Ziggy Marley - Lupe Fiasco - Sean Kingston - Morrissey - Burning Spear - Marley 2012 - Bob Marley - Promises & Lies: The Story of UB40 2016 - Being Blacker TV - Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records TV - The Story of Skinheads with Don Letts - Jules Holland TV - Jazzie B’s 1980s TV - When Bob Marley Came to Britain TV -
Reggae has a philosophy, you know? It’s not just entertainment. There’s an idea behind it, a way of life behind the music, which is a positive way of life, which is a progressive way of life for better people. Ziggy Marley
Reggae, oh man. It’s the ultimate music. The positivity. The musicality. The whole cultural expressionism of it. The danceability. Just the cool factor. The melody factor. Some of it comes from a religious place. If there were a competition of who makes the best religious music, it would definitely be the Rastafarian reggae. Lupe Fiasco
I really like the reggae concepts like the culture vibe. They speak on everything that’s going on, they don’t have limits. They speak on politics, they speak on life, they speak on the troubles of poverty, everything. The message, the melodies and the concepts of reggae music are unbelievable. Sean Kingston
Reggae is vile. Morrissey, attributed
Music is creation. In reggae the lyric, the music itself, arrangement, that vibe, such melody – everything within the music moves the people, understand? Burning Spear
Robert Nesta Marley was born on 6th February 1945. Marley 2012 starring Bob Marley, director Kevin Macdonald
‘It became known as reggae but it started off as Ska.’ ibid. Chris Blackwell, founder Island Records
The Wailers’ first single Simmer Down was released in 1964. ibid.
1964: A Teenager In Love – The Wailers had numerous hits in Jamaica but were still unknown abroad. ibid.
Bob had eleven children from seven different relationships. ibid.
Bob died on 11th May 1981. He was 36 years old. ibid.
‘I don’t really have no ambition, you know. I only have one thing I’d really like to see happen: I’d like to see Mankind live together.’ ibid. Bob
My music will go on forever. Maybe it’s a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on for ever. Bob Marley
We’re jamming. I want to jam it with you. We’re jamming. Jamming. And I hope you like jamming too … Bob Marley, Jamming lyrics
One of the most commercially successful bands of all time. Over 70 million records sold. 30 years of sold-out world tours. Still performing after four decades as two separate bands. Promises & Lies: The Story of UB40, BBC 2016
‘The music on the streets was reggae.’ ibid. Ali
‘Seeing Bob Marley live – he came to Birmingham.’ ibid.
With their own record label the band release their second album Present Arms and the single One in Ten. ibid. caption
‘We were overdrawn and mortgaged to the hilt … Record royalties: we never got them … I started asking questions … How come we were getting so little? … ibid. Ali
‘The trail of where the money went: we couldn’t find it.’ ibid. new management
‘They still toured as if they were an arena band … A lot of it was wasted cost.’ ibid.
‘There was a lot of stuff going down … I still don’t know what happened to the money … I ended up having to leave.’ ibid. Ali
In February 2008, after almost 30 years, Ali Campbell leaves UB40. ibid. caption
This is a film that started with a funeral. The funeral of Pauline Celestine Martin whose favourite colour was red. She’d come from Jamaica in 1962 and died here in south London leaving her grandchildren and children behind. Her eldest son Steve, also known as Blacker, was someone I’d featured in a student documentary when we were both 19. Being Blacker, BBC 2019
The cortège travelled past significant places in the family’s life including the iconic record shop Blacker he’d had in Brixton for 21 years. ibid.
Blacker went on to become a hugely successful reggae producer with his own label, Black Dread Music. ibid.
The judge sentenced Blacker to two and a half years, and in his summing up dismissed him as a failure. ibid.
‘The seeds for what we take for granted – this multicultural society that we live in now – they were really formed on the dancefloor back in the day in the late ’60s and early ’70s.’ Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records, Sky Arts 2019
Chapter 1: The Trojan: Let’s go to Jamaica: one of the bigger islands … ‘Kingston was, was fun, ya know, much lovin’ in Jamaica. Then till them start migrating to England, here.’ ibid.
Between 1955 and 1963 over 100,000 people emigrated from Jamaica to Great Britain. ibid. caption
David Betteridge: Island & Trojan Records: ‘We were a Jamaican music company.’ ibid.
Millie: My Boy Lollipop … Dandy: Rudy, A Message to You … The Maytals: 54-46 Was My Number … Derek Morgan: Seven Letters … Desmond Decker and the Aces: 007 … The Harry J All Stars: Liquidator … Untouchables: Tighten Up … Lee Perry … ibid.
In 1968 the same year Trojan Records is founded, MP Enoch Powell reacts to rising levels of Immigration and addresses the nation. ibid.
A new vibration is emerging in Jamaica and Trojan begins importing records to sell to a growing market in the UK. ibid.
While mainstream radio will not play Trojan records, pirate radio begins broadcasting Jamaican music. ibid.
Trojan skinhead culture is sweeping through the UK and a new market for Jamaican music is emerging. ibid.
Between March and June 1969 Desmond Decker’s The Israelites sells over a million records. ibid.
Jamaican recording artists were also pleased by this new-found interest. So much so, a whole new genre was born out of Ska – Skinhead Reggae. The Story of Skinheads with Don Letts, BBC 2018
Jamaican music in the form of Blue-Beat, Ska and later Reggae became an important fixture in the city’s soundscape. Jules Holland: London Calling, BBC 2012
Reggae sound systems came here from Jamaica. Jazzie B’s 1980s: From Dole to Soul, BBC 2016
[comment]: ‘It was just his energy on stage. It was electric.’ When Bob Marley Came to Britain, BBC 2025
In the 1970s Bob Marley rose from humble beginning to become a global superstar. It was a journey that took place not just in his homeland of Jamaica but also in the country he regarded as a second home. Along the way Bob Marley left an indelible mark on Great Britain. ibid.
1972: Bob Marley tours Britain with Johnny Nash. ibid.
London soon became like a second home to Marley. ibid.
By summer of 1972 Marley had been joined in London by the rest of the Wailers. ibid.
1973 album Catch a Fire [viz The Old Grey Whistle Test]. ibid.
‘Nothing fazed him. Everything for him was a way forward, a challenge. He was on a mission.’ ibid. photographer/friend
Marley’s message of rebellion and empowerment spreading across Britain. The next leg of their tour took them to the USA before returning to Britain. ibid.
Marley returned to Britain with a new line-up in 1975. ibid.
Bob Marley & the Wailers: No Woman, No Cry. ibid.
The Lyceum concerts propelled Bob Marley into the musical mainstream. ibid.
Marley even performed secret gigs as part of his visits. ibid.
Bob Marley & the Wailors: Jamming. ibid.
‘And becomes a fan of Tottenham Hotspurs.’ ibid. comment
‘His presence in London is very much part of what becomes known as the Reggae/Punk fusion.’ ibid.
‘It’s a key component in the soundtrack to multiculturism that still resonates today.’ ibid.
He suffers an injury playing football. ibid.
A rare form of skin cancer. ibid.
‘Yeah, England is a really good feeling. England’s a place, you know. It must be happening in England. The music.’ ibid. Bob Marley
‘He was just 36 when he died of cancer.’ ibid. TV news