Michael Lee-ChinAFTER OVER 30 years of 'living' in California, Bob Marley is finally coming home. Images of him, that is.
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported yesterday that Jamaican-Canadian businessman, Michael Lee-Chin, has bought the world-famous Marley collection from Roger Steffens, the respected Wailers archivist.
The publication did not give monetary details of the sale but said Steffens confirmed the transaction in Sydney, Australia, where the American is presenting Catch A Fire, a two-hour Marley biography video. Lee-Chin, who lives in Canada, could not be reached for comment.
Lee-Chin, the story said, will donate the archives to the Jamaican Government to form part of the National Museum of Jamaican Music. Lee-Chin, who was born in Portland, is the chairman of National Commercial Bank (NCB). Fortune Magazine rates him among the wealthiest men in the world.
INT'L RECOGNITION
Steffens' Marley archive is based at his home in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is recognised internationally as the most comprehensive of its kind. It covers six rooms and includes 12,000 records and compact discs, 10,000 posters and flyers and 12,000 hours of demos, interviews and rehearsals by Marley, his band The Wailers and other reggae greats.
In a 2002 interview, Steffens said he was strongly considering selling his archives because it had become too taxing for him to maintain. "I can't handle it anymore, it belongs in an institution but it must fall into the right hands, who have respect for it," he said.
Steffens, 61, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has been collecting Marley and reggae memorabilia since the early 1970s when he said he first discovered Jamaican culture through director Perry Henzell's film, The Harder They Come. He said he first heard the music of Marley and The Wailers when he bought their sensational 1973 album, Catch A Fire.
In the late 1970s, his interest in Jamaican music grew and he hosted a radio show featuring reggae in the late 1970s. In 1979, he was reportedly invited by Chris Blackwell, head of Island Records, the company to which Marley was signed, to travel with the singer for two weeks while he was supporting his Survival album.
Steffens has written reams of liner notes on the Marley legacy as well as on Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, Marley's colleagues in the original Wailers. He is an actor and has appeared in minor roles in noted films such as Wag The Dog, Mississippi Burning and Forrest Gump.
- Howard Campbell
