DEVON HOUSE is known for exotic ice cream flavours and strolling lovers, but on Sunday evening it was anticipation of a taste of new performers which brought out a crowd to cluster around a small stage on the lawns of the Hope Road, St. Andrew great house.
And the 12 finalists in the Red Stripe/IRIE FM Big Break competition provided some variety of musical taste, Dillon Murray accompanying himself on guitar among the dominant roots reggae singing to recorded tracks and I-Nubia stepping off the stage at one point to deliver her poetry closer to the audience. There was also a dip into foreign flavours of the female kind from Irie Love of Hawaii and Natasha from Denmark.
THE PERFORMANCES
Redz Wonder started off the dozen, hopeful of a performance slot on Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest, as well as a music video and other prizes, with Mystery. Iwana asked all to Take a Look, working through a glitch in the sound, the crowd reacting as he picked up the tempo on "man a war, man a fuss, man a beg, man a cuss." The audience erupted for Harry Chapman's leaps, his black jacket flying, at the start of Rat-A-Tat-Tat, and he started again, ending with more jumps that had his locks standing on end.
It took a while for Murray's guitar-backed singing to sink in, but when it did and he sang "this is my life and I'm trodding life's road" there was a favourable response from the audience. Craig Davis made a rare trip onto the softer side, informing a lady with whom he had problems that I'm your man, while Natasha, the evening's only deejay, examined Jamaica lyrically, commenting "Jamaica too nice fe politician gwaan so fool/Jamaica too nice fe gangster do whe dem a do."
ENERGETIC AUDIENCE
Akinawa advised Never Give Up, the audience singing along with the chorus and cheering when he sang "every day is not 25th of December" and Mystic Roots asked for Love Inna De City. Cheers at I-Nubia's name indicated her popularity and there was a huge cheer as she opened Blessed with "I am tired of you black brothers posing with the chemical brownings." She kept going through the cheers, coming off the stage with the refrain "to be black is to be proud, shout it out loud," a large red, green and gold flag held high in the audience.
Prophet Elijah sang about the Pretty Island, urging all to sing "we love it" and Irie Love called for a Revival before Lesline, the final Big Breaker class of 2006 for the evening, stepped up with Love Slave. She got the full support of the women, the men very quiet as Lesline sang "you waan black woman inna house a work like dis/yu waan black woman inna house a cook like dis/a siddung inna house a get stress like dis." They cheered again as Lesline sang "mi naa siddung inna de house all de days of my life/waiting on you to come home," adding their voices to the chorus of "love slave".
They called for Lesline to return for the evening's only encore, for which Lesline sang the plea "give the ladies a chance to strive/stop don't push them behind the guys."
