The Bob Marley Revival vocalist Natty: looks like Bob, sings like Bob

“Everybody loves Bob Marley / everywhere you go it’s the same old story / people of all nation / they love the Rastaman Vibration” – so sings reggae artist Macka B in his musical tribute to the best known of all reggae stars.

But for fans under the age of 40, who weren’t even alive when Bob died, his music has never been an in-person experience.
It was with this in mind that prompted musician Don Cardoza to create The Bob Marley Revival, a band that works through Bob’s exceptional back catalogue and brings it to the stage.

The Bob Marley Revival are playing on Saturday September 10 at the 02 Academy in Islington – and then headlining the free York Rise street party in Kentish Town the following day.

Bassist Don recalls how while playing with his band, Roots Ambassadors, the idea of a group solely dedicated to bringing Marley and the Wailers to new audiences formed: “One day, I looked at the singer, my friend Natty, and I said to him: you know what, you look like Bob Marley, and you sound like Bob Marley – could you do his music?”

From this conversation came a band that brings back to the stage the most seminal reggae artist in the world, and one of the best selling, most widely known performers of any genre. Next, they set out to find three singers capable of handling the intricate and soulful harmonies of the Wailers backing trio, the I-Threes, made up of Rita Marley, Martha Watts and Marcia Griffiths.

“Great singers do not grow on trees and we have a trio who cannot be bettered,” he adds.

Marley’s music has provided the soundtrack to Don’s life. Working as a roadie for reggae band Israel Movement, he already fallen in love with the bass guitar, and watching the band tour, sitting in on their sessions, inspired him further.

“They were all Rastas and brothers,” says Don. “They listened to a lot of Bob Marley. I completely fell in love with the Wailers bassist, Carlton ‘Family Man’ Barrett. I loved all the tunes, but I really fell for the bass player. I learned each song in every detail, I knew all his nuances. After they had finished playing, me and another roadie would go in, pick up the bass and get on the drums, and have a jam ourselves.”

After shifting many a speaker, amp and instrument, Don got an opportunity to take to the stage himself: “One day, the bass player dropped out, so I jumped in.”

Don’s musical inheritance started with his family. “My love of music began with my grandfather,” he says. “He had an eight track system at home, in the days way before cassettes. It was wonderful to hear it played.”

Lying on the floor and watching Top of the Pops is another inspirational childhood memory and it wasn’t long before Don wanted an instrument of his own. “I took a hardback copy of The Beezer comic annual,” he recalls. “I tied four elastic bands round it and there it was – my first bass guitar.”

Growing up in Birmingham, Don enjoyed Blues parties, hosted by friends and relatives with tunes busting out of home-made sound systems. “They’d go on all night,” he says. “They were common place in the 70s and 80s – somewhere for people to come, let their hair down, costing nothing and with a sense of belonging.”

And the reggae explosion also hit Don and his generation squarely.

“There was a scene – the likes of Steel Pulse, UB40, for example,” he adds. “I was really into ska. My generation had all those tribes – Rude Boys, mods, skins, punks. I was part of the Rude Boy scene. We’d go into the city centre and there’d be these clashes with skins and punks and rockers.”

But above all it was about the music and ska was a gateway for Don into a rich, ever-changing world of reggae. The bass became his instrument of choice, playing with the celebrated Israel Movement. Now Don and his band are revisiting the work of the man who truly took reggae global.

“I have heard Marley’s music all my life,” he says. “I first head Bob Marley as a 16-year-old – I mean really heard him. I understood it and felt it. What Bob Marley is, and what he means to me personally.”

The Bob Marley Revival

A Revival set will have the classics – “we play all the bangers,” adds Don – but also shows quite the depth of how much music Marley and his collaborators composed. “Sometimes we go off the beaten track – it depends where the crowd takes us,” he says.

As well as the older reggae heads who come to hear them, younger generations are just as touched by the music, says Don. It’s the power of the messages his lyrics contain, he adds.

“Marley is one of the very few artists in the world who was willing to literally put his life on the line for what he believed,” he says. “He wore his heart on his sleeve. He was completely transparent . So many artists are self-seeking and self-serving, they sing about their own lives and experiences. Marley was all about giving, hearing, explaining.

“When he performed, he was 100 per cent natural in every expression. From the moment he went on stage to the moment he came off, he opened his heart. That is an absolute rarity. He never held back, he was absolutely genuine. His main purpose was to get the message of peace, love and unity out there.”

And because Marley’s works are overtly political, The Revival say today’s world needs his music more than ever.

“He wanted to see an end to war and conflict, for people to wake up and realise what their life is really worth,” says Don. “That is what Bob Marley brought to the table and I cannot name one artist who has done that like Bob.”

• The Bob Marley Revival play the Islington Academy, 21 Parkfield Street, N1 0PS, on Saturday, September 10, and the York Rise street party on Sunday, September 11. See www.facebook.com/thewailersrevival