This is the third in a series of posts put together by Fred “Reggaelover” P where he selects a photo to share, and the photographer describes the circumstances and context within which the photo was taken.
Fred’s selections this week are photos from Bob’s performance at Dalymount Park, Dublin, Ireland in 1980, shared by our good friend and photographer Eddie Mallin.
The 6th July 1980 Bob Marley played the now historic concert at Dalymount Park on Dublin’s north side. Dublin was only starting to experience major music acts and Bob Marley was a major attraction. A local band Bagatelle set the scene with their classic “Summer in Dublin” an enduring romantic ballad about the city. The main support act The Average White Band was cancelled and this caused a lot of confusion outside the gig as the promoters were advising customers as they entered the grounds offering refunds of the £7 admission charge. No takers so it was obvious everyone was here to see Bob.
The replacement was Ronnie Lane and Friends who did a short set. The I Three’s did a warm up before Bob arrived on stage, he was promoting his Uprising album and played most of the tracks in the first half of the concert. I was reminded by one of the comments on You Tube that
Redemption Song got a special dedication to the Irish struggle, he was quite animated on stage, the photographs I took show this clearly. There were no obvious signs he was unwell. I believe this was the last outdoor concert before his untimely death.
From a photographers perspective I was badly placed in the middle of the crowd, and with so much dancing around me it was difficult to get sharp images with a long lens. I got a few good ones and only ever displayed these on-line, recently one of the Marley websites asked me to put all the images from the gig up which I did and got a very positive response from Marley fans all over the world. I have them on Flickr and on You Tube. I have them listed as “non commercial share alike” which has seen them used on Blogs and websites all over the world by Marley fans. They have also been used on some special Marley projects.
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They are using your photo on bob’s Wiki page and it says late 70′s, my nephew was there at 9 years of age, best £7 worth he ever had!!
Thanks. Wiki is obviously wrong, as they are 75% of the time on just about anything.