After spending the best part of 40 years in a damp London hotel basement, a number of lost Bob Marley tapes have been recovered.
Discovered in cardboard boxes, the 13 reel-to-reel analogue master tapes were found in the basement of a hotel in Kensal Rise, northwest London where Bob Marley and The Wailers lodged during their 1970’s European tours.
The tapes, dubbed as ‘the lost masters‘ by the reggae icon’s extensive fanbase, were initially thought to be ruined beyond repair due to water damage. Now, after more than 12 months of scrupulous work using a variety of audio techniques and £25,000 later, the tapes were restored. The quality of the restoration has been so successful in fact, the sound quality of the audio has been described as enough to “send shivers down ones spine“.
The tapes include live recordings of some of Marley’s most famous tracks, including live versions of ‘Jammin‘, ‘No Woman No Cry‘, ‘I Shot The Sheriff‘ and ‘Exodus‘.
Joe Gatt, who’s friend discovered the tapes said “He was doing a building refuse clearance that included some discarded two-inch tapes from the 1970s. I couldn’t just stand by and let these objects, damaged or not, be destroyed so I asked him not to throw them away,”.
The tapes changed hands a number of times, making their way from jazz singer Louis Hoover to sound technician specialist Martin Nichols of White House studios in Weston-super-Mare. Nichols stated that the tapes “were in such an appalling condition they should have been binned,” then after the restoration, he added, “The end result has really surprised me, because they are now in a digital format and are very high quality. It shows the original recordings were very professionally made.”
Since the tapes have been restored, the parties involved have been blown away by the quality and rareity. Hoover has compared the discovery of these lost gems to “finding Van Gogh’s easel, paint pallet and paints in an old room somewhere, then Vincent emerges through a secret door to paint 26 of his finest masterpieces … purely for us.”
