Lost Bob Marley recordings restored after years in a London hotel basement

A hoard of Bob Marley recordings have been discovered in a damp hotel basement in Kensal Rise, where Bob Marley and The Wailers stayed during their tours of Europe in the mid 1970s.

The thirteen 2" reel-to-reel analogue master tapes were originally thought to be damaged beyond repair. But thanks to modern day restoration technology, all but three of the master reels have been successfully cleaned and restored. Some of the tapes included the original live recordings of Bob Marley's concerts in London filmed between 1974 and 1978.

The master tapes were rescued from a refuse truck by Marley fan and business man Joe Gatt.

The restoration process took nearly a year to complete as each tape had to be carefully cleaned after suffering a lot of water damage. But the process was finished just in time for the anniversary of Bob Marley's birthday.

Marley who died in 1981, would have been 72 today.