By Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
It was a red suit for Gregory Isaacs as the crooner performed at Everton Blender's 'Birthday Bash' last Saturday night at Port Esquivel in St. Catherine on Saturday night. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer
THE JANITORIAL team at the University of Technology (UTech), Papine, St. Andrew is still busy mopping up the sweat that was left behind at the Alfred Sangster Auditorium on Friday night into early Saturday morning after 'Salvation Ph.D Fully Accredited' was staged.
Papa San, Marvia Providence and the Grace Thrillers performed life-saving surgery on an event that almost died from poor sound quality. The 'wicked' performances from the aforementioned acts were sufficient to overshadow the technical difficulties, which can only be described as annoying.
Because of the poor sound quality, one had to literally strain their ears to decipher the words that came from the mouths of the performers.
Nonetheless, the patrons obviously came to party, as they seemingly would have screamed at the mere drop of a hat. The first act that really sent the Alfred Sangster hall rocking was the fresh-faced veteran group Grace Thrillers. While the Grace Thrillers performed well, their set was marred by some unprofessional conduct, which was not becoming from a group of their calibre. At certain the intervals, the eldest member of the group would move of to the side and turn his back on the audience as he sorted out what seemed to be the track for the next song. One female member of the group also did this. Such a responsibility should have been delegated to someone that was not a part of the singing ensemble.
Compounding the unprofessional display was the fact that the eldest member even stepped off the stage and walked around in the auditorium as if he lost his shadow and then nonchalantly strolled back on-stage to join the singers. They could have done better.
OLD TIME FAVOURITES
On the other hand, they had the crowd singing and dancing to old time favourites such as Hosanna, Just Because You Are and The Closer I Get, amongst others. Up next was deejay of the gospel persuasion Papa San and he wrecked the venue. As San walked out on to the stage, the patrons sitting in the stands shot in front of the stage.
San had full command of the audience. He told the ladies to the scream for Jesus and they did. Songs such as Step Pon Di Enemy received massive responses that were of earthquake proportions.
The crowd bounced like a
tennis ball. Still, some behaviour displayed by some of the patrons in dancing to the songs was rather distasteful, as a girl in a short skirt had her legs in the air exposing her 'privates'.
The fast-talking lyricist worked until his shirt was soaked and in so doing had the patrons dancing up a sweat as well. At one point it seemed as if San was pulled from the stage after he put the microphone in the crowd so that fans could get a chance to sing along with him. Luckily, he got back on-stage unscathed. After an orchestrated encore San returned with another crowd favourite.
SOLEMN WORSHIP SONGS,
At about five minutes to midnight, the chubby United States-based singer Marvia Providence arrived on the scene. After allowing the audience to recuperate with some solemn worship songs, she then kicked her set into high gear. One would have thought that patrons would have been burnt out, but it was not so as they dug deep and found extra strength.
Sing Praises Unto God, Stop and Let Me Tell You put the pep back into the step of the patrons and had them bouncing like a tennis ball again. Her set was effervescent and riddled with shouts and shivers.
She gave a good account of herself. Earlier in the night, Kariss, an all-female singing group from Northern Caribbean University, proved their worth. The five females synchronised well and earned many whistles from the audience for renditions such as Great Is Thy Faithfulness. The pencil-thin veteran Bunny Anderson also validated his booking on the show. The other performances were not special.
