Original subtitles

All the way from Trenchtown, Jamaica,

Bob Marley And The Wailers! Come on!

When Marley started to sing, it's something like outer space.

It was just his energy on stage, it was electric.

He just blew the roof off with positive vibration

and some positive reggae music.

For a lot of people, it was kind of seeing the messiah.

In the 1970s, Bob Marley rose from humble beginnings to become

a global superstar.

Anywhere you go in the world, people know Bob Marley.

It was a journey that took place not just in his homeland of Jamaica,

but also in the country he came to regard as his second home.

Everything started right here in England.

# Exodus

# All right... #

Britain set the platform from which he launched

his international career.

If this didn't happen,

we would not have the Bob Marley we know today.

Along the way, Marley left an indelible mark on Great Britain.

So, we're pissed off and angry.

And Bob gave that a soundtrack.

# Movement of Jah people... #

This is the story of Bob Marley's time in Britain and how he changed

the lives of the people he met here.

# Exodus... #

You still go back and talk about Bob Marley came to our school.

The excitement is still there.

We never realised we was in the presence of someone

who would transcend worldwide.

Bob looked back and said, "You ready, Dennis?" I went, "Yeah."

And the adventure began.

INDISTINCT SPEECH THROUGH LOUDSPEAKER

1972, a year of national crisis in the UK.

Violence in Northern Ireland, mass picketing,

and more than a million unemployed.

It's hard for people to understand what a dump much of Britain was

in the first half of the '70s.

You know, it still looks like the remnants of World War ll.

You know, I mean, there's still bombsite damage.

The social and political and economic climate at the time

was crap for everybody.

If you were black, multiply that by ten.

Britain was very, for me, very quite a hostile place.

Growing up here in Leeds, we felt we couldn't even

leave our communities because people would...

The racial attacks at the time and just the slogans on the walls.

And we were only young children.

And so, I think it quite traumatised us and I think

the atmosphere was very much that we weren't wanted.

Young black people called the police the wicked Babylon,

and they felt they were being persecuted.

We were treated like shit back in those days.

And we were desperate for something that would lift us up.

MUSIC: Small Axe by Bob Marley And The Wailers

# Why boasteth thyself... #

In 1972, Bob Marley arrived in Britain as part of a tour

he hoped would launch his international career.

# Playing smart and not being clever... #

Bob Marley had already had a career in Jamaica,

which my parents had embraced.

By the time he's arriving, or we are aware of him

as first-generation black British-born individuals,

he's in what I would call second phase of a career.

Marley was collaborating with Johnny Nash at the time,

and Johnny Nash had already had hits in the States.

So Marley came over as part of the Johnny Nash tour.

While Marley saw the Nash tour as a chance to find an audience

outside Jamaica, his band, The Wailers, were less enthusiastic.

So, there's tensions in the band as to why go into Babylon, the UK —

the mother of the colonial expefience

that's been suppressing them forever —

why are we doing that?

Bob Marley wanted to go out,

wanted to challenge the world, if you like, with his message.

MUSIC: Duppy Conqueror by Bob Marley And The Wailers

London soon became like a second home to Marley,

living in rented flats in Camden and Bayswater.

# Yes, me friend... #

He found himself mixing with some of the rising stars

of Britain's own reggae scene...

...including Brinsley Forde, who later formed Aswad,

and Locksley Gishie, the guitarist in The Cimarons.

# The bars could not...

# Hold me now!

# No force could not control me now... #

Bad tune! Bad tune, man! This tune is like a... You know...

"Keep me down."

When Bob come first, right,

Bob wasn't even Rasta them times, was he? No, no, no, big afro!

And him used to wear it in plaits and you'd see it bend and kick up.

Yeah, Soul Rebel, Soul Rebel.

# I'm a rebel, soul rebel! #

So, Bob said to us, "I'm looking for a band to go do some gigs,

"around London."

If I could do it. I said, "Of course, man, no problem with that."

And the first gig we did was alongside Johnny Nash,

was together at the Apollo Club in Willesden.

I couldn't believe it.

This is the club where you played. The Apollo, yeah. The London Apollo.

And it's still there! Still there. Still got the sign and everything.

By the summer of '72, Marley had been joined in London

by the rest of The Wailers.

# Neasden, you won't be sorry that you breezed in! #

The band set up base in this quiet north London suburb.

# Signs all say welcome to the borough that everybody's pleased in

# Neasden! #

Neasden was really a quiet, I wouldn't say gentrified,

but it was an up-and-coming, quiet town.

In 1972, I started to work at the Co-op in Neasden Lane.

So, I remember one afternoon this person walked towards me,

in...had a beret.

And, as he came nearer to me, I mean, it's silly now,

but I asked him the question. I said, "But you're Peter Tosh."

And he just nodded and... and he went on.

So, I remember speaking to a good friend of mine, Delroy Washington,

and he said to me, "Yeah, it's The Wailers,

"they're actually living not far from here, just around the corner."

So, I went with him that evening after finishing work.

And sure enough, at The Circle,

there was Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer.

It was just like I was in a dream.

Here we are in The Circle.

We're coming to it, this is the house where Bob Marley stayed.

Yeah, it's right here, left. Yeah.

Yeah, man. Look at it!

This is the house. The memories start coming back now.

Shall we go and take a look? Yeah.

This wasn't like this. No, no. This wasn't like this.

The door was different. Yeah, it was all different. Yeah.

And there's a back garden round there. Remember the back garden?

I don't remember the back garden too much. Yeah, the garden round there.

So, when Bob then came here, they...

I mean, to the people of the area, it was like, what is going on?

Yeah, they didn't know what was happening, yeah.

Bob and Bunny, they would walk as a group.

I mean it just looked like, you know, the picture on Catch A Fire.

Yeah. You'd see them walking up the main street. Yeah.

I mean, it would be like watching the Beatles now

walk up a main street, you know, it was still different.

There was an atmosphere. There was an aura about them.

For me, being big fans of the Wailers, it was like

this is...this is not real!

This is not real! Yeah!

MUSIC: No More Trouble by Bob Marley And The Wailers

We were in there one night, jamming,

and Bob said, "Give me that guitar there."

And he sat on the bed and started strumming a tune. Yes.

And I always remember it as being "we don't need no more trouble".

# We don't need no trouble... #

Bob was really a... you know, very...

Always thinking, he's a thinking man.

Sometimes he'd go very quiet.

Sometimes he'd go very, very quiet, and sometimes he'd be just...

Loud!

We never realised we was in the presence of someone

who would transcend worldwide. Worldwide, yeah.

I mean, good memories, you know. Very good memories.

But in 1972, Bob Marley was still far from a household name

and had to seek unexpected avenues

in his attempts to reach a wider audience.

1972, Bob goes to Ronnie Scott's and he just starts talking

to someone who's there, who's a teacher.

And he's sort of saying, well, I can't get anything going here,

it doesn't seem to be happening.

The guy says, "Come and play at our school to our kids, you know.

"We're in Peckham, it's absolutely your sort of target area."

So, he does, and it was kind of a legendary show.

The school I went to was called Peckham Manor.

It's been renamed the Damilola Taylor Centre.

One day, our art teacher, Mr Keith Baugh, came in...

Morning.

...said to us, "Boys, I've got a great surprise for you guys.

"Johnny Nash and Bob Marley are coming in to do a session

"in our technical wing."

Most of us West Indian boys used to listen to Bob Marley,

more so than Johnny Nash.

There are a couple of lads, I understand,

that will be coming down to the centre today

who were here at that time.

Will be interesting to catch up and see how we've all changed

after all that time.

Hello, mate. Hello.

Tony Hagan. I'm George Doyle.

Nice to see you.

I swear these are the same benches we probably sat on on the day!

This face looks familiar.

Hello, Bev. How are you? How are you guys?

I'm good. Come here! Hello there! Nice to see you.

It's been a long time. March '72, yeah.

Cor, it's unbelievable. Yeah.

When I saw the photograph of all of us as young men,

lthought don't we look so different!

Definitely at that end. It was a little round stage there.

What it was, we all sat around.

There was people on the outside, both sides.

But most of us was actually focused at the front here.

Curved round, wasn't it? Yeah.

# Stir it up

# Little darling, stir it up... #

Do you remember the songs Bob and Johnny sung?

One was definitely Stir It Up.

I remember the Stir It Up but I can't remember the second song.

I think I Can See Clearly Now was the second song,

because that's the one I went out and bought.

# I can see clearly now the rain has gone

# I can see all obstacles in my way... #

For me, it was just something extraordinary

because I never thought someone this famous

would have actually come to our school

because everyone avoided the school, everyone thought

we were... That's somewhere that no-one wants to be.

We used to call the school Peckham Madhouse.

So, the concert ended.

It was the end of the school day, so we went out into the playground

and just had a kick-around because it was nearly time to go home.

And this was the tarmac playground.

It would have been around here, wouldn't it? Yeah.

They walked out from, I think, either one of the...

Either there and they walked along towards us.

I've been telling people for years that I played football

with johnny Nash and Bob Marley, and no-one ever believed me!

Then, a few years ago, the photos surfaced.

That's definitely me there at the front.

No! You're not there. Where are you?

I'm standing back, I'm out of shot. I'm out...

That's myself, with the actual football,

trying to play the keep-me-up, with...

...with Bob Marley having a look.

I won't forget that smile, mate!

I think some of the excitement you feel when you still go back

and talk about "Bob Marley and Johnny Nash came to our school" —

that's still... excitement is still there.

As young kids, we were so sort of jolly about it!

For George Dyer, now a bespoke tailor,

meeting Bob Marley was a life-changing moment.

I remember reading a story about Bob,

how Peter and Bunny used to tease him in growing up —

"the red bwoy".

So, he grew up with his brethren teasing him about his complexion.

And it's the sort of thing that I kind of went through

because I'm of a lighter complexion.

"What the white man do here?" Or "what the red man doin' here?"

Bob was walking through the playground with his guitar.

It was though his eyes met mine and he just looked at me

and he said, "Me know, man. Me know."

Just as if to see that he could identify with what I was about.

That's what I got from it, basically,

is that he was feeling what I was feeling.

Coming to Britain would have been a big deal for Bob Marley,

in terms of identity, who is he?

And I think, in many ways, he was working through

what was a very complex relationship that goes all the way back

to his dad being mixed race in Jamaica,

growing up in a Jamaican community.

MUSIC: Slave Driver by Bob Marley And The Wailers

Nesta Robert Marley was born in 1945

in the rural Saint Ann district of Jamaica.

# Slave driver, the table is turn... #

The island was still feeling the devastating effects of centuries

of British colonial rule.

# So you can get burn Catch a fire... #

Marley's childhood was spent in poverty,

and he had little contact with his father,

a naval officer who worked for the British Government.

Bob's father, Norval Marley, is a white Jamaican.

He was what's known as a busher, which means an estate overseer.

And he's in his early 60s.

Bob's mum, Cedella, is 18.

But, you know, they have a relationship of sorts

and she becomes pregnant. He does, in fact, marry her.

But he develops a hernia and riding on horseback around the estate,

he claims, is impossible.

So, he leaves her and moves back to Kingston.

It's no secret that Bob took a lot of flack for being

red skin, light skin, yellow, whatever you want to call it.

It took a long time for him to find his feet.

# Catch a fire... #

I think that's probably what made him the writer

and the artist that he became because it made him strong.

It made him stand toe—to—toe with those brothers and say,

you know, we're not the same colour, but it's the same vibe,

the same feel, the same spirit. You know what I'm saying?

The UK tour of 1972 had ended in disappointment

and The Wailers returned to Jamaica having failed to get the airplay

or the bookings they had been seeking.

MUSIC: Stir It Up by Bob Marley And The Wailers

Undeterred, Marley returned the following year with a new album

and a new sound that would completely transform his career.

# Stir it up... #

May '73 saw The Wailers make music history

with their television debut on the BBC.

# Come on, baby... #

What you have to understand is that, at that point, you know,

a lot of people really didn't like reggae.

Their ears weren't accustomed to it.

# It's been a long, long time... #

So they had to get over that.

And what was important was that they played on

The Old Grey Whistle Test, and they were pretty sensational.

# Come on and stir it up

# Little darling, stir it up

# Come on, baby

# Come on and stir it up

# Little darling, stir it up

# Oh-ah... #

I do remember, sat there, watching, and Bob Marley came on

and I screamed.

I absolutely screamed, jumping around the place,

because reggae music wasn't something

that the radio stations played, or

it wasn't really featured in British society.

So, to see Bob Marley on The Old Grey Whistle Test blew my mind.

# All you got to do, baby, is keep it in

# And stir it up

It was one of those moments that you never forget.

This is a rock programme.

This is a reggae artist. It had never happened before.

And up until that point, we haven't seen this band perform life.

It's been a static image on an album sleeve.

So really, really, a powerful performance.

# Stir it up

# Ooh, yeah

# Little darling, stir it up... #

The Wailers had just signed for Island Records,

owned by businessman and record producer Chris Blackwell.

It was Blackwell's production on the Catch A Fire album,

mixed at Island's Basing Street Studios in Not-ting Hill,

that had introduced the rock and pop element to The Wailers' sound.

Marley was at a turning point in his career.

The investment from Island Records, a lot of investment in promoting

this artist like a rock star... transformed his success story.

If this didn't happen through Island Records,

we would not have the Bob Marley we know today,

or the relationship even to reggae that we have today.

Britain provided the platform to build that international career.

He recognised that you could have a conversation

through this medium that the UK provided.

You could have a conversation with the world, and that was special.

And I think that did change him.

Check out this packaging.

Sort of equal to all the rock stuff

that was going on at the time, you know?

Right. Check out the sound on this.

MUSIC: Concrete jungle by Bob Marley And The Wailers

The arrival of Catch A Fire was absolutely mind-blowing.

They brought in these American session musicians

that put on all these different guitar licks,

these kind of keyboard sounds,

but we'd never heard that combination on reggae before.

And whilst the purists hated it, for the young, black, British kids,

growing up in the UK that had had this kind of weird duality...

You know, we grew up listening to The Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks,

The Who, Roxy Music, Bowie.

So, our ears pricked up

when we heard these different influences coming in.

# Instead of concrete jungle... #

Catch A Fire features several tracks inspired by Marley's experiences

of living in Britain and others that seemed to resonate

with his new surroundings.

So, Peckings record shop was started by my dad, the late George Price,

um, the first man to selljamaican music in England from 1960,

when he came here.

Catch A Fire album, that is my absolute favourite Bob Marley album.

"No sun will shine in my day today."

Cos London was gloomy and grey — concrete jungle.

You know, he's not used to seeing so much brick.

# I said there must be somewhere to be found

# Out there somewhere

# Instead of concrete jungle

# Pollution, confusion

# Concrete jungle

# Your concrete jungle... #

Boosted by their ground-breaking appearance

on The Old Grey Whistle Test,

the Wailers were now gaining a wider audience

outside their traditional fan base.

# Concrete jungle

# What, what do you got for me now? #

So, Chris Blackwell, owner of Island Records,

saw the possibility of them selling to the college crowd.

They were the ones buying LPs, buying them by the droves, you know,

at the time.

So, he aimed them at the colleges, at the rock pubs,

etc, etc.

And part of that is that they will do four nights at a club

called the Speakeasy. It's right in the centre of London.

And it's a kind of spectacular occasion, really, because it's

kind of packed with kind of serious groovers, you know, there's, like,

Bianca Jagger there and Steve Winwood, Bryan Ferry also,

Brian Eno.

It's a real scene, with an air of great expectation.

# Hear the words of the Rastaman say... #

The music just comes on, it sounds like something

from the other side of the moon, really.

# Babylon, you throne gone down, gone down

# Babylon, you throne gone down... #

And what they're playing is not something off Catch A Fire.

It's a tune, Rasta Man Chant, an old Niyabinghi tune,

which is just seriously percussive.

It was...it was completely sensational.

I'd read that Bob was coming over to do his first tour

of England, so I kind of decided not to go to school that day,

and sort of went to the club, was a place called the Speakeasy Club,

and he turned up and I walked up to him

and said, "Can I take your picture?" And he said, "Yeah, man. Come in."

And he really took to me and said to me, told me about the tour and said,

"Hey, you want to come along?" I said, "Yeah!"

In those clays there was no tour bus, it was a Transit van. He was

in the front seat and he looked back and said,

"You ready, Dennis?" And I went...

CLICKS TONGUE "Yeah!" And the adventure began.

I wanted to be a photographer.

Nobody was encouraging me, including my family.

And when I met Bob, he said, "Hey, you know, Dennis, you can do this.

"You know, you can be a big photographer, Dennis!"

We had a lot in common, Bob and I, in terms of I never knew my father,

he never knew his father.

I was a complete outsider and, you know, as he was.

So, I think that's what, again, drew us together, I think.

And here in this shot, taken on a day off from the first tour in 1973,

and he would always, when he had a day off,

would go shopping and he'd buy lots of footballs and football kits

and he basically was buying

equipment for the children in Trenchtown.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I'd like you to give a good welcome

to one of the greatest bands in the world. The Wailers!

From that first tour, the places they would play were like

a Mecca ballroom or something like that, you know,

and maybe capacity 2,000, and maybe 200 people turned up.

And... But he walked out there as if it was sold out.

Nothing fazed him.

Everything for him was a way forward, a challenge.

He was on a mission.

At our very small club in Southampton, the Coach House club.

It was the back of the Fleming Arms.

It was just by accident.

I literally walked into the office of the booking agent, said,

"Look, we have to fill some dates — do you have anything?"

And he did mention that there was this band called The Wailers

that he knew nothing about, and could we fill the slot?

We even, on the night of the gig, we had an advert in the local paper,

and we misspelt their name,

as in Whalers, people to go and catch whales,

rather than wailers, people that wail!

# You're gonna lively up yourself... #

It was on the Sunday morning,

a friend said, "You guys know that The Wailers are in Southampton?"

You know, I said, "What?!"

And we were off like a shot.

Of course, the problem with this place is you look at it

and you think it's quite small, don't you? Yeah.

But once you got inside, it was even smaller! Smaller!

I remember at one point, we were so crushed up,

and I lift one foot up, and put it back down

and I was standing on someone else's!

# What you gonna do?

# You rock so, you rock so

# Like you never did before

# You dip so, you dip so

# Dip through my door

# You come so, you come so

# Oh yeah!

# You skank so, you skank so... #

The atmosphere was just electric. Well, that's... Absolutely electric.

I said they were mesmerised, including myself!

And I use that same word as well, it was mesmerising.

It was almost as if they'd pumped some ganja into the air conditioning

and got everybody high! Oh, yes!

# Oh, reggae is another bag

# You're gonna lively up yourself, and don't say no

# You've got to lively up yourself cos I said so... #

He's a prophet.

He's a prophet. You listen to any of Marley's songs,

and if you're not influenced, then something's wrong with you.

# Get up, stand up

# Stand up for your rights

# Get up, stand up... #

Marley's presence resonated with the condition, particularly

of young black people in Southampton because they were told

for so long they're not good enough,

they can't get jobs,

they were sent to schools that were supposed to be for people

who were deficient in some way or the other.

And they saw that the kind of jobs their parents did,

as good as they may have been, they wanted to do better.

# We're sick and tired of your ism-schism game... #

CHANTING

I'm actually a product of the Windrush generation.

A lot of our parents had kind of denied their culture

to try and assimilate.

They tried to anglicise themselves, which obviously didn't work.

And, you know, we're growing up, teenage kids,

we're seeing our parents are basically being screwed.

And that's what Bob did at that moment in time.

He lifted the black youth of this country.

You know, we're being informed by what's going on in America

with the whole civil rights thing, so we're pissed off and angry.

And Bob gave that a soundtrack.

# Stand up for your rights

# Get up, stand up... #

One of the things that I remember when I first met Bob...

...and we'd be talking at Speakeasy Club, you know,

he said to me, you know, "Dennis, you have to remember

"that you're...you're an exotic tropical plant that's been uprooted

"and replanted on the concrete soil.

"So, you have to be very strong to push through in that way."

From Teesside to Lancaster, Bristol to Birmingham,

Marley's message of rebellion and empowerment

was spreading across Britain.

# Don't give up the fight... #

The next leg of their tour took them to the USA

before returning to Britain towards the end of '73

to promote their new album, Burnin'.

But life was far from happy in the Wailers camp.

It was in the winter and I remember once one morning, they woke up,

they wanted to play football.

And this is after, like, clays

of arguing about the cold and everything.

One morning they woke up and they wanted to play football

and they opened the door...

"What that?" So, I say, "It's snow."

"What you mean, snow?" I say, "You know, snow."

And Peter Tosh said,

"Sign from Babylon, we have to leave Babylon now!

And Bunny Wailer said, "Yeah, man, we have to leave Babylon!"

And there was this arguing between them, you know,

and so the tour collapsed... and they went back.

# Stop that train, I'm leaving... #

But despite this setback, Marley's popularity was soon on the rise,

helped by Eric Clapton's global hit

with a cover of The Wailers' I Shot The Sheriff.

It was an important crossover period.

It moves the idea of Bob Marley from being an underground artist

to just the potential of a major artist now,

a major touring artist within a rock context.

By the time Marley returned to Britain with a new line-up in 1975,

the days of playing pubs and clubs were long behind him.

And once again, Britain was to provide the stage

for a major turning point in his career.

The Natty Dread Tour kicked off with two dates

at London's Lyceum Ballroom.

There were so many people outside, people trying to climb on the roof,

trying to get in, a thousand outside,

and inside it was packed, packed to capacity.

Very, very hot summer night.

You know, it's thick with ganja and hash smoke.

It's about 50-50 black and white people.

Felt something had shifted in the culture.

All the way from Trenchtown, Jamaica,

Bob Marley And The Wailers! Come on!

I remember when he walked out, and I looked at him,

I could see him looking at me in some ways,

and looking at the audience and saying...

And then...

IMITATES DRUM INTRO Boom!

And then that bass kicked in and it was like, whoom!

And everyone's, like, yes!

MUSIC: Trenchtown Rock by Bob Marley And The Wailers

The music that WE loved,

there we were, seeing it performed in a way that we hadn't seen it

performed before.

It was just a magical night.

# One good thing about music... #

Reggae had arrived.

Alongside Marley on stage were three female singers

who had helped transform his sound.

His wife, Rita, judy Mowatt, and Marcia Griffiths...

...known collectively as the I-Threes.

It was like doors were just open to this music and to this man.

It's like he just blew the roof off

with positive vibration and some positive reggae music.

MUSIC: No Woman, No Cry by Bob Marley And The Wailers

No Woman, No Cry really was a very, very special song.

|t...touched a nerve in everybody.

# No woman, no cry... #

CHEERING

# No woman, no cry... #

When that song started,

oh, my goodness, it was overwhelming.

# Said I remember when we used to sit

# In the government yard in Trenchtown

# Oba-observing the hypocrites... #

As a consequence,

the No Woman, No Cry live single is released

and becomes Bob's first UK hit.

The whole country knows who Bob Marley is now.

SONG COMES TO AN END

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Rastafari! Almighty God!

Bob at the Lyceum was like a religious experience.

I mean, I came out of that gig a changed man, empowered,

informed and inspired.

I mean, for a lot of people, it was kind of...

...seeing the messiah.

The Lyceum concerts propelled Bob Marley into the musical mainstream.

# I shot the sheriff

# Lord, I didn't shoot no deputy... #

Followed a year later by his first UK top—ten album

and another sell-out tour.

# I shot the sheriff

# But I didn't shoot the deputy

# Oh, no, no... #

Bob Marley had a concert coming up in Hammersmith, West London.

I'd bought a ticket.

And would you believe it, on the day of the actual concert,

I lost my ticket?! I had it in my pencil case all those months

and I lost it on the actual day.

So, I started crying.

This Rasta guy said, "Why are you crying? You're really crying."

I said, "I've had this ticket for so many months.

"And now the concert's here, I've lost it,"

and he said, "Stay there." Anyway, we stayed there.

He come out, he gave me, like, five, six tickets.

I was able to give all my friends a ticket.

So, they said, "We're coming with you."

So, after that concert, they were blown away.

Yeah, that was it.

They were blown away, they were blown away by the concert.

After the concert, we stayed behind and just hanging around

as friends, just chatting about it.

Then the same guy who gave me the tickets for the concert

come up to us and said, "My name's Mikey."

He said, "I'm the cook for Bob Marley."

We said, "No way!" He said, "This is where he's staying."

So, he was staying in Harrington Gardens. Yeah, yeah.

So, we bunked off school, and we went.

I've never forgotten it.

The first time I saw Bob, he was sitting down at a dinner table.

He had a yellow beret on.

And he was eating his dinner and I went, "Oh, I must be dreaming!"

He went, "Eeh!

"You all right?"

Every time we went, Bob would engage with us and talk to us,

like his sisters. Yeah, like young sisters. Little sisters, yeah.

They used to call us the Three Musketeers.

The Three Musketeers.

So, I was getting into the Rasta scene and I was,

I did want to locks my hair and I did sometimes wrap my hair.

My dad wasn't happy. I'm not going to lie.

And then I remember putting a picture of Haile Selassie up

in my bedroom wall, and my dad said,

"You take that down otherwise you're out."

You've got to understand that, in a strange way,

Bob legitimised Rastafari because pre-Bob,

for my parents' generation, it was a strict no-no.

I mean, when I grew my dreadlocks, my parents kicked me out,

didn't speak to me for four years.

Rastafari at that time was still seen as a sort of, um, a cult,

I suppose, in some ways. It was never really taken seriously.

But I think from the success of Bob, the movement grew

and a lot of people started taking it seriously.

In between recording and performing in the UK, Bob Marley made

a number of low-key trips to Rastafarian meeting places.

There are HQs in the Twelve Tribes of Israel and

there's different individual houses across the country

that people would go.

So, if you were a Rasta and needed somewhere to stay,

you would head for the headquarters and you'd be fed.

You'd be looked after and you'd be welcomed.

Bob Marley, he's a Twelve Tribes member

and he visited one of the meetings in Manchester

and I got to see him there.

And he came into the meeting and he said,

"| am here to worship just like everybody else,"

and, you know, "and celebrate with everyone else."

And it was just like he was just one of us.

Marley even performed secret gigs as part of his visits.

His music was an education.

So, a lot of us didn't have the access to the books.

Like, now we've got the internet. You can research anything.

He was like our internet.

Through music, we got educated and we learned about ourselves

and had a sense of pride in who we were.

After spending the first half of 1976 touring Europe

and North America, Bob Marley returned to Jamaica.

His homeland had been plagued by unrest ever since gaining

independence in 1962,

and Marley now found himself at the centre of the political turmoil.

SHOTS FIRED

GLASS SMASH ES

Jamaica is in the state of civil war.

There's the People's National Party, the left-leaning party,

you know, led by the Prime Minister, Michael Manley.

The Jamaica Labour Party, the JLP, led by Edward Seaga.

Bob Marley is called to Michael Manley's office,

who asks him, as a symbol of national unity,

if he'll play a concert called the Smile Jamaica Concert.

I begged Bob not to do that concert.

He was never affiliated in any part of politics,

but because of his innocence,

he decided that he would do the concert.

Tension was so strong.

Bob comes to be seen as interlinked with Manley.

And on December 3rd, 1976,

a group of gunmen break into his headquarters at 56 Hope Road,

7:30pm in the evening,

and suddenly shots are whizzing around him.

One of the bullets whizzes past Bob's chest

and lodges in his arm.

He could never believe that anyone would think

of doing such a thing to him.

That shooting was devastating to him.

MUSIC: Exodus by Bob Marley And The Wailers

After that, Bob comes up to London.

By the middle of January,

they're working on the record which becomes known as Exodus,

because it's like, it's like the biblical journey.

You know, it is his exodus.

# Men and people will fight ya down Tell me why

# when ya see )ah fight

# Let me tell you, if you're not wrong, and why

# Everything is all right

# So we gonna walk, all right

# Through the roads of creation

# We're the generation Tell me why

# Who trod through great tribulation

# Trod through great tribulation

# Exodus... #

He came back to England because this is where

everything all happened.

Everything started right here in England.

# Are you satisfied

# With the life you're living... #

He wasn't running away and he came here to rejuvenate and to think,

to clear his head and started writing songs.

# We're leaving Babylon

# We're going to our fatherland... #

Bob, in London, is removed from the pressures

of the sort of uptown ghetto life.

He's living in Oakley Street in Chelsea.

MUSIC: jamming by Bob Marley And The Wailers

Oakley Street is round the corner from a shop I was running

called Acme Attractions,

and he come and get me to help take care of him.

Let's put it that way.

So, for '77...

...| sold Bob weed.

I was not a dealer, but it was a way to get through his front door.

It's like a Rasta ganja camp!

You know, he's got his cooks in there,

cooking his Ital food.

And he basically created a little Jamaica within Oakley Street,

which was quite a weird thing.

Every time I come to England, there are so many memories

of we walking, Sister Rita and Sister Judy and myself.

We look forward to getting shish kebab.

This was our second home.

I think maybe he stayed in Oakley Street because just across the road,

across the bridge, actually, was Battersea Park.

And Bob was into his football.

Bob Marley was very skilled on the football,

very quick movements.

And I think if Bob Marley didn't come as a great reggae artist,

and wanted to play football, I think him would get into

one of the big football team here in England.

He was that skilful.

You couldn't get the ball off him.

You know, it's not that we were trying to respect him or anything.

It was just that he just moved too quick!

Bob loved not just playing football but he loved watching football

and becomes a fan of Tottenham Hotspurs,

because of the Argentinean player Ossie Ardilles.

But it wasn't just football that was keeping Marley busy

during his free time in London.

# I don't wanna wait in vain for your love... #

He was a ladies' man as well.

I remember, went to Carnival one time.

And he sends me to get him some weed, when I come back,

he's trying to pull my girlfriend at the time, you know!

Yeah. A real ladies' man.

Bob had immediately been joined by Cindy Breakspeare, his girlfriend.

This, by now, Miss World.

He'd been after her for about three years.

And in fact, the song Waiting In Vain is supposedly about her.

# It's been three years since I'm knocking on your door... #

But she now is his girlfriend.

MUSIC: Pretty Vacant by The Sex Pistols

The summer of '77 saw millions of people hold street parties

in celebration of the Queen's Silver jubilee.

But not everyone in Britain was joining in.

I mean, in 1977, punk rock was exploding all over the UK.

It was total anarchy.

They just wanted to tear everything down.

Over the last 12 months, punk rock has become almost a battle cry

in British society.

For many people, it's a bigger threat to our way of life

than Russian communism or hyperinflation.

And it certainly generates more popular excitement

than either of those.

# We're vacant!

# And we're so pretty, oh, so pretty... #

I've gone around to Oakley Street to get some money he owed me

and I'm wearing my punk rock gear.

You know, I'm wearing bondage trousers.

And I walk in to get this money off Bob,

and he looks at me and he's like,

"Don Letts, you look like one o' dem nasty bloodclaat punk..."

I'll do it in English!

"Don Letts, you look like a nasty punk rocker," is what he said.

And I took great of fence to this.

I'm like, "Bob, they're like-minded rebels, you know.

"There's something going on here, Bob. You're wrong."

# And we don't care! #

And eventually he came to see that there was some kind of...

...connection, maybe not musically,

but certainly in spirit and attitude.

MUSIC: Punk y Reggae Party by Bob Marley And The Wailers

So, Bob wrote this particular tune in the wake of the whole

punk rock explosion.

# So please don't be naughty For it's a punk y reggae party

# New wave

# New craze... #

He'd actually name-check some of the bands like The Clash,

The Damned, and The Jam were actually mentioned in the song.

# Police and thieves in the street

# Oh yeah... #

When The Clash play their White Riot tour,

Bob Marley is in the wings at the Rainbow Show, watching them,

and his presence in London

is very much part of what becomes

known as, you know, the reggae punk fusion.

# Fighting the nation with their

# Guns and ammunition... #

This is a major change in British culture.

We can see a direct relationship between the influence of Bob Marley

at that point and reggae

on the music that then followed,

erm, in terms of white British youth.

We have The Beat, Madness, The Specials, artists

even like Police that were once punk, all responding to reggae

in their own way and the influence of Bob Marley.

It's a key component in the soundtrack to multiculturalism

and it still resonates today.

With Marley at the peak of his creative powers, he embarked

on a European tour in support of the Exodus album.

But things took an unexpected turn

when he suffered an injury playing football.

In Paris,

on...| think it's May the 10th, he, erm...

...he's playing a game and he was on Astroturf in the shadow of the

Eiffel Tower against a team of, kind of, media people.

And one of them stands on his toe.

Took the nail out of his big toe and it wouldn't heal,

and it started from there.

This is the beginning of a big problem.

When he does four nights at the Rainbow,

which are sensational shows, but with incredibly heavy security...

...one of those nights

he comes offstage, takes his boots off and the boat's full of blood.

The Rainbow Theatre shows were cut short

and the rest of the tour cancelled.

A biopsy revealed why the toe wouldn't heal —

a rare form of skin cancer.

There's denial, absolute denial, that Bob had cancer.

Information about just how ill he was,

um, was difficult to ascertain.

News footage was curtailed.

Any photographs of him

being ill were removed,

and so it became word of mouth. It became...

...almost gossip.

The cancer spread.

And on the 13th of july, 1980,

Bob Marley would play his last-ever show in Great Britain

at New Bingley Hall in Stafford.

I'd like to ask you now about how you find your relationship

with the British audience.

Yeah, England is really a good feeling.

England's a place, man, you know?

It must be happening in England!

BOB LAUGHS

What must be happening?

The music!

If the people in England don't like it, in other places, people

aren't going to like it! In truth!

The last time I met him was in London.

He was very subdued and he wasn't his usual vibe y self,

springy self, electric self.

Bob was just full of electricity.

You know, he was just a live wire

and, erm, it wasn't very nice.

Not very.

And then, eventually, you know, he picked up the guitar and started

playing a song, I didn't really notice what it was,

but it turned out it was Redemption Song. I think I was probably

one of the first person to hear it.

Was very sad. Very, very sad song.

And, of course, it has a very deep meaning for me.

# Old pirates, yes, they rob I

# Sold I to the merchant ships

# Minutes after they took I

# From the bottomless pit

# But my... #

Bob Marley was no ordinary pop singer.

He was just 36 when he died of cancer.

# By the 'and of the almighty...#

It was in the morning, early, and suddenly, there was newsflash.

Bob Marley had died.

I broke down in tears.

I just knew that it was,

it was over. You know?

It was over.

# Redemption songs

# Redemption songs. #

It's like losing one of your family members. Yes, it was.

Miss him so much. We all do. And, every day,

he's always in my mind, in my heart.

Not one day goes past without me thinking of him.

# Songs of freedom. #

# Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon

# When the men come

# There will be no doom

# Have pity on those whose chances grow slimmer

# There ain't no hiding place

# From the father of creation

# Singing...

# One love

# One heart

# Let's get together and feel all right

# Hear the children... #

The I think what Bob brought to Britain,

I think he brought acceptance,

well, he helped to bring acceptance through music.

# And I will feel all right

# Saying let's get together and feel all right

# Wow-wow-wow-wow... #

Bob's early life would have been totally dominated

by British colonialism and he would have seen the negative

sides of all of that.

And yet, he comes here with love and a wicked baseline,

and uses his culture, to readjust all those injustices.

Bob came here to heal the nation.

# Let's get together and feel all right

# As it was in the beginning

# One love

# So shall it be in the end... #

The message that he was giving whilst he was here

physically is still here spiritually.

Bob Marley definitely changed Britain and that message

of unity and love,

I think we need his music more now than ever.

# Let's get together and feel all right... #

I always got from him that he knew he was going to make

it, no matter how, where, when, but he was going to make it.

And he instilled that in me, if you've got enough conviction,

enough belief in yourself, you will make it.

# One heart

# Give thanks and praise to the Lord

# And I will feel all right...

# Let's get together

# And feel all right

# Amen! #