Sean Paul pulls it all together

Photos from the concert here!

Sean Paul’s gig in Cayman last
Friday came on the back of a serious Nor’wester that looked at one stage to
have put the concert in doubt completely.

Indeed, right until the concert
began, rumours abounded that the dancehall star was not going to be able to
make an appearance due to inclement weather.

In the event, despite the cancellation
of his Thursday evening flight from Kingston to Grand Cayman, Paul and his crew
arrived on-island on Friday instead. However, the inclement weather meant that
waves were lapping extremely high up the beach, which necessitated the
rebuilding of the stage from its original beachside area to the Royal Palms car
park. Kenny Rankine of Paramount Media said that this added $7,000 to the
$110,000 cost of staging the gig.

“Going from a concert venue set-up
on the beach that was 85 per cent complete on Thursday night – which was a
challenge all in itself – to making the decision to move the set-up to the
parking lot Friday morning 5am which required a complete tear down and re-build
by 7pm Friday evening was amazing. Our team members and subcontractors worked so
hard to pull off the event set-up.”

As for Sean Paul, he said that it
was his third time performing here and after 15 years in the business, Cayman
still showed him love. At present, he revealed, he is concentrating on
producing smaller acts as well as linking up finally with old schoolmate Damian
Marley. Paul also said that he was speaking with ex-Destiny’s Child singer
Kelly Rowland with a view to a future collaboration. After the Royal Palms
appearance, the globe-trotting Jamaican artist’s next two concerts were to be
in Abu Dhabi and Sri Lanka.

Fitting tribute

The evening’s concert was
well-attended according to organisers, who estimated a crowd of around 2,100
people. Although some of the special vibe had inevitably dimmed due to the
weather, what would have been a spectacularly-staged Caribbean event ended up
being, instead, a very good gig by a performer out to entertain the Friday
night crowds – and succeeding.

First up was Stuart Wilson and Love
Culture, whose set of classic reggae sounds included originals Put a Little
Love in Your Heart and Represent. The set featured a great cover of Night
Nurse. It was a fitting tribute to the recently deceased Gregory Isaacs, a
talented and charismatic performer whose part in spreading the word of reggae
worldwide is a central one. But it was joy, not poignancy, that permeated Love
Culture’s bass-bump and guitar chops, and quite rightly so.

Past hits

After DJs kept the crowd up for it,
Sean Paul’s energy – and that of his dancers – slammed the carpark for approximately
an hour. Throughout, the mohicaned performer exhorted the audience toward
greater and greater heights of excitement as he hammered through a set of his
past hits. It’s not uncommon for a dancehall artists to perform in the company
of his DJ and some dancers rather than a live band, and on the relatively small
stage what came across was a curious but ultimately invigorating blend of pop
confidence and, surprisingly, an intimacy between performer and crowd that is
often lost in bigger venues. That alone can create a connection that transcends
star and fan and connects people on an altogether deeper, visceral level. For a
second, Sean Paul and the Caymanian crowd locked eyes, united both in dance and
in mind, and the world fell away.