40 years ago this week, Bob Marley played in Crystal Palace park, debuting Redemption Song and enchanting the crowd – but signs of his decline were already there
What turned out to be the last Garden Party in Crystal Palace, on 7 June 1980, had already been pretty memorable. Joe Jackson was booed off stage after swearing at the audience before several people fell into the lake when a branch broke off a tree. But like most in the crowd that day 40 years ago, a teenage Rob Baker had come to see one act: Bob Marley and the Wailers.
“For the last song, the sun came out,” says Baker, who travelled from his home in
Salisbury to south
London for the concert. “And he came back on stage to play Redemption Song with just an acoustic guitar. It was a very special moment because no one had heard it before.”