Reggae icon Bunny Wailer got flight fright after daughter's dream. - Winston Sill / Freelance Photographer
PORT-OF-SPAIN (Trinidad Express):
Jamaican
reggae icon Bunny Wailer left hundreds of disappointed fans standing in the
rain when he failed to show at the Living Legends reggae concert at the Jean
Pierre Complex, Mucurapo, on Saturday night.
Born Neville O'Riley Livingston, the three-time Grammy award winner, a founding member of Bob Marley and the Wailers, was one of three Jamaican acts scheduled to perform as celebrations continued at the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village at the National Stadium, Port of Spain.
The duty was left to New York-based reggae crooner Glen Washington to inform the impatient crowd that they were one legend short on the night since Wailer had missed his flight from Jamaica.
"Some people had a vision and decided not to come, but the show must go on," Washington said at the end of a three-hour marathon performance designed to compensate for Wailers' absence.
Explanation
for no-show
His explanation for Wailers' no-show seemed to give credence to rumours of the Jamaican's decision to stay there after hearing of a dream his daughter had about his plane crashing on the way to T&T.
Washington, however, refused to comment further when probed on the report.
"Oh, how about we just enjoy the rest of the show," he said with a polite smile before disappearing into a crowd of fans backstage.
Things seemed a bit off pace from the beginning when calypso legend Winston 'Shadow' Bailey uncharacteristically failed to keep pace with his band during his curtain rising performance.
Shadow grew in frustration as the band failed to find the right tempo for his hits Poverty Is Hell and Dingolay and eventually vented those frustrations on a video man positioned at the front of the stage.
"Why you doing me that, you is not my friend, I don't know you move from there you stupid or what," Shadow shouted accusing the man of infringing upon his copyright.
The third Jamaican on the bill, veteran hard-core reggae man Joseph Hill of Culture, however, saved the day with a high-energy performance that lifted the spirit of the crowd.
Culture turned back the hands of the clock with performances of Slice of Mount Zion, I'm Worried and Gun Put Down, among others.
