International Night at the Trench Town Community Festival, now standard for the first Saturday in February, showed signs of tremendous growth in more ways than one.
There was the audience, the Vin Lawrence Park in the St Andrew community where Bob Marley trod from First Street upwards and honoured his urban roots in song (Natty Dread, Trench Town Rock, Trench Town), close to full – unlike previous years. Then there was the sponsorship presence, led by telecommunications company LIME – who carried Saturday night’s concert on its Peppa mobile phone television service – Rum-Bar Rum, Scotiabank and Supreme Ventures Limited in tow. An electronic stage backdrop, on which still and video images of Marley were projected throughout the night, signified technological advancement, the lighting was good and the sound crisp and clear.
However, at its heart it remains a community event, the low admission fee of $300 reflecting this. And those who drove the many cars which parked along the main road running through the community and Spanish Town Road had to wait for some time for the big names which had been pitched heavily to show up.
In the end, too, the Marley brothers – Julian, Stephen, Damian and Ky-mani – were cut short by police orders at 3:45 a.m., as they were getting into full flight for what was already an impressive showing and was warming up to be a memorable night, less than a day before their father’s 67th birthday. This was after an excellent showing from Tarrus Riley, doing Shaka Zulu Pickney at the start and Good Girl Gone Bad at the end.
Lyrically strong
The turning point between community show and top-flight concert was almost on the stroke of midnight, the lyrically strong deejay Mr Myers preceding Brian Gold, his harmony singer days with Shaggy long behind him as he sang Selassie I Come to a Nyahbinghi drumbeat with striking inflection and passion.
Immediately before the transition, the MC encouraged contributions for a young girl, whose performance earned a spontaneous ‘bills’ tossed on the stage. “Money pull up!” he said, the child singing as he produced a green bag and called for more contributions. She haffi go school Monday morning. Har mother an’ har father have it hard,” he said. The contributions came in and he handed over the bag as she left the stage.
While the performances by community members were not over the top, the quality was not low, the audience standing patiently through unknown songs from Torch, Earth Disciples (who claimed Bob Marley as their producer from 1979), Oney and others. The community members had their say when the Informative History Man was cut short after one spoken work piece, insisting that he be allowed to do part of his Bob Marley
Story.
Gold delivered Marley’s Time Will Tell to good effect before EQ, a rare female on the night, then Aaron Silk reviving memories of his brother Garnet, Marley’s No Woman No Cry delivered on the same rhythm as Garnet’s Oh Me My. Tinga Stewart got good stage time to mix the dancehall of Cover Me without Ninja Man and the lover’s rock of Aware of Love.
Nesbeth ignited the first real spark of the night, from Boardhouse through to the closing “I love her, she loves me” lyric from his early days (which he preceded by saying that if it was not recognised he would return people’s admission fee.
He did not need to.
Programming issues
There were, however, programming issues, as Tappa Zukie and More Knowledge did not sustain the high. Cen’C Love played the guitar in a slow, steady delivery, which initially went over well as she sang about black women loving themselves, but eventually wore thin.
Then came Tilli Bob and Fyakin, his brief a capella going over well before an audience which reacted positively to the hint of a familiar song. Boom Dawn came before the only artiste of the night to get clapped off, as the band change was effected in short order. Christopher Ellis revived memories of Alton Ellis, before the concert shifted gears again to a big name but far less than effective T.O.K., whose rapid-fire parts were sometimes hard to decipher and even rigging climbing antics did not help.
Romain Virgo was given a rousing welcome and lived up to the reception, starting with “the rain is falling”. Wayne Marshall was in good nick on his own, calling on guests Bugle, Fambo and Bounty Killer, the last greeted like a dancehall hero and delivering Anytime before rashing “shut up, Shebada say yu buss up”.
Then came the class of Riley, crooning “Armageddon time come”, drumming the slow Lion Paw into the audience, advising Beware and engaging the ladies with She’s Royal.
Ky-Mani was the first Marley brother up, Protoje joining him to give a healthy dose of Rasta Love to the ladies. Stephen, Damian and Julian, the last singing Heathen, were in good form, Traffic Jam, Liquor Store Blues and Stephen’s ode to Buju Banton, a snippet of Too Bad, having the audience on a high.
But soon came the low of the announcement of police orders to close down and, though they managed to squeeze in guest appearances from their own camp, Popcaan, Junior Reid, Jah Cure and Capleton, when the Marley brothers rushed into Could You Be Loved the night was over on a far lower note than their start had promised.
Tommy Cowan and Ron Muschette were among the MCs for the night.
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