: “I arrived in London in 1963… If not the only one we were certainly one of the few record shops which imported records from Jamaica. We received shipments from people like Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, and many more. When the word got around that the latest records from Jamaica could be bought at West Green Road DJ’s came from far and wide. The small shop was literally packed every week to hear the latest releases. And so it was that around late 1967 the managing director of Island, David Betheridge, visited me at shop to discuss their plans. At a luncheon meeting in the West End of London they revealed part of their plans where I would be offered my own record shop called Joe’s records and that the operation would fall under the new company called “Trojan Records”, under the leadership of Mr. Lee Gopthal. The main outlets for Trojan Records were Webster Shroeder’s shop in Ladbroke Grove Market, Joe Sinclair in Ridley Road Market in North London, Desmond’s Hip City in Brixton and Joe’s Records inside Brixton Market …It was therefore not unusual to see record artistes in the shop listening to the latest tunes on big, big boom boxes with 18 in speakers booming. Some of the artistes that frequented the shop were Bob Marley, Bunny Lee, Lee “Scratch” Perry. During some of these visits by musicians they suggested to me that I try my hand at producing. I thought about it and decided to give it a shot. And so as the say “the rest is history.

1972: DELROY WASHINGTON
Singer Delroy Washington worked in Pama’s record shop in Harlesden (England), and while employed by Pama, he met his biggest influence – Bob Marley (who was on tour at the time with Johnny Nash) while working in the shop.

1973: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND BOB MARLEY
Steve Simels, journalist:: “My own Springsteen moment was in early 1973. At the time, I was a baby rock critic at the old Stereo Review, and “Greetings from Asbury Park” had just come out, accompanied by reams of Columbia hype, the gist of which was that Bruce was the latest New Dylan. As it happened, Bruce was making his semiofficial New York debut that week, on a double bill with the similarly debuting original Wailers. (To put this in perspective: this was at Max’s Kansas City, a club that sat fewer than 200 people. I don’t want to say, “Those were the days,” but frankly, they were.) Every rock critic in New York showed up for what would be their first exposure to live reggae, and yes, the Wailers’ opening set was rapturously received by all; few bands have ever had two front men as charismatic as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. After intermission, however, I realized that the aforementioned highly jaded press contingent, having already had their tiny minds blown by a bunch of Rastas turning the beat around, were not about to fall for any “New Dylan” hype and had beaten a hasty exit. This left me in the odd position of being alone in the back of Max’s with 30 or 40 of Bruce’s buddies from the Jersey Shore. I was, literally, the only stranger there.”

1973: GREYHOUND CONCERT 1
Lisa McAvoy, journalist: “Bob Marley the Rastaman, the Dreadman, the original Trenchtown soul rebel shook the country last year on his first UK tour. At venues ranging from the super-cool Speakeasy to the black dance-halls of Birmingham, audencies went wild from the first notes of the opening Rastaman Chant to the mind-bending climax of Small Axe. I was lucky enough to catch the show at the Greyhound Fulham Road and for days after I could feel the pounding rhythms in my bones and waling of the Wailers in my brain!”

1973: GREYHOUND CONCERT 2
Dave Sandford: “In 1973, I had the lucky fortune of actually meeting Bob Marley, the Barrett Brothers, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer at the Greyhound in the Fulham Palace Road, London. I was trying to light up a cigarette and the wind kept blowing out the match, so I walked down the side of the pub to a fire exit alcove. No sooner had I lit up than a white van pulled up right next to me and out jumped the lot of them, one by one. I introduced myself to them all telling them I had come to see them play and shook hands with all of them quickly before they entered the building. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera or a pen for autographs. But I don’t care – it’s something to tell the grandchildren.

1975: THE DREAM CONCERT
On september 1975 Don Taylor in association with the famous american producer Karen Allen Baxter, announced a special concert of the original Wailers and the Motown star Stevie Wonder at National Stadium in Kingston. Karen Allen Baxter, Producer/Managing Director of Rites and Reason, started her career as an arts administrator at the legendary New Lafayette Theatre, Harlem, New York. Since then, Baxter has produced concerts and managed reggae artists Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, and Burning Spear. She also co-produced the Grammy-nominated soundtrack album Reggae Sunsplash – A Tribute to Bob Marley: “Everytime I was with Bob, he wasn´t very friendly” Karen Baxter says at our magazine “there were always lots of people around. I was in his company for business, something about an upcoming tour or a current tour or something needed to be done with the record lable”. They would have devolved the proceed to the Manning Hill Road School for Blinds. The Original Wailers (Bob, Peter and Bunny) rehearsed three nights at Island House before the show. On 4th october the event took place, organised by the Nasaba Promotions of New York and the National Sports Ltd Agency within the ATP Nations Cup Tennis Tournament. The show started at 7 with the Third World performance, then the Wailers went on stage and started with Rastaman Chant; the following songs were Nice time (“and it´s been a long time we no have no nice time, I want you to think about that” Bob said), Simmer Down (“Yeah, and you know in the beginning we would say Simmer Down, ‘cos you’re licking too hot” Bob said), One love, Dreamland, Battering down sentence, Mark of the beast, Can´t blaim the youths, Legalise it, So Jah Seh, No woman no cry, Jah live, I shot the sheriff (with Stevie Wonder).

1975: LYCEUM
Bob Dickinson: “I lived in London for one year, between 1975 and 1976 and saw as many concerts as I could. When I heard that Bob Marley was playing at the Lyceum, I had to go but could not persuade any of my friends to come as Bob Marley was still relatively unknown. How this was about to change! I went down to the Lyceum a week before the concert to see the band advertised as Bob Marley And The Whalers! On the night of the concert, 18th July 1975, I remember watching all the music press and guests breeze in while we queued right around the side of the building. I paid £1.50 on the door to get in to the best concert ever. Third World (as support) were also brilliant. It was a fantastic night and the bonus was the Live album which captured it forever. Most people remember “No Woman, No Cry” which became a hit within weeks of the concert after being played on radio. However, the Lyceum really erupted when the Wailers played “Lively Up Yourself” and the audience danced along with Bob Marley.

1976: SITTING ON THE BMW
D. Rensin, journalist: “I spent a drunken afternoon with Lester Bangs (America’s greatest rock critic) in his hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica, on that Bob Marley junket. We drank local rum. Yeah, ‘mon. I will never forget sunset in Marley’s backyard, him sitting on the BMW, his pals darting in and out of the surrounding journalists, asking us Bible questions.”

1977: BRINSLEY FORDE
Brinsley Forde is a musician and broadcaster. Best known as a founder member of Aswad, he’s collaborated with many of the great reggae artists including Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, and Bob Marley. Brinsley remembers meeting and jamming with Bob Marley and The Wailers in London. “That’s a moment, I’ll always treasure, seeing Bob sitting there playing my guitar and singing that tune.”

70´s: GUN CONTROLLER
Lee Perry interviewed by K Martin on May 1995: “We were inspired by westerns… yeah, my mind in those days as a kid was strictly Texas. So me say ‘It’s now not an illusion, I bring it to reality.’ Because I am a painter. I paint and it come alive. For Marley’s portraits [on the sleeve of the Jamaican issue of the 'Soul Revolution' album] I give him a plastic toy gun, I give Bunny Wailer a gun and I give Peter a gun. I have all the guns. I mean I am the gun controller. That’s what I was showin’ them.’…I was in England one time [late 70s] and there was a new vibration, because that one vibration is waitin’ to escape. And the punks like the reggae. And we were here to spiritualize the punky reggae party. Bob Marley was here at the same time, and while we were here we recorded in Chris Blackwells’s studio, but it didn’t sound like what I want so I had to go back to Joe Gibbs studio in Jamaica and hire different musicians. That was a big connection I made. Call it punky reggae party. But it wasn’t a party for me it was a party for Chris Blackwell.”

70´s: BEE GEES
There is a story producer Tommy Cowan tells about catching Bob listening to a Bee Gees record. He asked him why he was listening to that garbage, to which Bob answered, “These guys sold ten million records last year. They must be doing something right and I’m trying to figure out what it is.”

70´s: MARCIA
MG: “I met Bob and Rita Marley at Studio One in 1964, they were already there. All the great singers were there, that is were you graduate. It was like Jamaica’s Motown, we became friends, Bob, Rita, Peter, Bunny. Bunny and I go way back from kindergarden – we went to kindergarden school together. Bob Marley was one of the persons I did a duet with and Rita, myself and I think Peter [Tosh] did ‘Rock It Baby’ with Bob Marley from way back when, long be the I-Threes came about. The I-Threes came about when I was doing some solo performances for a whole weekend and I invited sister Judy and sister Rita to come and so some background harmonies for me and that’s how we started. When we went to different places in Europe and I saw the multitude of people that came out to see this man, Bob Marley, I prayed every time I saw this multitude, I always asked God that if it is even a handful of these people will receive the message and hear the word and wouldn’t fall on deaf ears, the message that he was delivering to the people. I knew then that Bob was truly a messenger, through the medium of reggae music.”

1980: DENNIS MORRIS
In the early 80s, Dennis Morris made the transition from photographer to musician. His band Basement 5 signed to Island and made several albums. After one of their gigs, Dennis bumped into Bob Marley who had been in the audience. This meeting was to be their last.

1980: ZIMBABWE
Tariro Tekere: “It was 18 April 1980. I was 8 years old and Bob Marley came to Zimbabwe to perform on our independence day. The mood was of a festive nature and all people were happy and they were singing and chanting “Set It Up In A Zimbabwe”. I was still too young to understand what all this was especially when I met Bob Marley in person, at my grandfather’s (Edgar Tekere) house where he was staying. I remember him talking to us one evening with my cousins, and he said that “One must take the opportunity given to them, with this new freedom”. At the time I didn’t know that 22 years on this message would always stay with me.”.

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