To mark the 30th anniversary of Bob Marley’s death, five of his closest friends and colleagues share personal experiences of the man they knew. Paul Sexton presents new interviews that provide a real insight into the man who became the “third world’s first superstar”. Island Records‘ founder Chris Blackwell; former girlfriend Esther Anderson; lawyer Diane Jobson; backing singer Marcia Griffith; and Wailers guitarist Junior Marvin; all talk about the Bob Marley they knew best.
Bob Marley was born in 1945 to a white father and black mother, at a time of racial division in Jamaica. He grew up in Nine Mile, a rural part of St Ann‘s, before moving to the Trench Town suburb of Kingston in his early teens. He found music in the 60s, playing with his friends Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, and in 1973 they were signed to Island Records as Bob Marley & The Wailers. Over the next eight years Bob became an international superstar before his untimely death on 11 May 1981.
The programme reveals how the Jamaica he grew up in, with high unemployment and profound race and class divides, shaped him. We chart his musical rise, from follower of trends such as the Rude Boy movement, to a reluctant leader of fellow musicians as he spread his reggae rhythm and message across the world.
Those close to Bob also reveal the circumstances of his death, which started with a toe injury during a game of football and lead to his death at the age of 36, just four years later.
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