Music

Bob Marley loved to play football and there are plenty of parks in London where he enjoyed a game. For example, in 1977, at the height of the reggae superstar’s fame, he played an 11-a-side match at Battersea Park against a team that included Danny Baker. Marley took his football so seriously that his tour entourage included Jamaica’s star footballer at the time, Skill Cole. ‘Skill was effectively Bob’s sporting advisor,’ says Rob Partridge, Marley’s former press officer at Island Records. Feature continues

Marley would play football wherever he was touring. In fact, the cancer that eventually killed him was first diagnosed after he picked up a toe injury during a game in France in 1977.

He is said to have been a skilful midfield player, who thought half-time breaks were for cissies. But he didn’t much like getting tackled. ‘He had an on-pitch minder called Skully,’ remembers Partridge. ‘You’d tackle Bob at your peril!’

When Marley came to London to play Crystal Palace Bowl in 1980, he didn’t want to do any interviews. Instead, Partridge booked the five-a-side court at Eternit Wharf Sports Centre in Fulham for four afternoons. Anybody who wanted to meet Bob had to challenge him and the Wailers to a match. ‘I remember we took all 11 Wailers up to a sports shop on the Fulham Palace Road to get some kit,’ says Partridge. ‘The shopkeepers didn’t know what had hit them.’

Over the next four days, Marley and the boys played solidly, against everyone from the Record Mirror to Eddy Grant, whose Ice Records brought a side. ‘It wasn’t an organised set of games so much as one, long freeform kickabout,’ says Partridge.

A week later, Marley played Crystal Palace – which turned out to be his last ever London show (within a year he was dead). Eternit Wharf was eventually bought by Cannon Health Clubs, who’ve since turned the five-a-side hall into a swimming pool. We called them and suggested they introduce a late-night ‘reggae swim’ in Bob’s honour. They thought that was a ‘good idea’. Watch this space.