Intimate concert ‘a great way to start 2025’

The thousands who made their way to Plantation Cove in St Ann on Saturday — braving never-ending lines of traffic — is testament to the enduring strength of reggae music and the overwhelming pulling power of legends Buju Banton and Beres Hammond.

It was the second staging of Intimate Concert at the same venue, with the same headliners, and the organisers put additional measures in place to ease the expected traffic pile-ups, but even at 11 p.m. patrons were still streaming into the packed venue, all because of the traffic.

Buju Banton mentioned this headache briefly during his riveting more than two-hour long set, which saw him call on stage Beres Hammond — who had already performed an awe-inspiring set — Wayne Wonder, Bugle and Gramps Morgan. The Grammy winner pointed to the repeated success of Intimate and asked the authorities to fix things.

With no time to linger, Buju, who was really all about the business of entertaining patrons, delighted as he meandered through the hits in his reggae and dancehall catalogues. It was a mixed crowd of real Rasta elders, mature music lovers, the young and the young-at-heart, all bound with one common thread — they were all avid Buju Banton fans and they knew his songs word-for-word.

From he stepped on stage at minutes to 2 a.m. until his exit at 3:24 a.m., Mark ‘Buju Banton’ Myrie maintained a high, whether he was happily skanking across the stage, making ‘gal pickney’ gasp in admiration at his flexibility; showing concern for societal ills through his lyrics; or celebrating his guest artistes, his Shiloh band, the backing vocalists and, of course the fans.

Among the songs that Buju chose were Jah Give I Strength, Not an Easy Road, Til Shiloh, Untold Stories, I Wanna Be Loved, Love Sponge, Love mi Browning, Love Black Woman, How the Gal Dem Flex, Willy (Don’t be Silly), Driver, Murderer, Psalm 23 and the song which he called his “favourite song”, the gospel anthem Goodness of God. Before he closed the show, he thanked fans again and urged “[his] people to be more loving”.

Beres Hammond, who performed right before Buju, was in a class of his own. With much humility, the singer, who in 2023 was conferred with an honorary doctorate by The University of the West Indies (Mona), told his fans, “I never made no hit songs. I made some good songs and you made them hit songs.”

The thousands cheered loudly and blew their vuvuzuelas, which is something they did throughout his hour-long performance. The energy between Beres and his fans was electric and at some points, it was as if he was being backed by the Plantation Cove Choir, in addition to his talented, five-member, all-female backing vocalists.

Step Aside Now, Sweet Lies, Falling in Love all Over Again, No Disturb Sign, Double Trouble, Putting up Resistance, Pull up the Vibes, I Feel Good, Come Down Father, and Rock Away were a few of the hits that sparked a musical frenzy. Rock Away was particularly nostalgic, as the faces of some reggae greats were beamed on the big screen at the back of the stage as Beres sang the lyrics “Remember the songs that used to make us rock away/those were the days when love used to reign”.

Reggae Queen Marcia Griffiths was an early act on the show, which had a great pace — no long wait for acts to come on stage, and all the performer delivered tight sets. Dazzling with both her attire and on-point song selection, Griffiths, who was performing on Intimate for the second time, thrilled her fans of all ages.

At 9:45 p.m. following Griffiths’s exit, Rasta Party singer Bugle took charge and he reminded the audience just how good a performer he is. He called up one of his Rasta friends, I-Wayne, as his special guest, and the singer represented well. Romain Virgo gave a solid hour-long performance, not even allowing the rain to hinder him in the slightest. And Wayne Wonder was absolutely wonderful.

“It was amazing. I always have great energy when me and the deejay [Buju] link up. We made the music from a good place, so the chemistry comes naturally,” Wayne told The Gleaner of the legendary collabs between him and Buju, which excited the crowd at Plantation Cove on Saturday night..

Earlier in the evening, Wickerman performed with Peter Metro, and they called on Nitty Kutchie and General B. He told The Gleaner that he enjoyed himself and reflected on the glorious ‘90s, when they were members of either the Monster Shack, Worm Dem or Scare Dem crews.

Wickerman also had quite a bit to say about the need for shows like Intimate.

“Intimate is a big people show, but everybody, including the youth dem, come in and really enjoy it. And we need these kinds of shows in Jamaica, because we haffi keep things on a level to make people understand that this music is really serious and this music can motivate people. We thank the promoters, and we thank the people for supporting. A lot of shows that used to keep are no longer around … so we need Rebel Salute, Sumfest and Sting to continue. Intimate fulfil a lot of things in the business. Trust me, it was a great way to start 2025,” Wickerman said.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com