Bob Marley

Nesta Robert Marley (Bob Marley) was born on the 6th of February 1945 in Jamaica, growing from humble beginnings to become an international reggae music legend. Bob Marley famously enjoyed living and working in London and played at the Apollo Club in Willesden when he first came to the city.

In the 1970s Marley saw Britain as his ‘second home’. During this time, the Apollo Club became one of the most popular reggae venues in Brent, continuing into the 21st century as a club for revival reggae connoisseurs. It was during this time that Marley’s band, Bob Marley and The Wailers, began to attract international attention and were eventually signed by Island Records, a London-based company with Jamaican roots.

Willesden Trades Hall & Apollo Club , Courtesy: Metrolandcultures.com

In 1972 Bob Marley and the Wailers moved into a small detached house in The Circle, Neasden. To mark the 30th anniversary of his death, a blue plaque was unveiled in September 2012, organised by the Federation of Reggae Music and funded by Brent Council.

Brent was the unofficial capital of reggae outside of Jamaica due to a large Afro-Caribbean community, and possibly why Bob Marley chose to set up a home here.

When he died of cancer at 36 years of age, Marley was an international star and legend and was given a state funeral back home in Jamaica.

Bob Marley, Milan in June 1980. Courtesy: Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd./Reuters **(Click Here - watch Marley perform Exodus)**

This pocket of North-West London, home to many of the Windrush generation, became a hub for the growing reggae scene. Island Records, set up by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica in 1959, relocated to London and was based in Cambridge Gardens in Kilburn. Chris Blackwell and his business partner Lee Gopthal also went on to start a new label in 1968 - Trojan Records based on Neasden Lane, Willesden, which helped to further popularise Jamaican music across the UK.

Marley spent much of his time in the first 10 years of recording, putting down roots in the Afro-Caribbean communities that were based in this part of North-West London. He fled to London in 1976 after an attempt on his life in his home country of Jamaica, and it was during this time that he and his band The Wailers recorded Exodus. The reggae artist is associated with at least three other addresses in the capital, living and working in London.