Page 91 - Reggae Festival Guide Magazine 2019
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well as later reminisces. The band for the first tour
included both Donald Kinsey and Chinna Smith
on guitar, Junior Marvin took over lead guitar
duties on their return visit, and he was later joined
by Al Anderson (with Marley himself providing
rhythm guitar throughout). Otherwise, the
touring unit included the Barrett Brothers, Seeco
Patterson, Tyrone Downie (and Earl “Wire” Lindo
on the later shows) and the I-Threes, plus a large
entourage. The combined descriptions of the
shows from journalists, participants in the tour
and audience members remind me of my own
feelings about the live performances I personally
experienced – that Bob Marley and the Wailers
combined music, art, dance, spirituality, poetry,
politics (of the social justice, not the divide-and-
conquer kind) and performance in a way many
have tried and at which few have succeeded.
As has often been the case, very little actual
interview material survives – the chasm between
Bob’s Patois and the Dutch journalists’ English being
Babylon By Bus: Bob Marley & the too great at the time. But the impressions and
particularly the photographs survive, making this
Wailers Live and Up Close an excellent documentation of a brief moment in
By Martin Huisman & Gijsbert Hanekroot time and place, shedding new light on the man and
(Colophon, 2018) his touring milieu. In the words of tour manager
Evert Wilbrink (one of many people interviewed
Bob Marley and the Wailers spread reggae’s for the book), “I think we witnessed something
seed internationally with their recordings and magical. Something that may never happen again.”
live performances. It seems wherever he toured, And this was true wherever the band travelled – in
an entire reggae scene evolved – in California, Ireland, Japan, Gabon, New Zealand – seeds were
Hawaii, England, Australia and, as this book sown that took root and are still today flowering in
makes most evident, The Netherlands. As with international movements of Rastafari and reggae.
Che Guevara, a handful of images have come to
represent the man and his music, but many of the
photographs taken by Dutch photographers are
seen here for the first time. Additionally, the first-
hand accounts of Marley’s shows in Amsterdam,
The Hague, Rotterdam and Geleen, including
interviews with journalists and stories from fans
and people who worked for his label, make this
version of Bob’s story unique.
The book gathers nearly everything written by
Dutch journalists about Marley at the time, as
Reggae Festival guide 2019 91
