Bob Marley made a plan to visit Brazil so as to promote the launch of Ariola label. On a private jet, he traveled with his girlfriend Nathalie Delon, Chris Blackwell, Jacob Miller, and Junior Marvin. It was a long flight towards Rio de Janeiro. To the television reporters covering his visit to Brazil, Bob Marley declared that Reggae and Samba with the same roots would soon meet. The next day, after landing in Brazil Bob, Jacob Miller, and Junior Marvin visited Rio de Janeiro and bought a mandolin among other Brazilian percussion instruments.
They later had a football game in which Bob’s team won 3-0 against the other team. A year earlier, Marley had declared his perception of football. According to him, football was freedom. He has always been a fan of Brazilian football and Pele was his favorite player. He played football regularly and when in Rio de Janeiro, he seized the opportunity to play the legendary match on the private pitch owned by the musician Chic Buarque’s pitch. While still in the country, he enjoyed himself and created songs such as “Pray for me”.
After the trip and back to Jamaica, Jacob Miller was killed in a road accident after losing concentration bobmarley-fan.com, (par. 2).
(bobmarley-fan.com. The Story of Bob Marley in Brazil-1980. n.d. retrieved from https://bobmarley-fan.com/brazil-1980/)
16 April 1980
Chris Blackwell, Bob Marley’s’ manager was against his tour to Zimbabwe
when two of Zimbabwe’s businessmen approached the musician during the country’s Independence Day eve. The businessmen and club owner had agreed on Bob Marley as the musician who would sing for the New Zimbabweans as they celebrated their independence day. Since he had been following events in the country, he made a decision to go. He hired a PA system in London and paid for his flight to the country. Bob Marley was at the height of his career and that fact attracted a lot of people’s attention to Zimbabwe. At the time of Chimurenga, Marley’s music was adopted by guerrilla forces of the Patriotic Front.
ZANLA troops played Marley’s songs using cassettes while in the Bush.
On arriving at Salisbury Airport, police struggled to control the crowds who had come to witness his arrival. Marley spent the night with former guerrilla fighters at Skyline Hotel which was located on the outskirts of Harare. Foreign journalists had booked all the big hotels. The next day, he spent time with Mutoko marijuana farmers and sampled the herb. At Rufaro Stadium in Mbare, Marley took to the stage to the excitement of the present crowds.
Teargas was shot into the crowd and Bob was in his element that he did not realize what was happening. While on stage, an even greater response was elicited whenever Bob called out ‘Viva Zimbabwe!’.
(Hans Thobile. Remembering Bob Marley At The Birth Of Zimbabwe. Forbes. 2015.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinternational/2015/04/02/remembering-bob-marley-at-the-birth-of-zimbabwe/#74904a2936c5)
23 September 1980
As part of the Uprising Tour, Bob Marley held a concert at Stanley theatre. The tour was the largest music tour in Europe in 1980. Essentially, it began in Zurich Switzerland. The Stanley theatre concert was actually the last of the tour. Marley collapsed while jogging in New York City’s Central Park two days prior to the show. That was after he had performed two shows at Madison Square Gardena. As a result, he was told to cancel the US tour but he flew to Pittsburgh instead. Earlier, he had been diagnosed with malignant melanoma cancer. He had been seeking medical attention in various clinics across the world.
Uprising was a directly religious in the sense that the songs in the album communicated his Rastafarian beliefs. The band was consistent of Aston Barrett, Carlton Barrett, Alvin Patterson, Earl Lindo, Tyrone Downie, Al Anderson, Junior Marvin, Judy Mowatt, Rita Marley, and Marcia Griffiths. The songs performed were: Could You Be Loved, Work, Coming in from the Cold, Zion Train, Redemption Song. The tour as undertaken in the following cities in the order they appear—the first city was first toured and the last the same.
Zurich, Munich, Grenoble, Dijon, Cologne, London, Kaiserslautern, Strasbourg, Orleans, Bordeaux, Dortmund, Hamburg, Drammen, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin. Kassel, Brussels
Rotterdam, Netherlands, Lillie, France, Toulon, France;
Milan, Italy; Turin, Italy; Madrid, Spain; Barcelona, Spain, Nantes, France; Paris, France
Dublin, Ireland, Brighton, Scotland; Glasgow, Scotland; Queensberry, Wales; Stafford, England
Boston, USA; Providence, Rhode Island, USA; New York City, USA; Pittsburgh, USA.
This was his last concert as he passed on in the following year after struggling with the disease since 1977 when he was diagnosed with cancer.
(Kahn Andy. Bob Marley Performs Final Concert On This Date in 1980. 2016Retrieved from https://www.jambase.com/article/bob-marley-performs-final-concert-date-1980)
References
bobmarley-fan.com. The Story of Bob Marley in Brazil-1980. n.d. retrieved from https://bobmarley-fan.com/brazil-1980/
Hans Thobile. Remembering Bob Marley At The Birth Of Zimbabwe. Forbes. 2015.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinternational/2015/04/02/remembering-bob-marley-at-the-birth-of-zimbabwe/#74904a2936c5
Kahn Andy. Bob Marley Performs Final Concert On This Date in 1980. 2016. Retrieved from https://www.jambase.com/article/bob-marley-performs-final-concert-date-1980
Retrieved from https://bobmarley-fan.com/brazil-1980/
Retrieved from https://www.jambase.com/article/bob-marley-performs-final-concert-date-1980
