Mavado turned in an awesome performance this morning at the Pepsi Rebel Salute showing that he can make the transition to roots rock reggae, and be regarded as more than just a dancehall artiste.

The line up was full of solid reggae icons such as Toots Hibbert, Beres Hammond, Little John, Professor Nuts and Tristan Palmer. New age reggae acts David Brooks, I Octane, Romaine Virgo and Junior X did well while Fantan Mojah and Chuck Fenda closed Rebel Salute with a solid tune-for-tune showing where Fantan Mojah seemed to overwhelm Fenda with his high energy onstage.

Earlier, I Octane was in dazzling form, using his great stage presence to wow the crowd with a steady stream of hits. Beres Hammond performed the longest set, prompting some people to comment that the promoter Tony Rebel must have paid him extra to perform such a brilliant set. At one point during Hammonds performance, Mavado tried to get onstage to perhaps share the stage with Beres and the stage manager had to spend 20 minutes to woo him back to his tent.

Later, when Mavado finally took the stage, he was in superb form, using his amazing catalogue of hits to good effect to win over the huge 20,000 strong crowd. His forwards were much bigger than Beres Hammonds, and was most refreshing. Mavado has not bleached out his face, his locks are getting longer and the words that emanate from his mouth are cleaner. What a remarkable transformation from a few years ago. He sang out most of his songs, instead of doing just the punchlines as he would a dancehall show.

DJ Beenie Man was also backstage and he kept going on the stairs of the stage, and walking around in a neon blue conductor suit. He kept walking around and smiling and shaking hands with everyone like a big South American politician. Beenie Man just never stops.

The show ended with Chuck Fenda and Fantan Mojah going tune for tune, to huge ovations and firecrackers kept going throughout their performance together.

-- Edited by BoaseyT0niiB0nii (Mod) on Monday 17th of January 2011 05:17:14 AM