Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

John holt

Under a full moon and on an unlikely night, the latest edition of Stars R Us shone at the Mas Camp, Oxford Road, New Kingston, last Friday night.

Friday is much more suitable to the after-work jam than a full-fledged concert where many members of the audience would have had to go home from work and then come back out to party into the wee hours of the morning. And it showed in what was initially a very low turnout, which eventually built up to some levels of respectability as many came through the gates well after midnight, very late for vintage music concert time.

It had been postponed because of the rain two weeks ago.

And after the momentum built up by the legs work of Strange Jah Cole, Ernest Wilson of The Clarendonians' husky romancing of the ladies, Errol Dunkley's infectious steady groove and engaging grin, Ken Boothe's twinkle toes, Leroy Gibbons' late '80s dancehall selections and George Nooks' effective appeal to the faithful, the concert also survived a very ill-timed break.

Intermission

MC Bob Clarke announced an intermission of five minutes at 2:11 a.m., after the Noise Abatement Act's cut-off point had passed, but even those who were not checking the clock would have known that it was more than that as the long version of No Woman No Cry started a quartet of Bob Marley songs.

Then even when Stars R Us resumed at 2:32 a.m., it was not with the expected popular performers to the music of Lloyd Parkes and the We the People band but a nine-year-old named Tiger Bless who managed the nigh-impossible, getting impatient handclaps to remove himself as he did Redemption Song to a recorded track.

The recovery job was given to Derrick Morgan who, after declaring "I want a girl to dance with me", asked "waapen to yu? Oonu gwaan like oonu gone a bed". But with a Forward March and plugging away with sweet ska he gradually worked a disgruntled audience back into a party frame of mind. And when his daughter Queen Ifrica came on to do Below The Waist, Morgan singing harmony for his daughter and then deejaying the chorus to take the house down, Stars R Us was well back on track.

Requests

Frankie Paul mixed R&B cuts with his material, Kushumpeng lighting up Mas Camp, before Stars R Us closed on a high with John Holt calling the by then reduced remnant of a turnout that was already below par to come close to the stage. They did and the 1,000 volts connected from close range. Holt satisfied requests after Stick By Me and Sweetie Come Brush Me, among others, had sent a clump of raised arms towards him and beyond to the moonlit sky.