Catch A Fire (50th Anniversary Edition)

Catch A Fire is the fifth studio album by Bob Marley and the Wailers and the first to be released by Island Records UK. Originally having a limited release under the name, The Wailers in a sleeve depicting a Zippo lighter, designed by graphic artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner. Future releases would have the classic portrait of Marley smoking a “spliff” and crediting the band as Bob Marley and the Wailers with the image taken by Esther Anderson. A tour taking place in the UK and US generating international interest in the band.

Critical acclaim has included the album being listed at number 126 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, It is regarded as one of the top reggae albums of all time.

In 1971 after a solo tour Marley returned to Jamaica with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer to record Catch A Fire but the sessions were abandoned because of clashes with Johnny Nash and Danny Sims. The band did not have funds to return to Jamaica, nor could they earn money due to work-permit restrictions, The group’s London Road manager, Brent Clarke, recommended they get in contact with Chris Blackwell from Island Records, who had released licensed singles by The Wailers from Studio One in Great Britain. Blackwell gave the group an advance of £4000 to help them get home to Jamaica, and to complete the recording of their next album. In 1972 the album was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica at 3 different studios. As the story goes, in 1972 Marley flew back to London to play the tapes to Chris Blackwell. CBS and Sims, with whom the band were already contracted, took Blackwell and the Island Records label to court over the recording, Island won the case, Blackwell remixed the tracks at the Island Studios on Basing Street and included overdubs.

April 2023 saw the 50th Anniversary of Catch A Fire, to mark this a limited edition 7” featuring 2 alternate versions of Stir It Up (vocal and instrumental) both feature on these releases. The 3LP+12” vinyl package will consist of the studio album, Live at The Paris Theatre London, previously only ever bootlegged, will get its first official release, the package also feature’s Alt, extended and instrumental Jamaican versions of album tracks Slave Driver, 400 Years No More Trouble and Stop That Train, finally on the 12” is 3 tracks from the Wailer’s performance at the Sundown Theatre in the village of Edmonton, North London, playing tracks Slave Driver, Stop That Train & Get Up Stand, Stand up, the reverse side has an etched image of the Zippo lighter.

The LP & CD packages will feature books made up of classic images of Bob from his photo shoots with Adrian Boot, Arthur Gorson who shot images of Bob for 2 weeks in Jamaica, Dennis Morris, & Neville Garrick, many of these images have never been seen before, press clippings from the era and release of the album, Brand new notes have been written by renowned music journalist and author Chris Salewicz who was close friends with Bob spending a lot of time with him. The packages will use covers of both the Zippo lighter & Bob smoking on either side. The D2C offering will be a limited run pressed on coloured vinyl.