2012 has had so many great moments that after two days, we are still just at September. Enjoy.
September 6
In the year that he returns to the live performance circuit, Miguel ‘Sizzla Kalonji’ Collins stamps his class on the Arthur Guinness concert, held at the National Indoor Sports Centre, Kingston, in no uncertain terms. On a show which also features Popcaan and Mavado (making a disappointing return to performing in Jamaica after his previous showing at ReggaeSumfest 2011), Sizzla is head and shoulders above all.
September 16
A billboard at the Richmond Estate, Priory, St Ann, has identified it as the new home of the Rebel Salute festival, but it is confirmed by a newspaper article. Rebel Salute will also become a two-day festival, on January 18 and 19, 2013, for its 20th staging. Organised by deejay Tony Rebel, it is the festival’s fourth home. The one immediately previous to Richmond Estate was the Port Kaiser Sports Club in St Elizabeth.
September 16
Retired Senior Superintendent of Police Anthony ‘Tony’ Hewitt is murdered off Red Hills Road, St Andrew. He was one of the legendary Jamaican policemen who, along with Sting organiser Isaiah Laing, Keith ‘Trinity’ Gardner, Cornwall ‘Bigga’ Ford and Reneto Adams, was enshrined in Jamaican popular culture by song. Among the song’s Hewitt’s name is in is Baby Cham’s Ghetto Story, where he says, “I remember round ’80 when Jamaica explode/dat time a Trinity an’ Tony Hewitt dem a run road”. Two decades before that mid-2000s song, the late Johnny Ringo had deejayed “bad bway oonu betta fit/fi run from Trinity an’ Tony Hewitt”.
September 25
Tarrus Riley’s Mecoustic album is released in the Caribbean. It is one of a number of acoustic albums released by Jamaican performers in 2012, including Richie Spice’s Soothing Sounds and Toots and the Maytals’ Unplugged at Strawberry Hill.
October 2
Clifford ‘Mr Vegas’ Smith sets off a dancehall tsunami as he takes to Twitter and Facebook to vent his rage at his former lover and mother of his daughter having sex with another man in Vegas’ home while their daughter was present. The action was caught on security video camera, with the little girl coming into the room after the sex was over but the couple was not quite covered up. Vegas posted “no one knows my hurt, until you can relate to this, you can’t advise me what to do. I am human, blood run through my vein, this is not out of malice.” The saga plays out for the next two months or so, and the Twin of Twins release So Much Things To Say about it a few days after Vegas’ social media outbursts.
October 9
The KLE Group, which operates popular nightspot Usain Bolt’s Tracks and Records, has an overwhelming response to its initial public offering. Seeking $94.6 million at $3.70 per share, before 10 a.m. there is $107.3 million in applications. The offer should have been open for a week, but was closed when there was a 13 per cent overrun in subscriptions. The most popular event at Tracks and Records is the weekly Behind the Screen live-performance series, featuring Konshens, Vegas, Richie Spice, Queen Ifrica and Assassin among the performers.
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