All the hits and more. That’s how you could bill this evening of reggae legends – well, if you were in the sunshine of Kingston rather than a dreich Glasgow evening in March.
Local sound system crew Mungo’s Hi Fi manage to, er, lively up the busy ABC2 with some choice dancehall cuts, entertaining the throng during a long delay before the Sagittarius Band take the stage. Legends in their own right – dating back to the Reggae Sunsplash era – they open by laying down a couple of bass-heavy numbers – which they will continue to do for the next two hours, as backing for the two main attractions.
Dillinger takes to the stage, clad in black save for a gold cross and a white collar, which gives him the appearance of a preacher, and he delivers his 40-minute sermon in a rapid-fire megamix which includes snippets of The Mighty Diamonds’ ‘Need a Roof’ and ‘Pass the Kutchie’ as well as his own ‘Freedom Fighter’. All too soon, he’s off, but swiftly back on for a decidedly unconventional, funk-infused take on ‘Cocaine in My Brain’.
Barely missing a beat, Yellowman arrives. As Mungo’s will tell you, covers, samples and remixes are part and parcel of the reggae realm, which could be used as an reviewers’ excuse for lack of knowledge or inability to take coherent notes. So, Yellowman bounds onstage to the strains of ‘Ooh We’, but what happens next is a matter for the quick-witted aficionado – of which there are plenty packing out the area stage front.
Resplendent in vest and shorts, it seems that the headliner – who has undergone cancer treatment – is on some keep-fit kick, stalking the stage at speed, high-fiving the front row, and indulging in high kicks, a routine he will keep going for the duration of his hour-long set.
Both of tonight’s artists have been called out for their “slack” lyrics – but given the homophobic outpourings of many of today’s chart acts, it could be argued that they are indeed, more sexy than sexist, and Yellowman’s “sex education” – including microphone-based condom advice – is more Benny Hill than Beenie Man.
There are a couple of good-natured false starts – with “How you doing Scottish? – I love you” repeated as the quartet of musicians just about manage to keep pace, before we career towards a climax – another megamix of sorts, encompassing his ‘hits’: ‘I’m Getting Married’, the straight take on ‘Blueberry Hill’, and those much-sampled classics ‘Zungguzungguguzungguzeng’ and the GTA5 soundtracker ‘Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt’.
With that, the Duracell bunny of reggae powers down and, we assume, chills with Dillinger before the next stage of their tour of the UK’s colder climes. Haste ye back.