| Review: Rebel Salute 2006 |
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Luciano his entrance to the Rebel Salute stage was just what was needed to wake up the audience |
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Text by C Danielle McNish / Jamaican Observer
If you were early, the scene was perfect! The full moon, clean crisp air with a faint smell of freshly cut grass, surprisingly somewhat seamless traffic flow and of course the expectation of seeing Reggae warrior Burning Spear live and in living colour were enough to give a feeling of euphoria to anyone present at Rebel Salute 2006, held at the Port Kaiser Sports Club, St Elizabeth on Saturday, January 14.
At around 9 pm, opening acts like Sharon Tucker, Jahmel, Brazilian Reggae band, Lions of Israel (Leões de Israel), Brahyhan Art and Tarrus Riley, ably backed by the Step By Step band, were doing themselves proud, receiving much support from the nearly 5000 patrons present. By 10:15, veteran dj duo Michigan and Smiley gave a high-energy performance, and were the only act of the night to receive an encore, coming back to the stage to perform their anthem, One Love Jam Down.
Luciano his entrance to the Rebel Salute stage was just what was needed to wake up the audience
Noddy Virtue of Digicel Rising Stars fame was a hit with his home crowd, as were emerging star Gyptian and a rare performance from the promoter himself, Tony Rebel Other highlights of this segment were a stunning rendition of Garnet Silk's Mama, performed by 'Fire Mumma' Queen Ifrika in tribute to Silk's family; Hero with his hits Inna De Ghetto and God Alone and Anthony Cruz's short but sweet hit parade which included Halfway Tree and Place Too Bloody.
Headline act Burning Spear s time spent on the stage was lacklustre. In short, he did eight songs in 75 minutes and only 3 of those were obviously familiar songs to the majority of the audience; he failed to do any of his big hits.
Despite this disappointment, the audience was toe-to-toe with Inner Circle for their first three songs, Tenement Yard, a version of Frankie Paul's Tushumpeng and Tired Fi Lick Weed Inna Bush. However, there were significantly less flags waving until the last two songs of their set, which included their mega-hit, Bad Boys.
The obviously old Congos received virtually no crowd support. Their act was not of the professional standard of the other acts in that segment. Reggae Ambassadors Third World were musically tight, but lacked visual impact.
It was only at daybreak, at precisely 6 am, that performances peaked, thanks to the Messenger, Luciano Unlike his customary hour long sets, the Messenger spent only half an hour on the stage and gave only a few songs from his extensive catalogue, including Lord Give Me Strength and We're All In This Thing Together, as well as a traditional church hymn.
Regardless, his entrance to the Rebel Salute stage was just what was needed to wake up the audience, as they all sang along and waved flags intently and reverently.
Richie Spice, who followed the Messenger, energetically belted out his hits one after another - Earth A Run Red, Righteous Youths, Ghetto Girl, Tek Yuh Mind Offa Mi and Kingfish to name a few. He ended his super-tight half hour set with the massive Marijuana (Pon Di Corna).
A mere 15-minute band change led to the appearance of 'it' backing band, Live Wyya. Receiving tremendous crowd support, the well choreographed band gave their customary overture with their main vocalist ably singing a medley of Peter Tosh songs interlaced with one or two of the band's originals. Seconds before his departure, Live Wyaa's lead singer announced Turbulence as the next artiste to take the stage - an occurrence quite out of line, as introductions are usually the task of the MC.
What ensued was a heated exchange which could have easily marred the reputation of the longstanding event. Turbulence with two members of his entourage, ran almost centre stage, and attempted to get a microphone from the MC Ron Muschette. Failing to obtain Muschette's microphone, Turbulence then ran back to the threshold and attempted to get one from a member of the stage crew, who vehemently denied him. This led the singer to walk off the stage and leave the venue.
Muschette expertly finessed the situation by attributing the incident to the fact that people had been awake all night and there was obviously some overload of 'vibes' before immediately introducing the next artiste.
The Observer later learned that Turbulence s failed attempt to bomb rush the stage, resulted from a plan to push up his performance time (he was slated to close the show) because he had a flight to catch.
It was past 9:00 am and the morning sun had begun to bake bodies when the Observer left the venue to strains of Junior Kelly s Smile.
Direct Link to the source: www.jamaicanobserver.com |
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Posted by: Culture Wise
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