There were many ultimate fans in attendance on Friday night at the Definitive Bob Marley presentation.

The event was produced by Latoya Ahknaton of Rhythm at Random and Bob Marley biographer and archivist Roger Steffens – aka Ras Rojah – delivered a full show, which highlighted aspects of the singer's life.

There were stories, not only of his travels, but also intimate details of Bob Marley's life.

When I interviewed Mr. Steffens, his passion reminded me of a distant past, and attending the show transported me to a place that I had never before witnessed.

So many of the truths of the singer's life have been hidden, some of the highlights were when he was awarded the United Nations Peace Medal, his performance in Zimbabwe after independence, the moment he and Rita Marley were shot and his very last rehearsal with the group.

Much of the film was rude, rude in that it was not of the quality that we now and would have previously come to expect, but the message within was one that could not be complained about. The event itself was part film-footage and part freestyle lecture.

When Mr. Steffens appeared, donned in his Bob Marley shirt and black trainers striped in red, gold and green, one could see that he lives, sleeps and breathes the life and times of Bob Marley.

He took the few who attended Friday night's event on a journey beginning with querying the audience on who owned a copy of the "Legend" album?

Most of the audience applauded in response to which he explained that the album had cumulatively been number one on the Billboard Magazine's Catalogue Charts longer than any album in the history of popular music.

He told the audience that Bob Marley was one of the most popular figures from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top of the Himalayas.

He spoke of experiences that he and his wife Mary, who ran the show from the booth at Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts, had experienced in Israel.

He spoke of the yamulka-donned Rastafarians in a red, gold and green pub in the middle of the Negev Desert. He continued the story of them leaving the West Bank and being stopped by a rifle toting soldier who was equally excited about the music.

When the soldier saw the red, gold and green stickers in the van, he said: "Rastafari!" And when they asked did he love Bob Marley, the soldier's response was: "Who doesn't?" They gave him a photo of the singer, with which he posed.

He spoke of the footage, which he had collected over 35 years, and he warned the audience that much of it was not of MTV quality, but that it had been suppressed footage.

His aim was not only to show some of the unreleased clips, but to also allow the audience to hear some of the music that was still in the vaults after all these years.

To hear Bob Marley perform and to see photos of him as he began cultivating his locks, old classics like "Simmer Down" and Peter Tosh pretending to be a vampire in the backdrop, took you on a journey of their humour and tenacity.

Chris Blackwell of Island Records spoke about when he gave them the funds to go and create an album in Jamaica.

He was recorded as saying: "Pretty much, everyone said you won't see that money again and when you go out to Jamaica they will say, 'bwoy money ran out', but in fact when I did go out they took me to the studio and played me the basic track of 'Catch a Fire'."

Songs like "Give Us the Teachings of His Majesty, 'cause we don't want no devils' philosophy" to "I Know Jah Never Let Us Down" were only two of the songs that rung out from that era.

But there was no footage of the Wailers, as they were then known, before they broke up in 1973 and Mr. Steffens said that Bunny Wailer had explained that the group did not want anyone to steal their ideas or distract them from their mission.

So instead Mr. Steffens narrated this part of the show starting from Bob Marley's birth on February 6, 1945. He spoke about his early years and the fact that he had been born, not to an Englishman, as even I thought, but instead to a white Jamaican who had been disinherited by his family on marrying Bob's mother, 19-year-old Cedella Malcolm now Booker, and how Bob never really got to know his father.

Mr. Steffens spoke of a three-year-old Bob Marley who was a palm reader and the fact that people spoke to his mother telling her that there was something very odd, but special about this little boy.

He was then sent to live with his father in Kingston, Jamaica, for a chance of a better education than what he could get in Nine Mile, but his father abandoned the young Bob with an elderly woman who was on her way out. He essentially became an abandoned child on the streets of Kingston, fending not only for himself, but also for Mrs. Gray.

It was here, Mr. Steffens figured, where he gained his empathy for what Bob Marley referred to as the sufferers, who suffered for no reason other than the accident of birth.

He was later found by a woman from his mother's town and when his mother brought him back he announced that he was no longer a palmist, but instead a singer.

About four years later his relationship with Bunny Wailer, son of Thaddeus Livingston, began when their parents fell in love and cohabitated.

At 14 his mother sent him off to become a welder and when he almost lost an eye, she determined that he should instead follow his music.

Mr. Steffens then spoke about Bob Marley's early musical influences, one of which was Joe Higgs, rather than Peter Tosh, a fact that is more commonly accepted. He added that it was Mr. Higgs who taught the young Bob Marley about stage prep, composition, harmony and so forth.

Bob Marley then auditioned for the Beverly label in 1963, which was owned by a man named Leslie Khan, and he signed him.

The first single that he did was a flop and the second "One Cup of Coffee" was a Country and Western cover and the last was called "Terror'', which as yet has not surfaced.

He then put together Bunny Wailer, Junior Braithwaite, Peter Tosh and Sherry Green.

They rehearsed together, but she had a baby, and they found a talent contestant Beverly Kelso, and the next morning they recorded "Simmer Down''.

It was an immediate hit and sold some 80,000 copies, but they never made more than £3 a week.

They recorded covers of the Beatles songs, spirituals, country and westerns and their own compositions.

He said that in "The Definitive Discography of Bob Marley and the Wailers" that he co-authored with Leroy Pearson, they identified some 100 tracks that they recorded over a year-and-a-half.

Their first record was released in July, 1964, but by February, 1966, Bob Marley was disgusted by their lack of financial reward and decided to marry Rita Anderson, of the Solettes. The very next day he left for America to work.

The story continued with Bob Marley, his wife and their manager being shot, she in the head and he near his heart and into his hand, then despite it all performing the following night to some 80,000 people with their injuries.

Mr. Steffens told of the break up of Bob Marley and the Wailers, as they felt that he was quote "getting too much attention" and they were all equally talented.

This led Bob Marley to bring in the Solettes and call them the I-Three and despite his sadness, he went on to success and greatness, which outlasted his short life.

So many stories, of his music and inspiration, the concerts across Europe, Madison Square Garden in New York City, and Jamaica, his 14-month exile, his wanting to break into the American marketplace, his willingingness to financially support some 6,000 people every month, his wife and their sons, his soul mate and their son, his children and their lack of interest in producing the music that has been kept in the vaults, the truths and the lies that have been told as far high up as the Privy Council, his cancer that spread throughout and caused Bob Marley's untimely death.

Mr. Steffens had everyone in awe of what we didn't know about the man who brought us "One Love'', how they came and toured together, how Bob gave him the nickname Ras Rojah, how his job of spreading the highs and lows, joys and disappointments of Bob Marley's life came into being.

For more information on Roger Steffens and the Bob Marley and the Wailers archives, please Google Mr. Steffens for much more than I can write in this very limited review of a colossally enlightening showcase.