Beres, Marcia, Maxi and Buju in St. Elizabeth

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By Cecelia Campbell-Livingston

From the minute you entered the Alpart Sports Complex in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, you could already see how organised promoters of the House To Show were. Cars were directed to park in neat orderly fashion, there was no chaos at the gates as eager patrons streamed in. Not even the earlier shows could prevent lovers of good quality music from coming out and the show that was advertised to start at 9:00 pm got off at 9:20 with MC Francois apologizing for the late start due to the fact that rain had set back the stage preparations.

Penthouse and Gargamel upcoming artistes, Daville, Assassin and Anthony John got a chance to show their stuff to the St. Bess crowd and they did a good job of it.

Harmony House artistes were not left out and Sadeke, Ginger and Harmony House Singers represented the Beres Hammond owned production company well.

Following a relatively short band change it was time for the first act from 'startime' segment - Marcia Griffiths hit centrestage. She had the crowd caught up in old favourites such as 'There Is A Land', 'I'd Like To Kiss You Once More.' Marcia had the crowd's wholehearted attention until someone had the bright idea of inserting the fight taking place between Tyson and Lewis on the big screen. Many started shouting and 'railing' only for Marcia to realise the attention was not on her singing but the shout was actually for Lennox. That mistake was quickly corrected. Marcia did a wonderful stint with Daville as they sang the enjoyable 'All My Life With You.' Daville put a lot of emotion into his rendition and together the two were explosive.

Homeboy Maxi Priest was next. He made up for his absence as he did numbers such as 'Temptress', 'Should I', 'Sure Fire Love', 'Wild World', 'Say A Prayer For the World', 'Just A Little Bit Longer', 'A Place In My Heart' and 'Some Guys Have All The Luck'. The singer was Mr. Energy as he pranced from one side of the stage to the next. DJ Redd Foxx enhanced Maxi performance with his Shaggy impersonation and DJ stint in the 'False Pretender' song.

Beres Hammond's arrival on stage had a lot of patrons from the VIP section rushing closer to the stage. The crowd went wild as the reggae maestro sang number such as 'What Can You Do To Stop A Man From Trying', 'She Loves Me Now', 'Step Aside', 'Come Back Home' 'Memories', 'Tempted To Touch', 'I'm So Tired', One Step Ahead' and 'Love Is Never To Say You're Sorry'. By the time Beres went into the archives of his hits one woman was overcome with tears. 'Don't stop cry for me baby," Beres soothed. Wanting to have something of the singer she pleaded for his shirt. "A mi criss criss shirt - but nuh worry, mi a go give yuh still," he promised. Beres Hammond had a superb performance and exited with the crowd still protesting for more from him.

2:15 am the Gargamel, Buju Banton hit the stage to a crowd that showed no signs of getting weary. He launched into a fiery performance with favourites such as 'Stamina', 'The Only Man', 'Not An Easy Road'. He then lashed out at the current trend that was destroying the country. As he dejayed 'Mr. Nine,' the crowd was with him every step of the way from 'Untold Stories' to 'Boom Bye Bye.' At 3:00 am he gave the crowd a 'brawta' when he called back on stage Beres Hammond and together they did numbers such as 'Pull It Up' and 'Thought I Could Live Without You.' It was a scintillating set and when Beres again made his exit Buju continued his musical assault on the crowd. By the time Buju did his encore numbers 'Murderer' and 'Our Father' it was 3:20 am, While many patrons left for home others took the opportunity to party the rest of the morning away with the FAME party team. Kudos must go to the organising committee for putting together a first class package.

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Cecelia Campbell has been in journalism for the past eleven years. She's currently assistant editor at Jamaica's leading weekly tabloid, Xnews. She also writes for other publications, including the Gleaner's North American Weekend Star.