Being There : Bob Marley And The Wailers Live At The Rainbow 1st June 1977

In 1974 Bob Marley made a minor breakthrough when Eric Clapton launched his comeback with a rather lame cover version of I Shot The Sheriff. By early 1976 his Live! album was the trendy wine bar's soundtrack of choice following the success of No Woman, No Cry. But despite my natural aversion to wine bar soundtracks I was seriously up for it when my house mate Felix Wilson from Dominique asked me if I would like to go and see the great man at The Rainbow, Finsbury Park with his girlfriend. I had never been to The Rainbow before which was the prestige concert venue of the era and the University Of Surrey Afro-Caribbean Society had the best parties on the campus.

The memory starts in the Students' Union building laying down with a nurse giving a pint of blood. It was Derby Day and the Blood Transfusion Service ladies had a serious bet on Lester Piggott. As I lay down relaxing after giving them an armful the housewives' favourite was heard on the radio winning a nice little sweetener for their modest income. I was glad they had inserted and removed the needle before the race started as there was much excitement. Having inherited the leaflet collection bug from my father I left with several examples featuring clean cut Noel Edmonds extolling the virtues of giving blood for later study when sat on the loo. The tradition in those days was to head straight to The Upper Bar after the free cup of tea and a biscuit, the theory being less blood in the body made the pint go further.

Late afternoon we headed off to London, Felix's girlfriend (black, this will be significant later) having a car and performing driving duties. Somewhere in Kingston we stopped for fish and chips, having parked on a pelican crossing zig zags I was hardly surprised when the police pointed out this indiscretion. Two firsts for me that evening, first ride in a car driven by a black person, first time I had been in a car and the police had given the driver a ticking off.

Fish and chips down the hatch, Thames crossed, car stopped a second time by the police for some minor misdemeanour none of us spotted, car parked and just in time for the show. In we went and there were T shirts on sale, something relatively rare at concerts at the time. I had a fiver in my pocket, same price as the red T shirt with the Exodus logo in black so that was me cleaned out, or so I thought. As we queued up to go into the standing area there was a sudden push from behind and before I knew it my back pockets were emptied of Noel Edmonds memorabilia. Hey ho, it wasn't one of his best jumpers and I could find something else to read next time I went to the loo, maybe an academic book, no, don't be silly! Immediately I got inside a big crush formed around me and a group of hands went into every pocket from several directions, all that was left was my room key but having large legs and relatively tight jeans it stayed put. But they weren't giving up and I had to be rescued by two security guys who hauled me out of there and got bad-mouthed for their actions. I left them all getting stuck into each other using phrases to denigrate their respective manhoods, sisters and menstrual cycles I had never heard in Bristol.

Beyond the melee support act Rico was leading his band with various trombone based reggae tunes and rhythms. These days he breaks into song but this was pure instrumental. To relieve their boredom, every few minutes a group of youths would run across in front of the stage hotly pursued by equal numbers of security guys. There would be a runble in the corner then the security guys would run away pursued by the youths. It looked very Keystone Cops to me seeing the groups chasing back and forth and amused me now I was safe from the pickpockets. When Bob Marley played The Lyceum in 1975 there had been great tension between the mainly black audience and the all white security, this time around the security were all black locals. Somebody nearby reckoned the troublemakers and security all knew each other and this event was being used as an opportunity to settle a few scores.

Eventually the main event started with the band introduced by an MC with a very strong voice, all very Jamaican with a large backdrop of some album artwork. The I-Threes were wonderful with long dresses and very fancy head gear, the boys in the band sporting relatively sensible hair to Bob's entanglement of dreadlocks wearing his usual denim shirt and jeans. He ruled the stage, was everywhere and anywhere and had the audience singing or oy oh, ah woa woa woa woaing every time the urge hit him. The rhythm and the feel was quite magical and nothing like the rock bands I was used to, even the glamour of early Roxy Music seemed superficial compared to this. Stood right next to me was a small military tank of a man with outrageous dreadlocks engulfed in a guff of herb which crept into my nostrils more than once and contributed to the other-worldliness of the event. As best I can recall the set was essentially some of the Exodus album with earlier songs featured in The Lyceum Live! album. Exodus itself became a vehicle for displaying the individual talents of the band with a Peter Frampton style vocal guitar effect playing "Bob Marley And The Wailers" through the lead guitar, or something like that!

We all loved it, headed home and got stopped by the police twice more, surely her driving wasn't that bad? Every time we were stopped it seemed as if my white face in the back made it all OK, the seal of legitimacy but four times in one night!

There were three more shows at The Rainbow, the remaining two were cancelled as the result of a footballing toe injury Bob Marley sustained which ultimately lead to his death in May 1981. In June 1978 I saw the band again at Gröna Lund in Stockholm on the Kaya tour, a predominantly white audience with the exception of some Ethiopians who loved my T shirt with their traditional calligraphy on it, by then it was more of a show aimed at the international audience featuring the hits from Exodus like Jammin' and Waiting In Vain. My final show was The Crystal Palace Bowl in June 1980 supported by Q Tips (Paul Young lead singer), Joe Jackson and The Average White Band. It was more of a celebration with lots of Caribbean food on sale and a large number of London blacks giving it a great buzz and turning the day into a true punky reggae party. While I enjoyed the show with my friend and sister my brother-in-law was running the Portaloos before moving into concert generators for the likes of U2, Madonna and Pink Floyd. The following year I was ironing a shirt with headphones on listening to Radio One when the news came through Bob Marley had died of cancer. I didn't burn the shirt, a special flame went out that day.