Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live! (Deluxe Edition) (2016) [Hi-Res]

Bob Marley & the Wailers were at the peak of their artistic powers when they arrived at the Lyceum London for two shows on July 17 and 18, 1975, having just released Natty Dread the year before and about to unleash Rastaman Vibration on the world. The Rolling Stones mobile studio was on hand to record both shows, with seven songs from the second released as Live!, in December of that same year. The recording was subsequently broadcast as part of the syndicated radio program King Biscuit Flower Hour in 1976.

The Marley Family will now release for the first time the complete sets from both shows, Bob Marley & the Wailers - Live!, as a three-album High-Res-remaster set edition that also includes a reproduction of the tour program from the band’s historic 1975 U.K. tour.

Marley and the Wailers’ classic line-up included bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett, drummer Carlton “Carly” Barrett, guitarist Al Anderson, keyboardist Tyrone Downie, percussionist Alvin “Seeco” Patterson and the I-Threes - backing vocalists Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths. The group was fresh off its legendary five-night stint at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles from July 9 through July 13, when they stepped on the stage at London’s Lyceum Theatre for an abbreviated U.K. tour which would also include dates at The Odeon in Birmingham on July 19 and The Hard Rock in Manchester on July 20. Marley was in top form during the two Lyceum shows, animatedly interacting with the crowd, who sang along to what most consider the definitive version of No Woman, No Cry.

The BBC’s Chris Jones wrote about the album in 2009: “This seminal live document captures almost exactly the point where both roots reggae and Rastafarianism finally entered popular culture… Capturing the band at the peak of their powers with a set list that held absolutely no low points… this was a Wailers that could more than handle the lusher, fuller rock reggae that transformed Marley’s Rastaman diatribes into pop gold. No one before this had combined both roots and R&B in this way… uniting both working and middle classes with his songs of universal struggle and religious metaphor.”

Bob Marley, vocals, guitar
Al Anderson, guitar
Tyrone Downie, keyboards
Aston “Family Man” Barrett, bass
Carlton “Carly” Barrett, drums
Alvin “Seeco” Patterson, percussion
Rita Marley, backing vocals
Judy Mowatt, backing vocals
Marcia Griffiths, backing vocals

Digitally remastered