Blue Riddim became the first American band to play Sunsplash in Jamaica. “We were voted co-‘Best Band’ of the entire festival,” McLane says. “It blew me away that we blew them away. I was expecting pineapples and cantaloupes thrown at us. We’re playing these old songs, and we’re also from America, and we’re also white. It’s five o’clock in the morning, and they’re going, ‘What in the … ?'”
Black Uhuru – Buffalo, NY 9-16-1984 Soundboard Complete Show
A really great recording from the massive Uhuru right before they would split and reform with Jr. Reid in 1985. I really enjoy hearing live version of What is Life and Solidarity.
Shine eye gal Plastic smile I Love King Selassie Solidarity Darkness What is Life Sponji Reggae Abortion General Penitentiary Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner Happiness World is Africa Sensimilla (labeled as track 1 but is beginning of round 2)
Continuing with more great sets from the historic Jamaica World Music Festival, here is Toots and The Maytals.
Toots And The Maytals – November 25, 1982
Jamaica World Music Festival – Montego Bay, Jamaica
Setlist:
d1t01 – Pressure Drop
d1t02 – Get Up Stand Up
d1t03 – Beautiful Woman
d1t04 – Never Get Weary Yet
d1t05 – Going Away
d1t06 – All The Time
d1t07 – You Don’t Know
d1t08 – Reggae Got Soul
Bethesda, MD 3/14/79 in the WHFS studio that afternoon, (7″ reel@ 3.75 ips) Peter hangs out in the studio, gives interviews between songs, & plays a little acoustic guitar. A great piece of Peter Tosh musical history. Thanks to the original taper.
Pick Myself Up (song is missing) I am That I am Stand Firm interview Jah Is My King {Creation} (acoustic) interview Commercials Ketchy Shubby Stepping Razor interview Don”T Look Back (with Mick Jagger) interview Jah God Get A Beaten Get UP Stand Up Interview Commercials interview ? 400 Years
All one track. this what it includes in order. Almost best to download and listen to instead of playing in your browser.
June 16th 1976 Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London
A very nice recording from the soundboard. Maybe a tad slow, I don’t mess with pitch control with transferring tapes. I try to leave history as exact as it was documented. Bob and the Wailers did a run of shows at the Odeon from June 15th thru the 18th. His mark as the king of reggae was solidified this year with these shows and the ones at the Lyceum show he now had the band in top for and was ready to conquer the world with his messages and positive energy.
Two of Bob Marley’s most famous live shows were performed in London. The 1975 shows from the Lyceum used to make the “Live” release and the
June 4th 1977 show from the Rainbow used for the “Live at the Rainbow” release. Here is a rare recording from a different night in the historic run of shows at the Lyceum.
This show is almost a instrumental only set. Bob’s vocals are so low in the mix you can’t really hear him.
* the SBD version sounds good, but the vocals are almost turned off, so it’s almost only instrumental.
* rare 1977 performance of “Concrete Jungle”.
* the date is not confirmed, but the show usually circulates by this date.
* the show was most likely filmed on video, as probably were all Rainbow 1977 dates.
transfer done 2006-08-03 by.T.Jones ( thanks Tim) right click and save as to download, left click on a track to play it.
Below is an article by Vivien Goldman from Sounds June 11th, 1977 with her account of one of the nights in this historic run at the Rainbow
11 June 1977
Bob Marley & The Wailers: Rainbow Theatre, London
Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 11 June 1977
THE TENSION in the Rainbow was almost painful, the only relief the appearance of the Wallers.
And the curtain rises on a scene of splendour: two columns on either side of the stage soar the full height of the Rainbow, lions rampant on each one. The backdrop, painted by Tony Wright, is more atmospheric than I’d imagined it could be, warm reds and golds evoking Kingston at night, palms etched behind shantytown, lights blur in the distance.
It’s the first time the band’s played an Exodus-based set, (the European dates featured a range of classics) and there are a couple of loose edges in key and tempo. But any slight roughness is over-shadowed by the passion of Bob’s singing.
Tonight is a crucial night, the first presentation of his new material to the capital of reggae outside Jamaica itself. Each song builds and builds to heights of concentrated power. As ‘Natural Mystic’ opens the set, a tide of pure, high energy sings through the theatre.
It’s so satisfying, watching the Wailers. I love the way Family Man plays bass, planted firm, like a tree growing from sturdy roots – just the stolid set of his shoulders shouts that he’ll never give up the fight. Carly drums in crisp clockwork chops, every limb alert. Seeco calmly shifts through percussion parts, always adding oblique, unexpected emphasis. New guitarist Junior Marvin delights in showmanship, tantalising the audience with wheeling seagull swoops at his guitar, dancing vigorously back and forth, while Tyrone behind the banked keyboards bobs in smiling counterpoint. The I Three dip and sway, looking very exotic tonight in off-theshoulder white-ruffles, red gold and green turbans imperiously swathing their heads.
‘So Much Thing To Say’, merges into ‘Guiltiness’, my favourite track on the album, a disturbingly precise blend of remorselessness towards the guilty and remorse at the very existence of the downpressor… Bob shudders with passion while he sings, emotion squeezes through his voice as wine squeezes from grapes.
One of my favourite moments of the set is ‘Rastaman Vibration’, with a new keyboards part from Tyrone, a subtle alteration in the pulse that delicately flings the song into a new light. Tyrone stuns now, and Seeco performs amazing rhythm runs that flicker round the Carly/Famlly Man unit in a quicksilver outline. Positive.’No Woman No Cry’ moves you. It has to be that way.
‘Lively Up Yourself’ suddenly swirls into a new near-Latin texture, just like the title suggests, it shakes the audience into a more physical mood – revitalises the veins, brightens the bones, and boosts the blood. ‘Jamming’ is exuberant: exultant: joyous, again, just as it should be. Somewhere around that time, Junior delivered some sparse and bouncily imaginative guitar breaks, provocative and visual, and received extravagantly enthusiastic applause (Birth Of New Guitar Hero?)
Of course, there has to be an encore. ‘Get Up Stand Up’ is so perfect it seems unavoidable. That’s when Family Man’s bass seemed to roar, after a night of solid rumbling thunder. Now it’s an army of marching feet again, an imperturable onslaught on your whole body, battering you into submission. I discover that when my head droops in a parallel line to the floor, the bass bounces upwards and directly through the frontal lobes, controlling the pulse-rate, I’m certain, and the heart beat.
Many Bob Marley concerts circulate in trade circles with collectors, hardcore fans, and archivists, and of all those shows one of the best that has never been officially released is this epic show from the Quiet Knight in Chicago 1975. It was on June 10th 1975 that Bob Marley And The Wailers performed their second of 2 nights at the Quiet Knight Club.
The Quiet Knight is now a hair salon. It’s hard to believe the list of bands that played there, not only Bob Marley but Tom Waits, R.E.M., Prince, Run D.M.C., The Cramps, Bauhaus, The Stray Cats, Psychedelic Furs. The first Smashing Pumpkins show was there. And before then it was a mainstay for Chicago Blues with many blues legends playing there. The Rolling Stones even showed up there after one of their shows to jam with Muddy Waters.
For me this show has been a treasured piece of history I have been enjoying for 3 decades now. Not only a wicked performance with Bob chanting back and forth with the crowd, but one of the best recordings in sound quality. So good Starbucks did release a CD called Live 1973-1975 that contains Trenchtown Rock and Natty Dread. Those are omitted here do to being officially released. One of the most notable parts of the show is Bob doing the band introductions and really getting into it during I Shot The Sheriff. Also the famous guy yelling from the crowd during Natty Dread is actually cool and enhances the feeling of being at a Bob live show. Below are notes from Bob Marley Concerts.com.
This Recording source below is from a PREFM tape, the best sounding source for this concert I have heard.
June 10, 1975
* Venue: Quiet Knight Club
* City: Chicago
* State/Province: Illinois
* Country: United States
* Recording Source Soundboard
Band lineup
* Bob Marley, vocals, rhythm guitar
* Aston Barrett, bass
* Carlton Barrett, drums
* Al Anderson, lead guitar
* Tyrone Downie, keyboards
* Alvin Patterson, percussion
* The I-Threes, backing vocals
* Lee Jaffe, harmonica
* 2 songs are used on the Starbucks official release Live 73-75
* second night at the Quiet Knight Club.
* band intros done by Bob Marley during “I Shot The Sheriff”.
* various bootlegs of this show have been released, like
“Jah Joys And Rainbows”, “Live In Chicago” or “The Last Club Tour ’75”,
and has also been aired on various radio stations.
* it is possible that more songs have been performed that evening.
Youtube Clip of the whole set.
Another Classic From the Dubwise Garage Collection.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Reggae Sunsplash II
July 7th, 1979
Reggae Sunsplash was a Jamaican original concert festival. It attracted people from all of the globe to enjoy multiple days/nights of reggae music. Bob Marley’s performance was priceless/epic/amazing/historic a true one of a kind performance. It was his only appearance at Reggae Sunsplash and thankfully this epic set with all Bob’s energy and passion was captured on video and here the complete rare audio recording. This show featured the only
time live versions of “Hypocrites”, “Blackman Redemption”, “Rastaman Live Up”, and also played
for the first time live “Ambush in the Night”. This how also features a Rare live “Who The Cap Fits” . Below is a brief history of Reggae Sunsplash and audio links. You can also check the complete Tribute page here which features more pictures from the show.
The Reggae Sunsplash festival was the brainchild of four Jamaicans – Tony Johnson, Don Green, Ronnie Burke and John Wakeling. The four founding directors created a company called Synergy Productions Ltd, which was responsible for promoting and producing the Reggae Sunsplash festival.
The first Reggae Sunsplash festival was staged at Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, Jamaica in June 1978 and began at dusk and continued until dawn for seven days. It was billed as the “biggest Reggae festival in the history of the world”. The festival introduced the concept of music and travel as a boost to tourism in Jamaica. Prior to the staging of Reggae Sunsplash, the hotels in Jamaica were traditionally closed during the summer period.The four founding partners staged the festival each year for a number of years and successfully created an annual summer tourist season in Jamaica. The success of Reggae Sunsplash led to a wave of annual music festivals in Jamaica and the Caribbean islands. The festivals popularity led to a shortage of hotel rooms and a tradition of camping out on local beaches.
From 1981 the festivals were filmed and recorded, with several videos and albums released, the first being Reggae Sunsplash ’81: Tribute to Bob Marley, released by Elektra Records. From 1987 the festival included a sound clash event, with finalists from a national sound system competition competing as a precursor to the rest of the festival. The festival also expanded to include an ‘oldies night’ featuring stars from past eras of Jamaican music. For many years the festival was emcee’s by Tommy Cowan.
In 1984 the Reggae Sunsplash festival also expanded into international events with a one day festival staged at the Crystal Palace in London, England. In 1985 the Reggae Sunsplash World tour was launched in the USA and Japan and subsequent years saw the Reggae Sunsplash festival touring extensively throughout North America, Europe, South America and the Far East. 1991 saw the introduction of a ‘Caribbean Night’ featuring other Caribbean music such as soca, and the following year the festival’s scope increased further with the addition of a ‘World Beat Night’.
While the festival had become hugely popular, opening new global tourist niche markets to Jamaica and attracting millions of dollars of foreign exchange into the country, it had not been a financial success, largely due to the lack of sponsorship or government support. In 1995 the Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board operating through a company called Radobar Holdings Ltd offered financial assistance in exchange for equity in Synergy Productions, the founders of Reggae Sunsplash. This initial offer was never consummated and in a disputed claim Radobar Holdings announced the formation of a company called Reggae Sunsplash International in Jamaica and proceeded with the hostile take over of the Reggae Sunsplash festival. The first attempt at staging Reggae Sunsplash without the original owners Synergy Productions in 1996 was a financial disaster for the new claimants. In 1997 the Reggae Sunsplash festival was postponed until 1998 when it was timed to coincide with celebrations of the birth of Bob Marley but more losses were incurred. More futile attempts at recapturing the original spirit of the Reggae Sunsplash festival were never replicated by the Radobar group.
The festival was re-established by the Johnson family in 2006, but it was not successful. The international touring festival, however, has continued.
Two of the founding directors, John Wakeling and Tony Johnson died and with the passing of Tony Johnson a number of individuals have tried to claim the rights to the festival unsuccessfully and all have failed to recapture the spirit of the legendary Reggae Sunsplash. Don Green and Ronnie Burke are the two remaining Reggae Sunsplash founders alive.
Dates and venues
1978: June 23-30, Jarrett Park, Montego Bay
1979: July 3-7, Jarrett Park, Montego Bay
1980: July 2-5, Ranny Williams Entertainment Center, Kingston
1981: August 4-8, Jarrett Park, Montego Bay
1982: August 3-7, Jarrett Park, Montego Bay
1983: June 28-July 2, Bob Marley Center, Montego Bay
1984: August 7-11, Jarrett Park, Montego Bay
1985: August 6-10, Jarrett Park, Montego Bay
1986: August 26-30: Jarrett Park, Montego Bay
1987: August 18-22, Bob Marley Center, Montego Bay
1988: August 15-22, Bob Marley Center, Montego Bay
1989: August 14-19, Bob Marley Center, Montego Bay
1990: July 16-21, Bob Marley Center, Montego Bay
1991: July 26-31, Bob Marley Center, Montego Bay
1992: August 3-8, Bob Marley Center, Montego Bay
1993: August 3-7, Jamworld, Portmore
1994: August 1-6: Jamworld, Portmore
1995: July 12-14, Dover, St. Ann
1996: August 1-4, Chukka Cove, St. Ann
1998: February 5-8, Reggae Park, St. Ann
2006: August 3-6, Richmond Estate, Priory, St. Ann
Bob Marley & Wailers
Maple Leaf Gardens
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
November 1, 1979
After playing at smaller cozy venues previously in Toronto, 1979 was totally different. The Wailers were now one of the world’s biggest live attractions, and despite the suspicion that may still have existed among the more conservative elements of Toronto society, their concert had to be at Maple Leaf Gardens. They returned to the Gardens on November 1 of 1979, this time in support of the Survival album — and no one, perhaps least of all Marley, had any inkling that this would be his last visit to Toronto.
* Carlton Barrett gives a raving psychedelic drum solo during the extended live rendition of “The Heathen”.
Source: AUD
Lineage: AUD > ? > FLAC
Setlist:
CD 1:
1. Positive Vibration (5:31)
2. Wake Up And Live (4:42)
3. Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) (4:04)
4. Concrete Jungle (6:03)
5. I Shot The Sheriff (4:45)
6. Ambush In The Night (4:11)
7. Running Away (1:54) ->
8. Crazy Baldhead (3:56)
9. The Heathen (6:18)
CD 2:
10. War (4:18) ->
11. No More Trouble (1:48)
12. One Drop (4:29)
13. No Woman, No Cry (5:58)
14. Africa Unite (3:14)
15. Exodus (7:18)
16. Jammin’ (5:27)
17. Get Up, Stand Up (5:16)
18. Is This Love? (4:37)
