Second-hand reggae LPs are relatively uncommon in this part of the world, which means I’ve collected rather few of them: four or five LPs and a handful of singles. Even the wildly popular Legend compilation posthumously bringing together some of Bob Marley’s most popular songs is something I’ve never seen in the charity shops hereabouts, and only seldom at used record stores. When I did recently catch sight of a copy on sale for £8 at ‘The Vinyl Spinner’ market stall in Monmouth, I felt the inclination to buy it.

It’s a record I’d heard often enough in various circumstances in the past: a flatmate at university had a home-taped cassette copy, for example, and it played in the background at no few student parties; my former mother-in-law was a fan had it on CD. These tunes were often on the radio. Putting the record on my turntable for the first time, though, I realised that in many cases it had probably been a half a decade or more since I’d last heard some of these wonderful songs.