Reminiscing Roots Bamboo

[johng]

Someone should compile a "Reggae History of Roots Bamboo"!! I don't know who would know the complete list of Reggae Shows there. I saw so many that I can hardly remember them all. The ones that come to mind are Yellowman, Burning Spear, Gregory Issacs, Culture, Lee "Scratch" Perry and Peter Tosh. There were many more but due to the passage of time, the smoke and Rum and general memory loss that's all I can recall. If I remember going back to the 70's and 80's Roots Bamboo was a very small very intimate venue. I remember at that time there was no stage and the artists set up on a concrete slab. There was no seating and there was a modest roof over head. I assume things have changed since then but I can't be sure. Whoever is the current owner perhaps has a complete list of the gigs there???

[Rob]

Someone should compile a "Reggae History of Roots Bamboo"!! I don't know who would know the complete list of Reggae Shows there. I saw so many that I can hardly remember them all. The ones that come to mind are Yellowman, Burning Spear, Gregory Issacs, Culture, Lee "Scratch" Perry and Peter Tosh. There were many more but due to the passage of time, the smoke and Rum and general memory loss that's all I can recall. If I remember going back to the 70's and 80's Roots Bamboo was a very small very intimate venue. I remember at that time there was no stage and the artists set up on a concrete slab. There was no seating and there was a modest roof over head. I assume things have changed since then but I can't be sure. Whoever is the current owner perhaps has a complete list of the gigs there???

I lived at Roots in 1996 and 97 and essentially everyone in Jamaica has played there at one time or another. It was hard enough to organize the shows, no one kept a listing of everyone who played. Maybe you forget but everything was on a cash basis and flyers were usually all distributed. The point was to make sure the show happened, not to keep a history of artists.

The nearest thing would be checking out the Negril.com archives. From 1996 to 2003 I wrote about every performance at Roots, reviewed and even mentioned the ones were live webcast!

It's only 8 years, but better than nothing at all.

The 70s are 50 years ago. Hurricane Gilbert made any documents at Roots before '88 disappear.

We have been helping different locals try to write an early history of Negril. Each person interviewed has a different take on what happened, when and what didn't happen. There will never be an accurate history of Negril's transition to tourism.

[johng]

Yes understood! Something like record keeping of what bands have played Roots Bamboo probably wasn't a priority.