The Legendary Wailers Biography

Born in Jamaica, Julian Junior Marvin moved to London as a child, where his love of both acting and music was well nurtured by his family and the UK theater community.  He appeared in the Beatles’ film “Help” which was followed by a number of other successful appearances on British Television. Junior was also a member of the London Cast of the musical “Hair” and can be heard on the Original London Cast Recordings. He contributed to albums by Gerry Lockran, Rebop Kwakau Baah, Remi Kabacka, Ricco Rodriguez, Fairport Convention, Sandy Deny and played with many others on the UK scene including Traffic, Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers, Blue Ace Unit and White Rabbit.

Junior also served his musical apprenticeship in America by playing with the likes of Blues and R&B legends T-Bone Walker, Billy Preston and Ike & Tina Turner. He quickly earned a reputation as an innovative and expressive blues/rock guitarist.

Junior was later invited to join the Keef Hartley Band who were pioneers of the burgeoning British blues/rock scene. Junior made a significant contribution as a writer, singer and lead guitarist to their acclaimed “Seventy Second Brave” album and also appeared on the follow-up release, “Lancashire Hustler.”

Following Keef Hartley, Junior formed his own rock band “Hanson” which was quickly signed to Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Manticore label by Mario ‘The Big M’ Medious (the label manager). Their debut album “Now Hear This,” featured Junior Marvin (Lead Guitar & Lead Vocals), Jean Roussell (Keyboards), Conrad Isidore (Drums) & Clive Chaman (Bass). Hanson stayed together for two albums after which Junior undertook session work for the likes of Island recording artists Stomu Yamashta, Steve Winwood and Toots & The Maytals.

On February 14, 1977, Junior was invited to join both Stevie Wonder’s band and Bob Marley & The Wailers. His parents and musician friends helped him to take Bob Marley invitation because of the fact that they were both Jamaicans…and the rest is history. “Exodus” was Junior’s first album with Bob Marley & The Wailers and it was voted Best Album Of The 20th Century by Time Magazine. He was featured on all of the subsequent Bob Marley and The Wailers albums, touring the world with Marley until Bob’s passing in 1981.  Since then, Junior has put out four CDs with The Wailers including “ID,” “Majestic Warriors,” “Jah Message” and “My Friends” (Live) as well as numerous solo projects including “Wailin”, “Smokin’ To The Big M Music” and “Lion To Zion Dub Wise”.  Junior can also be found on CDs by Burning Spear, Alpha Blondy, Bunny Wailer, Israel Vibrations, Culture, The Meditations, Beres Hammond, The Congos, O.A.R. and SOJA.

After touring with many of the incarnations of The Wailers since Bob Marley’s passing, Junior has now stepped out to front his own version of The Wailers, playing and singing all of the Bob Marley & The Wailers hits the way Bob intended them to be heard.  In addition, Junior has a new release dropping worldwide in 2019 entitled “The Message Of Love” featuring the title track single “The Message Of Love”.