On this day (July 12) in 1980, Bob Marley & The Wailers played their 2nd and final show in
#Wales 🏴 at the Deeside Leisure Centre on one of the last dates of the UPRISING tour!
#todayinbobslife
Show review highlights from the Chester Chronicle, July 1980: “The set opened with Natural Mystic, instantly recognisable, before Marley went on to play some of his lesser-known stuff. For the first hour or so, things went well enough, but then came the opening chords of Jammin’, and the whole place nearly took off. The concert simply lifted to a different plane.”
“The music was tight without being strictly bound to the album originals, proving if nothing else that Marley is a professional and that his musicians are men of imagination and flexibility, unlike some bands who use tours simple to put across, note for note, the stuff they put on the albums they want to promote.“
“[As the set came to a close] the band and Marley simply got up and walked off-stage. No one had the slightest intention of letting them go, and 4,500 voices shouting for more put the message across.”
“Rating? Outstanding.”
On the venue: “Thinking back now the sound must have been awful, just a big echo chamber, a massive shed with an ice floor with a carpet on it. And the capacity generated a lot of heat, so the ice started to melt and by the end of the concert your feet were standing in freezing water. But to be honest you didn’t really care, you were seeing people that you’d only ever seen on the telly and I’ve heard people say they couldn’t have cared less if the water came up to their knees, they would have still gone.”
📷 by
#AdrianBoot
©️ Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd.