*This is a repost of an earlier posting about the Wailers’ 2013 Survival tour. It has been updated with the addition of the set list from the show. Autographed by Aston “Family Man” Barrett.
This is an exclusive download you will only find here at the MIDNIGHT RAVER BLOG!
Included here is my recording of the Wailers’ performance at the historic Howard Theatre in Washington, DC on January 13, 2013. After a well-received multimedia presentation by Roger Steffens, the Wailers take the stage to perform the Survival album. According to Steffens, this is the first time the Wailers are touring on an album in more than 40 years. While I am not a fan of the Wailers in particular (I find that a Wailers band without Bob is just not as intriguing…sorry), I must say that I really enjoyed this show. Why? 2 reasons. These songs are timeless…they never get old – and hearing them played live by a truly talented band gives the songs new life. 2. Drummie Zeb is the touring drummer for the Wailers, and has been, with a few breaks, since 1999. He owned the stage. His energy was infectious. In my opinion (and I’ve watched him since he was drumming for Richmond, VA’s Awareness Art Ensemble) his future status as a legendary reggae drummer is all but inevitable.
This is a partial recording. During the first encore break, I ran into Roger Steffens, who graciously took me backstage to see Family Man and Zeb. We vibed backstage during the break. When I told Fams how great they sounded (and they were tight tonight) he replies “Wailers like de moon that neva set.” I had the most interesting conversation with the Tour Manager Rich, who has been Fams’ personal assistant for more than 11 years. More soon come from him!
As for the recording, pretty standard audience recording.
The Wailers Survival Tour 2013 Howard Theatre 920 T Street, NW Washington, DC January 13, 2013
1. “So Much Trouble in the World” 2. “Zimbabwe” 3. “Top Rankin’” 4. “Survival” 5. “Africa Unite” 6. “One Drop” 7. “Ride Natty Ride” 8. “Ambush in The Night” 9. “Wake Up And Live”
Included here is rare video footage Bob Marley and the Wailers’ performance at Chicago’s Uptown Theater on November 13, 1979 during the Survival Tour.
We are also blessed to have friend of the blog “Pappa Dave” share his memories and photos from this show, which he attended some 33 years ago.
Here is an excerpt from an email that “Pappa Dave” sent us regarding his experience at the show:
“What I do remember vividly, was that Bob never and I mean never stopped moving and dancing through out the whole show. At least that’s what I remember. I got tired just watching him and the show lasted a good hour and a half to two hours. For the last few years, I’ve played the video of the show on the night of November 13th, in tribute to that special night so many years ago. This year the 13th falls on a tuesday, just as it did back in 1979. Thirty three years have passed since then, and I wish I could relive it one more time.”
Here are some short clips which reveal what other songs were played live at the show such as “Survival,” “Get Up Stand Up,” and “Kinky Reggae.”
The radio show I host by the way, is called the ‘Reggae Explosion”. It already had that name, when I became host in June 1989. You can check it on saturday nights at 10pm(cst), at www.wdcb.org.
It is December 1979, the International Year of the Child, and Bob Marley and the Wailers end their Survival tour by playing to a large crowd at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Complex in Nassau, Bahamas. Much like London, Nassau was sort of a second home for Marley. He spent one month in Nassau immediately after fleeing Jamaica in December 1976 as a result of the assassination attempt. Bob Marley and the Wailers’ also did some recording at Chris Blackwell’s state-of-the-art recording studios in Nassau. These studios, which are said to be the best in the world at the time, are run by Wailers’ recording engineer Karl Pitterson.
Bob Marley actually established a vacation home in the Bahamas. Bob and Rita Marley discovered a former governor’s mansion on a visit to Nassau, while they were recovering from an assassination attempt in Jamaica (1976). The property’s lush gardens and oceanfront location provided a respite for the Marley children to balance with life in the mountains of Jamaica.
When Rita first inquired about the property, a staff member of the previous owner warned that the house would never be sold to a Black person. This warning did not sway her. Starting in 1982, and for 16 years, Rita and the children spent holidays and summer vacations together in Nassau. In 2004, they planned to renovate the home for the growing family, but once the process started, Rita decided to turn it into a resort.
It is during the period from December 1979 through January 1980 that the band is featured in the concert film “Bob Marley and the Wailers.” The film is released to theatres in Jamaica, and to select theatres in the US and UK. Despite Marley’s superstar status at the time, the film is a flop and lasts only a few weeks in theatres.
Bob Marley And The Wailers December 15, 1979
Venue: Queen Elizabeth II Sports Centre City: Nassau State/Province: New Providence Country: Bahamas Recording Source Soundboard
Band lineup:
Bob Marley, vocals, rhythm guitar Aston Barrett, bass Carlton Barrett, drums Junior Marvin, lead guitar Al Anderson, lead guitar Tyrone Downie, keyboards Earl “Wya” Lindo, organ Alvin “Seeco” Patterson, percussion Devon Evans, percussion Glen DaCosta, saxophone Dave Madden, trumpet The I-Threes, backing vocals
1. “Positive Vibration” 2. “Wake Up And Live” 3. “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)” 4. “I Shot The Sheriff” 5. “Ambush In The Night” 6. “Running Away” -> “Crazy Baldhead” 7. “The Heathen” 8. “War” -> “No More Trouble” 9. “Africa Unite” 10. “One Drop” 11. “Exodus” 12. “Roots, Rock, Reggae” 13. “Jammin’” 14. “Get Up, Stand Up” 15. “Zimbabwe” 16. “No Woman, No Cry” 17. “Rat Race” 18. “Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Roadblock)” 19. “Lively Up Yourself”
“KU students and a packed house danced and swayed to the reggae beats, with the smell of marijuana swirling throughout the hall after Bob was introduced in a deep, thickly Jamaican-accented admonition, “Put out your cigarettes and light up your spliffs… It’s gonna be a Rasta night in Kansas, man.”
The tour starts in Boston in late October 1979, and ends in Libreville, Gabon, on January 6, 1980. During 1979, which is the International Year of the Child, the band makes appearances at a few benefit concerts for children, as is the case on August 10, 1979, in Jamaica, prior to the Survival Tour, and on December 15, 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas. The tour mainly takes place in the United States, but also includes performances in the Caribbean and in Africa. The Survival Tour is the first and only tour the band includes a horn section, featuring Glen Da Costa on saxophone and David Madden on trumpet.
Most concerts in the United States and in Africa are opened by soul and R&B singer Betty Wright. However, opening this show is an all-white reggae band from Kansas City, Missouri. The Blue Riddim Band won a spot opening for Bob Marley Hoch at Auditorium in Lawrence tonight. Incidentally, they are best known for being the first all-white band nominated for a Grammy in the reggae category. In 1986 they lose the Grammy to Jimmy Cliff, who wins for his Cliff Hanger album. Other nominees include Burning Spear, Judy Mowatt and the Melody Makers featuring Ziggy Marley.
Kansas University History Professor Bill Tuttle is there for the performance. He recently shared his experience in the LJWorld, a Lawrence, Kansas online journal.
Click HERE to read his first-hand account of the performance.
I recently spoke to Professor Tuttle through email about his experience and this is what he had to say:
“I’ve attended a lot of concerts over the years, but nothing has ever moved me as much — especially spiritually — as the 1979 Bob Marley and the Wailers show at KU. There was a great deal of herb being shared in Hoch Auditorium, and I was able to inch my way down to the front, where I had a wonderful view of Marley and the I-Three.
By the way, the Blue Riddim Band was also fabulous!”
I have included a review of the show published in the Lawrence Journal on December 9, 1979.
I have included an audio file of the show in lossless (FLAC) audio.
Bob Marley and the Wailers
Live at the Hoch Auditorium
Kansas University
December 6, 1979
01. Positive Vibration [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (6:06) 02. Wake Up And Live [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (5:15) 03. Them Belly Full [But We Hungry] [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (3:39) 04. I Shot The Sheriff [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (4:40) 05. Concrete Jungle [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (5:01) 06. Running Away + Crazy Baldhead [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (7:19) 07. The Heathen [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (5:05) 08. Ambush In The Night [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (3:48) 09. War + No More Trouble [Incomplete] [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (4:40) 10. One Drop [Incomplete] [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (3:13) 11. Exodus [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (8:55) 12. No Woman, No Cry [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (6:08) 13. Lively Up Yourself [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (5:18) 14. Natty Dread [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (5:07) 15. Is This Love [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (3:23) 16. Jamming [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (3:30) 17. Get Up, Stand Up [Live At The Hoch Auditorium] (7:00)
Many thanks to my good friend Emmanuel Parata for sharing the photographs from the show. Please visit his website at www.bobmarleyarchive.com.
Also, credit is due to my friend and owner of www.bobmarleymagazine.com Marco Virgona for providing the interview with Professor Bill Tuttle of Kansas University.
Bob Marley and the Wailers are half way through their 1979 Survival tour of the US when they pull into the Edgewater Hotel on 666 Wisconsin Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin on November 11, 1979. The Edgewater, whose motto is “Where the only thing they overlook is Lake Mendota“, is a familiar place to Marley. He stayed here just last year when The Wailers played two back-to-back shows at the Orpheum Theater.
Hotel Manager Scott Faulkner recalls his visits:
“Bob Marley stayed here twice,” he said. “It was always a different hotel when he was here” — and Faulkner cut loose with a swirling you-know-what-I-mean laugh. “He had an entourage. And he would do his own cooking with his own spices. The halls were wafting.”
Bob Marley and the Wailers play to a crowd of 3,500 later that evening, mostly college students from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Performing songs from his most militant album Survival, Marley woos the crowd with stories of black oppression, repatriation, and black nationalism.
As described in the attached concert review from the Wisconsin State Journal, Marley’s vocals on songs like “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)”, “Concrete Jungle”, and “War”, were “delivered with the revolutionary conviction of a man who fervently believes in what he says.”
The Wailers, now an expanded collective of musicians, sporting two rock guitarists- one American, one British – provide a much fuller sound than the Wailers of just a few years back. And that sound, as much rock as it is reggae, fills the Dane County Coliseum to its capacity, leaving the audience almost breathless.
It isn’t all doom, gloom, and revolutionary fervor though. Marley juxtaposes his overtly rebellious songs with others celebrating life and living. “Wake Up and Live”, “Jammin’”, and “Exodus” round out the set, making everything seem balanced at the Dane that night.
I have included a concert review written by James McLinden and published in the Wisconsin State Journal on November 12, 1979.
I have also included a link to the lossless (FLAC) audio files of the show. Unfortunately, the recording circulates as incomplete, but the sound quality is excellent.
Set List
1. Positive Vibration 4:59 2. Wake Up And Live 5:07 3. Them Belly Full 3:40 4. Ambush In The Night 4:15 5. I Shot The Sheriff 4:53 6. Running Away 3:24 7. Crazy Baldhead 3:48 8. The Heathen 4:38 9. War 4:12 10. No More Trouble 1:48 11. Africa Unite 2:37
Interesting note about the guitar in this photograph. As you can see, Bob is not playing his Gibson. According to Mark Miller, Bob Marley’s Stage Manager from 1978-1980, in a recent note to me:
“In 1979 when we went to Japan, we were invited to the Yamaha Musical Instrument factory. We did a tour, saw what they were making (and they copied the sound of Fenders and Gibson’s exactly) and then before we left, they gave Bob a couple of guitars, with the one in your picture from Madison being one of them. Junior got a guitar, Al too, and Carly Barrett got an entire drum kit!”
Give thanks to Mark Miller for his continued contributions to the Midnight Raver blog. Mark continues to manage the best acts in reggae and world music. Please visit one of his artists, Nkulee Dube’s website at http://nativerhythms.co.za/website/nkulee-dube.
