Appeal Launched For Missing Jamaican Music

Thousands of original records, reels of music and historic film footage - all intended to be housed at Jamaica's national archive library - were taken from the PBC-J's old headquarters in Kingston during a raid in January (08).

Police are still investigating the incident, but company executives estimate around 80 per cent of the collection was stolen.

Leighton Thomas, the head of the PBC-J, says, "When we came in we saw piles and piles of sleeves that the 45s came in, literally a couple of thousand on the floor just laying on the ground."

And now the PBC-J is hoping locals can help find and rebuild the collection - as it contained classic, irreplaceable reggae cuts.

Thomas adds, "Artists would go out and make just one vinyl record only for radio, a one-off cut.

"Some of Bob Marley's original recordings would have been here, material that was never mass-produced and sold. So that's what we're searching for, to see if we've still got the Bob Marley before he was Bob Marley."