Toots performing at Sunsplash 2006. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

With memorable items of music memorabilia on the walls, the 8,000 square feet of the Hard Rock Café, Ocho Rios, is 'rock solid'. Although open for business since last November, it was officially launched two Saturdays ago.

The trip into music history, mostly rock but with a healthy dose of reggae, begins just within the door to the lower level of the café at 4 Main Street in the St. Ann business capital. The Smashing Pumpkins take pride of place in the small foyer, a printed set list from their tour to support the Adore LP among the items in the foyer before the stairs.

Heading up the steps to the upper party and dining level, The Sex Pistols take a shot, there is a guitar that belonged to the black lightning fingers of Jimmy Hendrix and a poster gives a good picture of the guitar genius.

Upstairs, most of the walls are decorated with interesting items, each identified by a gold-coloured plaque with black writing. Some people get more than one entry, with a "gold fabric bra with multicoloured beads worn by Madonna during her 1993 Girlie Show tour" close to a handwritten letter from her during the filming of A League of Their Own. In that letter, Madonna wrote she is "here with a bunch of girls (yuk) in Chicago (double yuk)".

The authenticity of handwriting seems to be a big factor, as there is a note from George Harrison of the Beatles to a fan, accompanying a cigarette box, the letter to 'Dear Diane' ending with "see you at wherever it is".

A Legend's signature

A simple handwritten 'Peter Tosh' is under a gold 45 rpm record commemorating the sales of more than 100,000 copies of (You Gotta Walk) Don't Look Back), dated March 1979. Then there is a handwritten copy of the lyrics to the Black Crowes' Struttin Blues, the plaque stating that they were written as part of a court case where the writer was asked to write out the lyrics because a manager said he had signed an agreement with him on a napkin.

On the reggae side there are Bob Marley's handwritten lyrics to Jammin.

Marley is not the only reggae rocker on the walls of Hard Rock Café Ocho Rios, as Maxi Priest, a poster from Shaggy's Hot Shot album and the original cover of Yellowman's Yellow Like Cheese album are close by.

There is a 'Motley Crue' sign that was "used to identify the band and crew backstage during the 'Dr. Feelgood' tour and lots of Led Zeppelin items, from posters to jackets, with The Who also getting good play.

From Chuck Berry to Elvis Presley, Santana to Toots Hibbert, music history lives on Hard Rock Café Ocho Rios' walls.