So on Sunday Air Supply will be in Jamaica for the third time in just about 30 months, in a Mother's Day concert at the Cable and Wireless Golf Academy.
Their previous shows in Jamaica, at the 2006 Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival and the National Indoor Sports Centre in November that year were rammed and they jammed.
Sunday is not expected to be any different.
Air Supply, those suppliers of sappy, sentimental and oh so lovely music, which is very different from the thumping drum and bass Jamaica is known for, are not the only unlikely performers from other lands to have made it Jamaica in great style relatively recently. Even further removed is the predominantly country and western fare of Kenny Rogers, but he took the house down at Kings House in 2004 and the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival two years after.
Jamaica ain't never had no cowboys (at least, outside of the police force and some dudes who shoot from the zip) but Kenny and the Gambler were a hit twice over.
Then there are the 'regulars', like The Manhattans (both versions, no less) and their slick, co-ordinated moves, as well as the Rising Stars reminders in Christopher Martin's delivery of Change Gonna Come and One Third's take on Toto's Africa.
Love affair with oldies
Jamaica, it seems, has a love affair with oldies which will surprise many who come here expecting that only reggae and dancehall music are played. And it is not just oldies, but the sappy kind. I have been to many a dancehall style concert and seen some veteran 'thuggies' holding their bottles or even themselves tight and rocking away, eyes closed, when a singer lays a popular R&B song on a rub-a-dub rhythm.
Hence, we have the success of Sanchez, who is renowned for doing just that on his recordings.
Consistent love for R&B
I am always amazed at how, in a country where people are being murdered left, right and centre, there is this consistent love for R&B music. It is, of course, simplistic to say that since there is so much attention paid to slow jams then people should be taking it easy with each other. But surely some of that lovey-dovey stuff should spill over into everyday life.
It is one of the many contradictions that mark Jamaican life and one that Air Supply will demonstrate exists once again on Sunday. Think about it. They are performing less than three miles from Southside, where the gang war is raging.
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