Stone Love's 40th a massive affair

The magnitude of Stone Love's 40th anniversary celebration was evident from the number of cars on Spanish Town Road, St Andrew, in the earliest hours of yesterday morning.

There was no room in the general parking provided across the dual carriageway from Red Stripe's HQ and, for approximately 100 metres in either direction from the entrance to the facility at number 214, motor vehicles occupied the verges and the median.

People poured from these vehicles into number 214 in a steady, striking stream, many of the ladies undressed (and dressed) for maximum effect, stalking on high heels and flashing much flesh.

Inside, the crowd that turned out to honour Winston 'Wee Pow' Powell and his Stone Love movements threatened to overflow the large area cordoned off for the dance, making for a huge affair guaranteed to warm any promoter's heart.

However, the potential pitfall for any Stone Love anniversary is not the occupancy level of the parking or audience areas, but the stage, with hordes of selectors and artistes determined to pay tribute to 'Father Pow' - and make a good showing in front of a guaranteed crowd. And the landmark 40th anniversary was no different, making for a see-saw dynamic of competition for time among the show's varied elements - sound system, live performance and awards.

Huge crowd

At close to 5:30 a.m. the remainder of the huge crowd had enough of the live performances and was determined to party, sending Ataru on his way with handclaps as he tried to croon for the ladies.

There had been no hounding handclaps nearly three hours earlier when, in the early going of the live performances and after a fashion line presentation, Toya gloried in the power of gripping glamity.

The audience simply stood and looked at her, the spatter of staged firecrackers doing more to distract from already weak vocals than enhance Toya's presentation.

The live show started after Stone Love, its selectors, decked out in all their formal finery, reminded all of its rub-a-dub side with the Real Rock rhythm dubplate selections peaking in the Wayne Wonder/Buju Banton combination Forever Young. There were tracks from Chan Dizzy to Psy before Miss Kitty took over hosting duties and Stone Love's guests took over the stage.

Sponsoring brands Guinness and Ciroc had their hands in the awards that were a part of the proceedings from that point, representatives presenting a plaque to Powell. In accepting the award, Powell reminded all of Stone Love venues like Tropics in New Kingston and House of Leo on Cargill Avenue, where they used to sell 300 cases of Guinness without any sponsorship. And he said selector Rory joined Stone Love when it was 10 years old, making it 30 years since he has been associated with the sound.

Richie Stephens raised a musical toast to the hardworking people and adjusted a line in Change Gonna Come to honour Stone Love. From the opening lines of She Loves Me Now Cocoa Tea was a hit with the audience, dropping a series of R&B tunes on the rhythm to the delight of the ladies especially.

Tune In preceded his combination track with Buju Banton "designed for 18 and over", Cocoa Tea ending on a high filling in for the missing Gargamel.

Selector Alanzo Hawk took the night into soul, including Jah Cure's Unconditional Love, the ladies especially appreciating the segment which Hawk said was "up close and personal, like deodorant". He dropped a few Sizzla tracks for Powell.

Boom Boom had a good run, delighting in his award for Best Solo Selector, Mavado's Messiah among the tracks he dropped as the Guinness girls stepped out to drop legs and other body parts to the beat.

Black Scorpio accepted its award for over 40 years contribution to dancehall and Duane Pow was the Most Improved Selector from Stone Love.

Live performance

Performer Shemari was dismissed with handclaps, Romain Virgo roused the audience from the opening notes of Can't Sleep and said that his first live performance on a sound system was with Stone Love at a Weddy Weddy dance. I-Octane capped off a very well received showing with Lose a Friend and Mama You Alone, the roars going up for the surprise appearance of Bounty Killer for his combination with I-Octane.

It was a surprising introduction to Bounty's performance, Killer noting that Stone Love never used profanity or bad words to get a forward. Bounty shared his stage time with Bling Dawg, the K Queens, Nitty Kutchie and Iyara, dropping his popular tracks to good effect even though there were brief microphone clarity issues.

Beenie Man, his outfit reminiscent of a sheikh, used a medley of 1990s tracks to rouse the audience, Slam and Romie among the batch, the dancehall doctor running through the songs non-stop to very good effect. Dweet Again and It's Okay brought the set into later days. However, the end of his set, in which the Sample Six crew took the stage, marked the beginning of the decline in the show and the audience, the latter dwindling as some made it to the exit.

Voicemail, Chevaughn, Bugle (who had a decent reception for his "all white" memories), Vibrant and Jimmy Riley followed, the crowd continuing to diminish. Sample One's jokes and imitations of Nicodemus hit home, but after that those who remained were in the mood to party.

After the impatience with Ataru, Sadiki insisted on having a talk, making the Stone Love connection with younger generations as he said he had been listening to Stone Love from he was 13 years old and is now 33.

Then it was party time, with a Tommy Lee tune, the die-hard party people got down to business.

(from Jamaica Star)