by Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

MKB Productions presents the CVM-TV Startime Launch, held at The Quad, Trinidad Terrace, New Kingston on Wednesday, October 4. - Winston Sill

As Junior Sinclair started the official launch of the Startime concert series' 18th season at the Oxygen Night-Club in The Quad on Wednesday evening, he tied in music with the Saturday, November 11, event.

"I guess Keith Brown and Michael Barnett can borrow from Admiral Bailey's hit song that goes 'yu tink me did done, yu tink me did done'," he said about the duo which forms MKB Productions, which puts on Startime.

And the Admiral will be part of the 'Magnificent Eight' which will perform on the concert series' return to the Mas Camp Village, New Kingston, after a near one-year lay-off which a release from the promoters put down to major financial losses after a rain-affected 2005 season. They return with a new title sponsor in CVM TV, bringing a 17-year relationship with Heineken to an end.

It will be a mixture of dancehall, ska, rocksteady and reggae, as Bailey will perform along with Alton Ellis, George Nooks, Ken Boothe, Leroy Sibbles, Derrick Morgan, Karen Smith and John Holt.

However, the evening's guest speaker, Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie, in pushing for a permanent concert venue in the Corporate Area, said "Mas Camp is posing a major problem to the city because the residents (of the area) complain."

"This country has too rich a culture and history of performing arts to be faced with that problem," he said, saying that a covered, soundproof venue is needed. "Space is not a problem," McKenzie said. "In the east you have the whole Palisadoes strip. Out in the west you have the lands at Ferry," he said.

There was applause when he said that Brown and Barnett would be awarded the gold medal of the city of Kingston in recognition of their contribution to entertainment through Startime. "The KSAC has developed a trend where we recognise people in the entertainment industry," McKenzie said, noting that Oliver Samuels, Freddie McGregor and John Holt have already been so honoured.

Brown noted that when the number of sponsors reached 22 they had to call a halt. "It says a lot about a show that has had a lot to do with the revival of Jamaican music from the 50s, 60s, 70s and, in the later years, the 80s," he said.

And Desmond Young, president of the Jamaica Federation of Musicians (JFM), welcomed the concert's return, saying "I hope that the renewal of this prestigious event will not only create employment for our legends, but also provide great excitement for those in attendance".

CVM TV Startime heads to Ocho Rios, St. Ann, in December, with Gregory Isaacs replacing Karen Smith as the only change to the line-up.