Staff Reporter
IT was a throwback to the Jamaica of the 1980s.
Two of the legendary Marley family graced the same stage to pay tribute to their father, the most successful reggae artist of all time.
Headlining Rototom Sunsplash festival, in Benicassim, Valencia, Damien Marley was clearly delighted to welcome his older brother Julian on stage during an encore.
Sharing the stage for their dad’s seminal hit, Could You Be Loved, will certainly go down as one of the best live moments of the year.
And the pair clearly get on despite their three-year age gap – and brother Damien’s bigger commercial success.
Bouncing around and grinning at each other, they have both had successful musical careers, although Damien has won four Grammys over recent years, in part due to his fusion with rap music.
The duet came during the second encore of the headline slot for Damien in which he played a medley of his dad’s hits including War, Is This Love and Exodus.
It had been a great opening night to Europe’s biggest reggae festival over an extraordinary seven nights at the FIB fiesta ground in Benicassim.
Reggae legends the Skatalites opened the festival with their classic brand of ska/reggae fusion, on the go since 1963.
A joyous performance that the crowd rose to, they jumped about to a series of famous songs including A Rock Fort Rock and crowd-pleaser Simmer Down.
But it was Damien Marley that whipped the crowd up into a frenzy in particular with his hits, There For You, Medication and Jam Rock at the final close.
Then it was off for a few hours of dub treatment on the incredible dub stage. The only gripe the 90-minutes spent (no exaggeration) queuing for jerk chicken.
The annual Rototom reggae festival is the largest in Europe and goes on for seven days until August 22 when Burning Spear headline. Visit www.rototomsunsplash.com for more information.
