Buju, Beres and friends make ‘Intimate’ memorable

It was great vibrations inside the Plantation Cove venue in St Ann last Saturday when two of reggae music's heavyweights collaborated for the second time in three years for the staging of Intimate Concert.

The event attracted an international crowd, including a patron from as far away as Malawi, the MC told the huge crowd. Beres Hammond and Buju Banton gave the thousands of fans another memorable showcase, whether they were caressing them with ballads and love songs, or turning up the volume with dancehall music. They also role played as 'Beres Banton' and 'Buju Hammond', by singing and deejaying each other's verses in their various collaborations.

They chose to put in the spotlight on some of their special friends, and, of course, Reggae Queen Marcia Griffiths had to be marked present. She was spectacular on stage and told THE STAR post performance that "there is a certain satisfaction and rejuvenation when I link with these brothers".

Another friend was 'The Gentleman' Romain Virgo, who showed exactly why he is seen as the one to take the musical baton from Hammond. Rain is Falling, People Business, Fade Away, Who Feels it Knows, Taking you Home, Been There Before, and Stay With me, were among his offerings during his 60 minutes on stage. Like Virgo, it was Bugle's first appearance on Intimate, and from the way he was dancing and delivering on stage, it was not surprising to hear him say that it was a dream come true.

"The first Intimate I remember I see Tarrus Riley bring out his daughter and I was like 'This is a great show.' So to be able to be a part of the second staging is a great achievement. Buju said 'I need you on Intimate and yuh can share the joy with two of yuh Rasta bredren dem too.' I believe that unity is strength and the first person I think 'bout was I-Wayne because we don't see I-Wayne. He has some songs that the people dem love and we don't get to see him performing live enough. And he was well received," Bugle told THE STAR.

Chairman of the Jamaica Reggae Industry, Board Ewan Simpson, commended the organisers of Intimate and shared why he had to be there.

"Intimate represents the best representation of Jamaican musical excellence to start the year. It represents our stalwart entertainers ... both our established stalwarts and our emerging stalwarts. When you think about Buju, Beres, Marcia ... when you think about Romain as the obvious heir apparent to Beres Hammond on the same show. You are talking about Jamaican quality ... vocal quality, artistic quality, entertainment excellence that is being represented here at Plantation Cove," Simpson said.

Always balanced in his assessments, Simpson stated emphatically that "there are some things that we need to get right", touching on the traffic nightmare for many patrons attending the event.

"When we talk about structure, when we talk about entertainment spaces, when we talk about road network, traffic management ... when we talk about logistics... those are the things we have to get right to make Jamaica the entertainment capital of the world - the festival capital of the world. And if we were thinking about it, we would have solved this problem long ago. But that's politics that I don't want to get into. But I'm just saying that there is so much that we could do for Jamaica's entertainment product," he declared.