Capleton's fundraising project

Dancehall people have been discussing nothing but Capleton's controversial fire-burning side. But, there is a much more agreeable side to the deejay which we are all missing out on.

Capleton told us recently that he is very concerned about what has been happening to sick people in the hospitals and children in the schools and wants to do something about it.

So, he has decided to start a project to help these institutions. He is starting with the Port Maria Hospital and his alma mater, Islington Secondary School, in his home parish of St. Mary.

Incidentally, he has encouraged his original "more fire" colleague, Sizzla, to join him in the venture.

The two have gotten together under the banner of King of the Earth/The Prophet for the first fundraising show in the project, "You Should a Know Say A St. Mary Mi Come From," scheduled for Clembhard's Park Sports Complex in Port Maria on Saturday, June 17.

Capleton insists that Sizzla had not dropped out on him, having been silent for over a year now, but was concentrating on promoting his overseas albums Royal Son of Ethiopia (Greensleeves) andLiberate Yourself (Runn Netherland).

One got the impression though that it was more like he was getting his aggregation together, after the sudden departure of Luciano, Mikey General and the Fire House Crew from Fattis' Xterminator Crew.

Anyway, there will be a lot of fire burning on "You Should a Know Sey A St. Mary Mi Come From," which also features parishioner Beres Hammond and DJ Buju Banton.

Beenie's album launch delayed

Shocking Vibes' chief Patrick Roberts has admitted that the launch of Beenie Man's Virgin debut album, Art & Life, has again been delayed.

The new date is July 11 and Roberts says that the reason for the postponement this time was the tie up with Mya's album.

Mya had worked with Beenie Man on a remix of his Girls Dem Sugar for his album, as well as a duet, called Lie Detector,produced by Wyclef Jean for her album, Fear of Flying (University/Inter-scope).

Mya's album debuted two weeks ago at number seven on Billboard's R&B chart, but dropped seven places a week later. The Girls Dem Sugar track has been serviced to clubs and radio stations for promotional play and the video serviced to major channels like BET.

Everton wins award

Everton Blender came away with the award for Most Cultural and Educational Entertainer for 1999 at the recent Martin's International Awards in Atlanta, Georgia.

Blender returned home recently from an extensive European tour (to promote his Rootsman Credential album) which included France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. He was supported by Prezident Brown and Frankie Paul.

He will be returning to Europe for a mini-tour later this month, after which he will go on a U.S. tour in July-August, which will include a number of summer festivals.

In the meantime, Blender has returned to the studios to start working on his next album for the U.S. label, Heartbeat.

Tuff Gong's studio

Two years ago an electrical problem led to a fire which did extensive damage to the Tuff Gong recording studio, Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston.

The studio was re-opened recently wth some of the latest state-of-the-art equipment added. It has since hosted clients such as Eddie Grant, Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, the Melody Makers and Luciano.

Senior engineer Shane Brown recently won the "Kingston Based Engineer of the Year Award" from the Jamaica Federation of Musicians.

Teen Jam

Danny English will be special guest at Club Classique's Teen Jam on Saturday, June 10.

North Coast act Nash Lawson was at the Little Pub, Ocho Rios on May 24, along with other promising acts from the area including Ashmayu, Zeena and Daweh Congo.

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