Hollywood Park • The Wailers

The Wailers

July 9, 2010

Together with Bob Marley, the Wailers have sold in excess of 250 million albums worldwide. In England alone, they’ve notched up over twenty chart hits, including seven Top 10 entries. Outside of their groundbreaking work with Marley, the Wailers have also played or performed with international acts like Sting, the Fugees, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, and Alpha Blondy, as well as reggae legends such as Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, and Burning Spear. As the greatest living exponents of Jamaica’s reggae tradition, the Wailers have completed innumerable other tours, playing to an estimated 24 million people across the globe. They have also been the first reggae band to tour new territories on many occasions, including Africa and the Far East.

Their nucleus formed in 1969, when Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh recruited the Barrett brothers – bassist Aston “Family Man” and drummer Carly – from Lee Perry’s Upsetters to play on hits such as Lively Up Yourself, Trenchtown Rock, Duppy Conqueror, and many more besides. Inspired by Rastafari and their ambitions of reaching an international audience, this is the line-up that pioneered roots rock reggae, and signed to Island Records in 1971. Bunny and Peter left two years later. It was at this point that the in-demand Barrett brothers – whose rhythms also underpinned innumerable seventies’ reggae hits by other acts – assumed the title of Wailers, and backed Marley on the group’s international breakthrough album, Natty Dread. Under Family Man’s musical leadership, they then partnered Bob Marley on the succession of hit singles and albums that made him a global icon, winner of several Lifetime Achievement awards, and Jamaica’s best-loved musical superstar.

Drummer Carlton “Carlie” Barrett died in 1987, leaving his brother as the main beneficiary of the Wailers’ mantle. Subsequent line-ups have revolved around Family Man, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest bass players. Modest and unassuming, he was present on all of those unforgettable performances by Bob Marley & The Wailers from the seventies. The Wailers recently re-affirmed their continuing relevance and versatility in modern music with a guest spot on country superstar Kenny Chesney’s hit single “Everyone Wants to Go to Heaven,” also appearing in the video for the song, shot in Jamaica. The band is currently working on an album of all-new original material, due for release sometime later this year.

In the meantime, the Wailers continue to perform to packed audiences around the world, including their international “Exodus” tour, which saw the band playing the full album of the same name onstage, selling out crowds around the world. They haven’t foregone their social consciousness, either: they’ve spearheaded the new charity I Went Hungry, designed to use funds designated for touring bands’ lavish “riders” to benefit the World Food Program (WFP) in conjunction with the United Nations – feeding thousands of starving children around the globe.

Legends in their own time, the Wailers continue to be an active force in today’s music scene, not just with the undeniable influence upon multiple generations of musicians in all genres, but the ongoing spread of their message of peace, love and defiance that began almost forty years ago. Their journey is far from over, and the world is still waiting to catch the Wailers’ next move.