KATE SIMON’s pictures of Bob Marley and his generation of reggae stars are among the most iconic music portraits ever taken. With a new edition of her Rebel Music portfolio nigh, Simon talks MOJO through a wealth of its highlights, and the secret of her spectacular access. “They thought I was a hallucination!” she tells DANNY ECCLESTON.

KEEP ON MOVING

Kate Simon (2)

Bob Marley and Carlton Barrett, Exodus tour, Europe, May-June 1977.

“That band,” marvels Kate Simon. “I mean, Carlton and [bassist] Family Man Barrett, that rhythm section, and Tyrone Downie on keyboards and the I-Threes with their harmonies and then Bob’s voice – his phrasing, his syncopation and his lyrics. I mean, unbelievable! He just wiped everybody else that I’d ever photographed away.”

WAKE UP AND LIVE

Marley on-stage during the Exodus tour, Europe, May-June 1977.

Kate Simon: “Bob was incredibly intelligent. And if a subject has that kind of depth, you can really go somewhere. You’re not going to shoot him in some kind of showbiz commercial way. I mean, it’s a real opportunity. He was serious, and obviously thoughtful. But he was sensitive at the same time, so there was a lot of dimension to him.”

“I can remember everything about him”: Kate Simon and Bob Marley on the Exodus tour, 1977.

Kate Simon (4)

THE PHOTO SHOOT WITH BUNNY WAILER – nnota man enamoured with Caucasians generally – was going unusually well. So well, in fact, that Kate Simon (or Kate Si-mon, as her name was universally pronounced in Jamaica) was invited to Bunny’s studio the next day to shoot some more. But there was a catch.

“He said, ‘You got to wear a skirt,’” recalls Simon. “So I said, O-kaaay, and then asked around. ‘Is that really necessar y? I don’t have a skirt!’”

The next day, Simon turned up as requested, except, as always, in jeans.