Aston Barrett, the bassist in Bob Marley's band The Wailers, has lost his court battle for an alleged £60 million in unpaid royalties relating to a 1974 contract with Island Records and a subsequent 1976 agreement with Marley himself. As previously reported, Barrett said that Island, now owned by Universal, and the Marley family had not honoured those agreements, but both the record company and Marley's estate argued that the matter had already been addressed in a 1994 court settlement in the US, in which Island paid Barrett $500,000 and his legal costs.
Mr Justice Lewison at London's High Court yesterday sided with the record company and the Marleys, accusing Barrett of reinterpreting past events to suit his own agenda. Commenting on Barrett's testimony, the judge said: "He was plainly close to Bob Marley himself, whom he trusted implicitly. At this remove of time, his recollection of events was hazy. And I also consider that, as often happens, he has reconstructed events in his mind according to how he would like them to have been."
The Marley family welcomed the ruling, telling reporters yesterday: "For the last four years, Aston Barrett has persisted in this hurtful and extremely expensive claim which was actually settled in 1994. The family of Bob Marley is delighted that the claim has now been rejected in full. We always felt that this would be the outcome and it was hard to listen to Aston Barrett reduce his friend Bob to someone who was more interested in playing football than making music. Now that the action is over, the family want to concentrate on keeping Bob's legacy alive and to introduce new generations to his music."