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Thread: Bob Marley & The Wailers - The Rainbow Concerts (1977)

  1. #1
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    Bob Marley & The Wailers - The Rainbow Concerts (1977)

    For those of you hankering for some more live Bob, his four night stand at London's Rainbow Theater in June 1977 has now been officially released as a series of high quality downloads.

    I'd heard that these concerts were considered legendary, coming on the back of the Exodus album, and am happy to say, yes, they are outstanding and in my humble opinion, they are better than the "Live!" or "Babylon By Bus " albums by a fair margin.

    Want to know more? Then my latest blog review will give you all the details and some thoughts on performance and audio quality:


    https://momentstransition.wordpress....1-4-june-1977/

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Valen View Post
    For those of you hankering for some more live Bob, his four night stand at London's Rainbow Theater in June 1977 has now been officially released as a series of high quality downloads.

    I'd heard that these concerts were considered legendary, coming on the back of the Exodus album, and am happy to say, yes, they are outstanding and in my humble opinion, they are better than the "Live!" or "Babylon By Bus " albums by a fair margin.

    Want to know more? Then my latest blog review will give you all the details and some thoughts on performance and audio quality:


    https://momentstransition.wordpress....1-4-june-1977/
    Thanks for taking the time to share this, here - I got about half way through your blog post/review, & immediately bought all four shows.

    Currently slipping into the groove of the 1st June show, & it's a righteous beautiful thing...

    For me, Marley is not an immediate go to - I much prefer the heavy dub of Scratch Perry, King Tubby, et al; the early work coming out of Studio One; & the bands that I grew up with in my late teens in the UK - Steel Pulse, Misty in Roots, Culture, Aswad... But hearing Bob in his prime, playing to audiences that really *got* his music, is special.

    BTW - talking of Aswad, very sad to learn of the passing of Angus (Drummie Zeb) Gaye, one of the finest drummers in any form of music, & blessed with the sweetest voice.

  3. #3
    Robin, it’s good to see Misty In Roots mentioned, I still play the vinyl of Live at the Counter Eurovision, it’s a very powerful recording to this day.

    I will check out the Marley Rainbow shows too, thanks to Valen for the information and review.

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    The Sirius XM station Bob Marley Tuff Gong plays a lot of the live recordings from all these concerts/shows. Great station to listen to as they also play stuff from other Reggae artists, including the "family of Marley" artists such as Skip and Damian Marley.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Sunlight Caller View Post
    Robin, it’s good to see Misty In Roots mentioned, I still play the vinyl of Live at the Counter Eurovision, it’s a very powerful recording to this day.

    I will check out the Marley Rainbow shows too, thanks to Valen for the information and review.
    Definitely check the downloads out, Chris - I've worked through the June 1st, 2nd & 3rd shows, & I'm just now listening to the show from the 4th - & I can definitely endorse Valen's assessment - these are an extraordinary document of a performer & band at the height of their powers. The recordings are uniformly excellent.

    That Misty lp, Live at the Counter Eurovision is probably one of my most played records of all - I think it's possibly the deepest, most spiritual, groove - comparable with what Pharaoh Sanders was doing with Alice Coltrane just a few years earlier.

  6. #6
    I was given my copy of Counter Eurovision by none other than Clarence Baker himself. He was doing the rounds of the universities to drum up gigs for the band, and he handed me a copy which I treasure. It has his name and phone number written in biro on the front cover.

    Sadly we didn’t book Misty but as I was studying in Birmingham, we did book local heroes Steel Pulse. We designed a lovely poster to promote their gigs with the red, green and gold running through their logo. The trouble was they were so desirable, that as soon as we put them up, students were taking them down and putting them up in their accommodation bedrooms.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Sunlight Caller View Post
    I was given my copy of Counter Eurovision by none other than Clarence Baker himself. He was doing the rounds of the universities to drum up gigs for the band, and he handed me a copy which I treasure. It has his name and phone number written in biro on the front cover.

    Sadly we didn’t book Misty but as I was studying in Birmingham, we did book local heroes Steel Pulse. We designed a lovely poster to promote their gigs with the red, green and gold running through their logo. The trouble was they were so desirable, that as soon as we put them up, students were taking them down and putting them up in their accommodation bedrooms.
    Wow - fantastic stories, Chris - & what a lovely thing to have!! (as I recall, Counter Eurovision had a relatively low rrp - maybe £1.50?). Did you ever call him?!

    Steel Pulse always used to put on a great show - they were such accomplished instrumentalists, & they had a real flair for stage theatre (Ku Klux Klan being the one I remember most vividly).

    Of all the bands at that time, though, it was Aswad who I enjoyed live the most - partly because their horn section was so stellar, but also because of the way they did "dub" versions live.

    OT - I agree with Valen that the 4th June gig is the most impressive. But if I had the chance to travel back in time, I'd go for the 1st June gig - the songs are more stretched out, & the groove takes precedence throughout.

  8. #8
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    BTW there was an old hour-long video from these shows called (predictably) Live At The Rainbow which should still be on DVD.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by per anporth View Post
    Thanks for taking the time to share this, here - I got about half way through your blog post/review, & immediately bought all four shows.

    Currently slipping into the groove of the 1st June show, & it's a righteous beautiful thing...

    For me, Marley is not an immediate go to - I much prefer the heavy dub of Scratch Perry, King Tubby, et al; the early work coming out of Studio One; & the bands that I grew up with in my late teens in the UK - Steel Pulse, Misty in Roots, Culture, Aswad... But hearing Bob in his prime, playing to audiences that really *got* his music, is special.

    BTW - talking of Aswad, very sad to learn of the passing of Angus (Drummie Zeb) Gaye, one of the finest drummers in any form of music, & blessed with the sweetest voice.
    Glad you're enjoying the shows.

    I saw Misty In Roots once, 1986 I think, and bought their Musi-o-Tunya LP, but their stuff is hard to find on cd. No such problem with Steel Pulse though. I remember a student pal asking if I was into reggae, and when I mentioned Marley, he laughed and said "No. I mean real reggae", and he passed me a tape of Handsworth Revolution. Tribute To The Martyrs is pretty good too.

  10. #10
    Yes, Handsworth Revolution is a fantastic record - really formative for me back in the day - & one I still spin often!

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