Bunny Wailer celebrates 70th birthday with museum launch
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Since 1991 when his father died, birthdays have been bittersweet for Bunny Wailer. Thaddeus ‘Taddy Shut’ Livingston passed away on April 10 that year.
Today is Bunny Wailer’s (given name Neville Livingston) 70th birthday.
To mark the occasion, the reggae legend launched ‘Wailers Museum: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Bunny Wailer’ on April 9 in the Washington Gardens area of the capital. His manager, Maxine Stowe, expects the museum to be officially opened to the public by October.
The museum occupies four rooms of the home his father owned. For Wailer, the occasion, attended by family and artistes, was special.
“It means a lot…A museum relates to things an artiste has done over the years. We have a Bob Marley Museum an’ a Peter Tosh Museum so it’s appropriate for me open one at this time,” he told OBSERVER ONLINE.
Marley and Tosh were his colleagues in The Wailers, the famed group that formed in Trench Town during the ska era of the early 1960s.
They recorded two powerful albums (Catch A Fire and Burnin’) for Island Records in 1973 before pursuing solo careers.
Marley died from cancer in May 1981 at age 36. Tosh was murdered at his St Andrew home in September 1987 at age 42.
Photos, original album covers and a registration document acknowledging a change in their Tuff Gang company to Tuff Gong, are some of The Wailers pieces on show at the museum.
Bunny Wailer’s awards including three Grammys, his boyhood bamboo guitar and a gramophone that belonged to his father, are also displayed.
The museum launch is part of a series marking the singer/songwriter’s latest milestone. It started last Friday with a dinner/dance at Bournemouth club in Central Kingston.
Three of Wailer’s children, Tamara, Sasha and Asadenaki, and grandson Mark, attended the opening. Stranger Cole, Fred Locks, Capleton and Dre Tosh were some of the artistes present.
Howard Campbell