Bob Marley

A legend whose political convictions shone as brightly as his music, Bob Marley spread the message of "one love" on an almost global level. With his vocal group The Wailers in tow, he embraced Jamaican reggae, ska and soul through the mid-Sixties, later moving towards the emerging rocksteady sound and a lyricism preoccupied with justice, independence and peace. It was to be a few years later, during collaborations with Lee Perry, that his sound reached its full maturity - and in 1975 he achieved his first UK chart hit with No Woman No Cry. After surviving an assassination attempt in 1976, a minor football injury initiated cancer which continued to spread throughout his body, claiming his life in 1981. He was just 36 years old.