Peter Metro pays tribute to Cocoa Tea

Veteran artiste Petro Metro early Sunday morning paused during his set to pay tribute to ailing singer Cocoa Tea, while performing at Rebel salute in Priory St Ann.

Metro, who performed in a blistering veterans segment which saw the likes of Linval Thompson, Horace Andy, Little John, Yellowman, Josey Wales and Leroy 'Don' Smart gracing the stage at the two-day music festival, mentioned that Cocoa Tea was battling cancer and chided those who have been reporting that the reggae singer had died.

"I know Cocoa Tea is watching this. If him was here he woulda sing this," said Peter Metro as he reeled off the lyrics to Cocoa Tea's She Loves me Now.

Rumours of Cocoa Tea's passing started last October, and took on a new life between the end of December and the start of the new year, with persons posting on social media in the first week of January that he had died. His wife Malvia Scott told The Gleaner that the singer was in hospital "but he is very much alive". The family requested prayers and privacy.

Having said his piece in tribute to his friend, Peter Metro continued his performance which was chockfull of lyrics. From the history of the National Heroes and important dates in Jamaica to spelling class and interactive mathematics lessons with his fans, Peter Metro was in his element, telling fans to indicate if they wanted more by saying "Gwaan Metro!". They said it. With this approval, he requested the Kutchie Riddim for Glory Glory Hallelujah, unleashed his first number one hit, Police Inna England and then injected humour with songs about the Government ministers smoking weed in the House of Parliament, and the pros of having a banga phone as opposed to a smart phone.

Peter Metro called up Singer Irie out of New York, with whom he has a single "dat a gwaan good" and Mikeylous. He gave them each a few minutes of his time, which they both made good use of.

Coming right after Metro was Leroy 'Don' Smart, who, throughout the years, has always been an entertaining on-stage character, and nothing has changed. To use a colloquialism, "Don Smart gwaan wid himself." Armed with a bag of antics, he posed, pranced, danced, jumped, skipped, got flat on stage, issued stern instructions to the band and somehow still found time to do a few songs in between. He did two covers and snippets of the big songs from his own catalogue, closing with his biggest hit, Ballistic Affair.

Smart's set was followed by a band change during which the audience was entertained by comedian Diego the Cross Eyed Villain.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com