Last Wednesday The Heatwave put on a legendary stage show at Cargo; featuring a huge spectrum of artists. The Night was billed as event that would be remembered in 100 years time and it really did live up to it’s billing. History was most definitely made.
The Night started with Master of ceremonies Serocee & Rubi Dan building up the vibes alongside Seanie T, before they call on stage the first wave of artists. General Levy came on stage alongside an artist who never introduced himself (although he did sound slyly like Garnet Silk) before the likes of Mr Williamz, Stylo G, Glamma Kid, YT & Lady Chann all took turns spitting fire over some of dancehall & reggae biggest riddims (Not to mention Stush getting a huge forward for Dollar Sign).
This was only part 1 and some what of a warm up of what was still to come, as we moved onto an even more memorable event Saxon legend & Smiley Culture sparring partner Asha Senator taking to the stage to pay tribute to his recently lost friend. He performed his Smiley Character Reference followed by renditions of Smiley’s biggest hits, which had the by now capacity crowd in a frenzy. Following this tribute Smiley’s nephew Merlin Emmanuel addressed the crowd about the Justice 4 Smiley campaign (See Link Below for more info) and then YT & Mr Williamz came back on stage to perform their Tribute to Smiley Culture & kick of the long & intense finale.
The last part of the show was now well and truly in session. There was a constant flow of artists taking to the stage, General Levy ripped the roof off with Incredible over Answer riddim. Lady Chann nearly broke the deck with a ferocious wheel while her & Glamma Kid performed their new single “informer” & this was all before the final ensemble of artist took to the stage. Next up its was time for some of Grimes biggest names to take to the stage to pay homage to dancehall & sound system culture.
First on stage was Riko Dan who started to rip up Sleng Teng, before he was joined on stage by Wiley who started by taking us back to jungle days. After working their way through a few dancehall riddims, you suddenly heard the iconic intro to Eskimo & you knew what was coming next – Hit 16 after 16. Suddenly the stage had become full of artists and the likes Lady Leshurr (what a little bundle of duppying energy she was) Stylo G, Lady Chann & Stush jumping on the medley of grime riddims. Before the dust could settle Wiley & the rest of his entourage had disappeared and its was left to the rest of the artists to take us through to end and even then the sound man had to almost turn off the system to get the artists to stop
This night was truly amazing and it will probably take a further few weeks for the events of the night to really sink in. It was so refreshing to see so many of the UK’s best artists past, present & future all under one roof and real credit to Gabriel & the rest of The Heastwave team for pulling it off. This was definitely history or as I saw on twitter Ourstory.
PS look out for some clips coming in the next couple days!
http://www.facebook.com/Campaign4Justice4SmileyCulture?sk=info
