The film Bob Marley Live in Concert, anchored by previously unshown footage of the reggae star’s last concerts, makes its U.S. premiere Thursday night, opening a three-night run at the St. John Westin Resort.
German filmmaker Stefan Paul’s movie was released in 1998, 18 years after its footage of Bob Marley and the Wailers at Jamaica’s Reggae Sunsplash festival and their Uprising Tour was filmed. In addition to the concerts, the film includes scenes of Marley's funeral in Kingston in 1981 and subsequent memorial concert.
Most of the film footage has never been shown before within the United States.
Karrl Foster, founder and president of the V.I. Film Society, saw the film at the St. Barth's Film Festival in April. "When I saw it — even before I saw the film, when I saw the name on the program — I said, 'Why don't I know about this?'" Foster recalled. "The answer was it has never been shown in the United States."
Foster knew a sure thing when he saw it and was able to book the film for the three showings on St. John. (While it's in his possession, he's hoping to arrange at least one showing on St. Thomas, too, tentatively at the Reichhold Center on Sunday, Aug. 13, but it's not yet a done deal.)
Marley's death from cancer in 1981 cut off a career that had already reached heights unheard of for a performer outside the Anglo-American mainstream.
Although Bob Marley and the Wailers made numerous singles, it was in 1971 that Island Records provided the group with the production facilities and financing to produce its first album, "Catch a Fire."
The Wailers were touring the U.K. and U.S. in support of their second album, "Burnin," when Eric Clapton's version of "I Shot the Sheriff" from that album hit No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts. Interest in reggae in general and Bob Marley and the Wailers in particular exploded across the United States and England.
In 1976, Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed Bob Marley and the Wailers "Band of the Year." That same year, the album "Rastaman Vibration" climbed the U.S. pop charts.
Subsequent albums and tours only cemented Marley’s stature as the preeminent reggae songwriter, musician and performer; his music brilliantly fused rock-steady Afro-Caribbean polyrhythms with the harmonies and hooks he absorbed from American soul, rhythm-and-blues and rock.
By the time he died, Marley had also paved the way for other reggae stars such as ex-Wailer Peter Tosh and Burning Spear and effectively ushered in what is now known as "world music."
The popularity of the man and the band around the world is a small reflection of the esteem in which Bob Marley is still held in the Caribbean, where a day seldom passes without evidence of some icon of the reggae star, also revered as an important figure in Rastafarianism.
Bob Marley Live in Concert receives its U.S. premiere at 7:45 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3, in the Westin ballroom. The showings on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 4 and 5, are the same time in the same place. Tickets are $10, available in advance at Connections (776-6922) on St. John and at the door.
For further details, contact Foster at 693-1552.
VI Source Archive · 1998–2015