BY MEL COOKE, Freelance Writer
Percy Sledge performs during a concert, held at the Cable & Wireless Golf Academy, Park Boulevard, New Kingston, on Sunday. - WINSTON SILL
Percy Sledge delivered the expected golden oldies of Cover Me, Dark End of The Street and the closing When A Man Loves A Woman, but there was a healthy dose of reggae rockers to go with the lover's songs on Sunday night.
The substantial but far from capacity audience at the Cable and Wireless Golf Academy embraced Sledge despite his voice fading when called upon to deliver powerful high notes such as at the start of the closing When A Man Loves A Woman with Lloyd Parkes and We The People Band reining in themselves where possible to not overpower him. He called on his wife Rosa to do an extended exchange of verses of Bring It On Home Top Me, Mrs. Sledge falling way short of being a good singer but the audience cheering as Percy went on his knees to declare "I'll always be your slave".
The Sam Cooke song was one of a few by other performers which Sledge wove into his set, Procol Harem's Whiter Shade of Pale and Otis Redding's Sitting on the Dock of the Bay among them, in a performance which strolled to the Dark End of The Street and went Out Left Field with the support of Lloyd Parkes and We The People, which supported all the performers.
Frankie Paul, who performed before the intermission that preceded Sledge, took a trip into the unexpected, opening his arms wide to the applause for Just Once and going on to deliver One In A Million, also in original R&B format. After the opening rockers of Worries In the Dance, Paul wove snatches of R&B songs into the reggae rhythms of Tidal Wave and Kushumpeng, which the band delivered in less than thumping fashion, the audience bouncing along to the 'rib-I-du-ba-deng' of Supercat's Under Pressure which he mixed into his own Alicia.
Sarah came when the audience seemed to be losing its enthusiasm for Paul, picking up interest again when he went into a medley of choruses, ending with the Rastaman Chant.
George Nooks delivered straight rockers to move the audience, dipping into Dennis Brown's catalogue to croon "you're riding for a fall" to open and 'Money In My Pocket' to leave, satisfying a recall to the stage with You're Love's Got a Hold on Me. In between he reworked the pop of Bridge of Troubled Waters and the gospel of How Great Thou Art on reggae rhythms.
And Boris Gardiner delivered an easy lover's rock groove with Groovy Kind of Love and This Old House, working through a dead microphone on the opening lines of his first song, Let's Keep It That Way. He borrowed Lloyd Parkes' bass to deliver a Johnny Ace pair and dropped in a spot of deejaying on his closing rockers Oh My Commanding Wife an explosion of applause coming for I Wanna Wake Up With You when he returned to the stage.
Judi Emmanuel dropped Jamaican music of a different genre with My Boy Lollipop, before her waving hand on the closing Someday We'll Be Together was returned in multiples from the audience.
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