Live recordings of Bob Marley and the Wailers‘ London and Paris concerts between 1974 and 1978 were found about a year ago in a hotel basement in London. They were originally deemed ruined beyond repair, but have now been restored in time for the reggae legend’s birthday. The tapes are from concerts at the Lyceum in London (1975), the Hammersmith Odeon (1976), the Rainbow in London (1977), and the Pavilion de Paris (1978), using the only mobile 24-track studio vehicle available in the UK at the time, loaned to the band by the Rolling Stones themselves.
Bob Marley and the Wailers would stay at the Kensal Rise hotel in North West London in the mid-1970s and assumably left the tapes behind by mistake. A man found them while clearing out the building and sent them over to fellow Marley fan and businessman Joe Gatt, who assisted in restoring the recordings.
According to BBC, 10 tapes were fully restored from the 13 reel-to-reel analogue master tapes, two of which were blank and one was ruined beyond repair. It took an entire year to recover the recordings and cost about $31,200. “They were (in an) appalling (condition)… I wasn’t too hopeful,” a sound engineer from the White House Studios told BBC. There’s no telling when we will be able to enjoy these long-lost tapes, but fingers crossed that it’s sooner than later. Now more than ever, we need more Bob Marley.