By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
AS SATURDAY became Sunday, the crowd distribution inside Mas Camp on Oxford Road, St. Andrew was like a doughnut.
The middle, in front of the selectors' booth, was empty, while the numerous party people were twitching on the fringes. One of the hot cars of 1988, a Triumph, was an outpost of sorts to one side, with a few people using it as a resting place for Heineken buckets.
The party's signature tune, Good Times, set the pace for the post-midnight party time, continuing with Thriller and Electric Avenue.
The dance tunes which, along with dancehall jams and a few reggae classics, held sway to the end of the party, were thumping, but the audience was not dancing much. This prompted a few calls by one of the selectors for some dancing ("It is about dancing, not just standing around"), which fell on not deaf, but rather disobedient ears.
They were twitching, but the crowd was building and the party was not ready to 'bus' yet.
Billed as a celebration of 1988, a thin Eddie Murphy in Coming To America and a Bruce Willis with hair in Die Hard kept watch over the proceedings on a large screen. In the audience, a couple of tailored suits met tights; a puffy Afro or two nodded along with locks and processed hair; and people born well before and around 1988 worked up to a blast.
And it was.
With Frank from Soul Sensation playing through a cracking Sparkles Disco, Get Down On It, Break My Stride and Last Night A Deejay Saved My Life got the crowd moving more and more and then the deejay cut to the Johnny Osbourne classic Buddy Bye.
'FORWARD'
The hands went up as the crowd signalled a 'forward' and the jam was officially on. Supercat's Trash and Ready and Tenor Saw's How Water Walk Go A Pumpkin Belly were greeted rapturously as the immortal 'Sleng Teng' rolled over the still growing crowd, then Little Twitch's Spanish Fly earned the first restart of the night.
By the time Live Blanket, Natty Dread and Modern Girl had hit the spot, a clump of people had been so bold as to take up residence in the very centre of the doughnut and the crust was getting thicker and thicker. Bam Bam and Boops hit the spot, but not enough for the selector, who wanted to see more dancing. Wanga Gut got the crowd to sing along louder than before, but Major Mackerel's Dutty Bungle drew the first belly roar of the night from the crowd.
Dangerous and Two To One got horns blowing and Arlene was the last dancehall jam before a return to disco.
I'll Do Anything For You, Rock The Boat, Double Dutch and Funky Town led up to showtime with Johnny P, Flourgon and Professor Nuts, who had the audience howling.
the audience coming front and centre for the performances, the doughnut was all eaten up and the selectors were able to build on the high left by Nuts and his intoxicated alter ego Jimmy. Before, the songs had been allowed to run for some time; but as 2:30 rolled around, it was 'touch and go'. And the people loved it. The selector got off to a flying start with Under Mi Sensie and never looked back.
There was a roots reggae section of sorts with Murderer, Revolution, Broader Than Broadway, I'm Still In Love and the remix T'ree Piece Suit an Ting and Uptown Top Ranking, followed by a Marley run including Three Little Birds.
Trailer Load, Dem Flop from Spragga, Cyaan Dun, Number Two, a series of Bounty and Beenie alternating songs, Dun Wife, Position the hits kept coming, the massive kept roaring, the waistlines got more and more limber, the dance positions got more and more acrobatic and risqué. The dancehall segment ended with Little Lenny inviting a lady to come Boom Flick which many were already all but doing live and direct, then it was back to disco with All In All.
There was no change in atmosphere, however, as the audience was quite content to Let The Music Play, while the hopefuls screamed on Like A Virgin. It was not a Silent Morning, many a part-time lover enjoyed their jam time and a crew did the 'fan dem off' to Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive.
Hot Stuff wrapped up that final disco section, Wife opened the last round and the heat went up and up. A few remembered the 'Bogle' and 'World Dance', Gyal Fi Beg kept them howling, many agreed Man Fe Dead as the tunes came fast, furious and effective, and the legendary Tour landed at 4:20 a.m.
The memorable airplane sound proved to herald a departing, not incoming, flight, as just a few tunes and 10 minutes later, during Papa San's I Will Survive, the selector announced it was the final song and the music went down and down and down, to leave a significant portion of the diminished but still large audience with boogie shoes on and nothing to 'skank' to.
