Ten “lost” live recordings by Bob Marley & The Wailers will be auctioned after 40 years.
The recordings were accidentally found in the basement of a hotel in Little Venice in Western London.
The ten analog cassettes were recovered during the renovation.
They have suffered damage due to water and mold, but the sound engineer, Martin Nichols, managed to restore them after two years.
The recordings were from concerts in the 70s at the Lyceum Theater in London‘s West End, the Rainbow Theater in Finsbury Park, and the Pavillon Baltard in Paris.
Among other things, the cassettes include the songs: “No Woman No Cry“, “Is This Love” and “Jamming“.
The concerts were recorded in the UK’s only mobile studio, which was “borrowed” by Rolling Stones.
The owner
The cassettes were saved by businessman Joe Gatt, who mention in “The Guardian”, he had a friend who worked during the clearance of the hotel.
Gatt asked his friend and neighbor, Louis Hoover, Jazz singer, what to do next.
Hoover replied: “When I finally saw the labels and footnotes on the tapes, I could not believe in my eyes.
But when I also saw how much serious damage they had suffered, it was “a stomach punch” … He asked who could save the tapes and headed to Nichols”.
Nichols, said: “When I first saw the cassettes, I had to say “No thanks guys”, as they were full of mold and suffered serious damage from water.
If someone tried to play them, in this situation, they would have destroyed them forever. Strenuous rehabilitation was a struggle for love” Nichols concluded.

The auction
The tapes, with digitally restored sound, will be sold by the Omega auction house at Merseyside in three lots on May 21st.
Each has a starting price of £25,000 and auctioneer Paul Fairweather predicts global interest.
