I have been having a jolly good time over the past few weeks watching some performances by Jamaican artistes on www.youtube.com.

For those who are not aware of the service, youtube allows people to post their own videos for all to see and comment on. It is not unregulated, though, as the people in the community of viewers and 'posters' decide what is a bit strong and an advisory is put up. And no 'blue' stuff is allowed at all.

(But there is some saucy stuff. Look up 'big booty' and some real interesting clips come up.)

I do not remember why I started looking up reggae clips on youtube, but I do know that one of the first one I saw was Supercat and Ninja Man at their 1991 Sting clash. Then I looked up the 1990 Sting with Shabba Ranks and Ninja Man, then Beenie Man and Bounty Killer in 1993. There are classic cuts of Nicodemus and Tenor Saw, but it is not only the older stuff that is on youtube. Sting 2006 is there in living colour, with Mavado's performance, Bounty Killer and Beenie Man, up to the point of the clash that never was.

Then there is what is for me the prize. It is a performance I have always wanted to watch over and over and over - Jimmy Cliff at Rebel Salute 2005. And there it is on youtube.com, in 12 parts. I have had a ball watching them over and over.

There is lots of Burning Spear and a few Bunny Wailer cuts as well.

The youtube reggae clips are not long. The longest one is about 10 minutes, which is long enough to get into the performance. The shortest that I have seen are about three minutes long, which is about the length of a music video (and they are much more interesting than the winey-winey, half-naked girls that are in many of these videos on television).

It is not only singers and deejays who have got a feature on youtube; there are many clips of Passa Passa, including one where some wining went on in a bulldozer that was passing by when the session hit the daylight hours.

The people who own the rights to the recordings may not be too pleased that their product is freely available. But I am really enjoying it while it lasts.