Raggamuffin@Medibank Stadium 25/01/2010

It was a beautiful day for Reggae, & no doubt Raggamuffin delivered on all promises (except the understandable absence of Wyclef Jean). People lined up for hours to get in with alot of people missing out on the short frenetic set from Jamaican born Pop sensation Sean Kingston, performing hits from Beautiful Girl to Fire Burning, but the ladies almost died when he performed 'Me Love'.

Blue King Brown come on with songs full of positivity & upliftment which was well received by the crowd, the climax came when lead singer Natalie dedicated thenext song to her back up singer Lady Nadee, who is one of only 80 people in Australia with Haitian background, with Lady Nadee openly weaping it was a very emotional moment, it was hard not to feel the pain that has been suffered in Haiti.

Steel Pulse as one young lady from New Zealand told me rivals Bob Marley & UB40 as the favourite Reggae son back home, did not let her or the rest of the loyal fans down, performing from a catalogue over 30 years deep, it felt like there set was too short & justice was not down to one of the first British reggae groups.

One of the least known Marley brothers but definately not the least talented Julian Marley brought abit of his fathers spirit in song & in movement. Performing songs such as Natural Mystic & Positive Vibration to songs from his Grammy nominated album 'Awake' with songs like 'Violence in the streets' & 'Boom Draw' coming off to the open minded crowd. With the band having shades of 'The Wailers' the drummer a splitting image of deceased Wailers Drummer Carlton Barrett & a tremendous transition from 'On the floor' to 'Exodus' the musicianship was also show.

Sly & Robbie have rumoured to have produced over 180,000 tracks & it showed tonight why everyone from Mick Jagger to Beenie Man have sought after these riddim twins. With the bass turned up Sly & Robbie went through versions of some of the biggest riddims ever produced in Jamaican History, Real Rock, Shine Eye Gal, Bam Bam the list goes on & on. Lauren Hill was slated to play with the riddim twins but with Wyclef staying in Haiti to help with aid Lauren brought her own band, which I thought led to one of Sly & Robbies downfalls, the lack of a professional singer was quite noticible. With Trumbonist Rob Robinson taking most of the lead vocals, it was quite noticeable when they brought a new singer out of Jamaica (Name slips my mind) how the energy levels went up a Notch.
Lauren Hill the artiste most people were waiting on definately knows how to build anticipation. Her Dj gave us a taste of wide range of Reggae with everyone from Mr. Marley to Beenie Man, but after 15 minutes the crowd was getting restless for as Raggamuffin Promoters call her 'The Queen Of Reggae, (I wonder what her mother in law would think of that, actually what would every Female Reggae singer think about that). Well when she finally came out, she came out with a bang, reminding us why The Fugees picked up so many Grammys & sold over 18 million records world wide. Songs like 'Fugee-la-la' & 'Ready Or Not' from 'The Score' & 'Lost Ones' & 'X-Factor' but the two highlights were definately Julian Marley joining Lauren onstage too perform his fathers 'Turn Your Lights Down Low' & after asking the crowd which song we wanted 'Killing Me Softly' or 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' the crowd had overwhelmingly went with 'Killing Me Softly' again it was a shame that time was of an essence as tracks such as 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' & 'Everything is Everything' were not performed.

I was not expecting much from Shaggy after last years performance but was pleasently surprised when he gave a more 'Reggae Orientated' performance with songs like 'Bonafide Girl' & 'Long Time' include in the songlist next too crowd favourites 'In The Summertime', 'Boombastic', 'Angel' & It Wasnt Me'. He even proved that he hasnt forgotten his Sound System roots while doing an OD to where his from Jay-z's 'New York State of Mind' to the place of his ancestry Damian Marley's 'Welcome To Jamrock' & where he is Men At Work 'Land Down Under'. Appropriately Shaggy finished with his hit 'Feel The Rush' with another succesful year for Andrew Mcmanus & his fellow promoters.

All & all it was a good festival with a few drawbacks, with few current 'Authentic' Reggae groups, Next year artistes such as Jah Cure, Queen Ifrica, Mavado, Serani & Beenie Man should be invited to come down as well as Damian Marley Stephen Marley or elder statesman Toots & The Maytals, Jimmy Cliff or even Aswad. Also it definately helped the clear Basslines bringing Collin 'Bulby' York down but still the levels were all over the place, The crowd struggled to head David Hines & Natalie from Blue King Brown. Also alot of patrons were complaining of the wait to get in, with some patrons waiting over an hour to get in. All in All there is alot of optimism to next years staging of Raggamuffin.

Photos & Article by Russid Kruger