It’s Bob Marley Weekend on OFM! Not only are we playing the best from the reggae icon, you could also win R1000. Tune in to find out how to enter!

Robert Nesta Marley was born on the farm of his maternal grandfather in Nine Mile, Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica on 6 February 1945. Marley and Neville Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer) were childhood friends. They started to play music together while at Stepney Primary and Junior High School.

Later Bob’s mom and Neville’s father had a daughter together and the whole family ended up living in the same house in Trenchtown. Marley soon found himself in a vocal group with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite. Then Joe Higgs, who was part of the successful vocal act Higgs and Wilson, helped them develop their vocal harmonies, and more importantly, he had started to teach Marley how to play guitar—thereby creating the bedrock that would later allow Marley to construct some of the biggest-selling reggae songs in the history of the genre.

In the liner notes of Africa Unite: The Singles Collection, Island Records boss Chris Blackwell wrote: "'Is This Love' is a great song and I was always very happy with Kaya, the album it came from. It had a very summery, carefree feel. When the album came out, several reviewers said he'd gone soft. But Bob was feeling great at that time and those songs reflected how he was feeling."