Bob Marley & The Wailers release the album "Roots, Rock, Reggae"

Fifty years ago Bob Marley & The Wailers were the protagonists of four evenings atHammersmith Odeon in London from June 15 to 18, 1976, to kick off the second leg of their tour ‘Rastaman Vibration’. The concerts were all sold out and the turning point came for the group and the Jamaican musician.

For the first time, you can finally experience the magic of these historic concerts, with the release of the new live album on August 21st “Roots, Rock, Reggae: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon”For Tuff Gong/Island/UMe. The 18 tracks of the album mixed from the original multitracks, will be released in multiple versions: 2LP 180g, including an exclusive limited edition on colored vinyl, 2CD, as well as digital formats.

The album boasts graphics enhanced with concert photographs, a cover that unfolds to reveal a full-length photo of Bob Marley in the midst of his artistic trance. There are also new notes edited by Don Lettsalias “The Rebel Dread”.

Two years before, a few months after that Eric Clapton had brought “I Shot the Sheriff” at number one in the US, Marley had responded with “Natty Dread” (1974), his first major statement to an ever-widening international audience. “Live!”registered at Lyceum Theater in Londonbrought success in late 1975, aided by the live version of “No Woman, No Cry”which reached the UK Top 20 in early 1976. It was this growing momentum that led Bob Marley toHammersmith Odeon in London. And in the following weeks, “Rastaman Vibration” it became his first US Top Ten album.

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However, except for an incomplete bootleg, it could not be determined whether any recordings of that time had ever existed. The tapes found in the archives were linked to those concerts. “Roots, Rock, Reggae: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon” selects the best interpretation of each song in four shows recorded between June 16 and 18, 1976. Among the album’s many highlights are the rare “Bend Down Low”performed only on the last night of the Hammersmith tour; a long and new “Crazy Baldhead”; an improvised version of “Live Up Yourself” and then the finale, a 30 minute encore of the songs “War” and one “Get Up, Stand Up” lasting 12 minutes.