By Umer Nangiana
Doha is all set to welcome the legends of reggae music, The Wailers, in a concert here at Sheraton hotel today. Together with the legendary Bob Marley, they have sold in excess of 250 million albums worldwide.
As the greatest living exponents of Jamaica’s reggae tradition, The Wailers have completed innumerable tours, playing to an estimated 24 million people across the globe.
In England alone, they have notched up over twenty chart hits, including seven Top 10 entries. Outside of their ground-breaking work with Marley, The Wailers have also played and performed with international acts like Sting, the Fugees, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana and Alpha Blondy.
The Wailers have been the first reggae band to tour new territories on many occasions including Africa and the Far East. Besides Marley, they have performed with reggae legends such as Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Burning Spear.
Their nucleus was 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.
The band will perform from a wide range of songs such as Is This Love, No Woman No Cry, Could You Be Loved, Three Little Birds, Buffalo Soldier, Get Up Stand Up, Stir It Up, Easy Skanking, One Love/People Get Ready, I Shot, The Sheriff, Waiting In Vain, Redemption Song, Satisfy My Soul, Exodus, Jamming and Punk Reggea Party at the Indigo, Sheraton.
Inspired by Rastafari and their ambitions of reaching an international audience, the band’s original line-up was the one 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 with 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. Reggae music has never stopped evolving but for millions of people from around the world it is still defined by the songs of Bob Marley and the Wailers.
It has been their heartbeat rhythms that have inspired so much of what has followed since, as evidenced by the enduring popularity of the “one-drop” reggae sound.
The history of the band during Marley’s lifetime is well known. Their most recent collaborators include Kenny Chesney, Eve, Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat. The anchor of the band is Aston Barrett, who in addition to being Marley’s most trusted lieutenant, played on countless other classic reggae hits throughout the seventies.
The authenticity he brings to the Wailers’ sound is indisputable and yet today’s line-up combines old school know-how with lead vocals from one of Jamaica’s most exciting new singers.
THE WAILERS: Aston Barrett.
