THERE was an abundance of love in the air at this year’s Raggamuffin, Perth’s own mini reggae music festival which took place on Monday at ME Bank Stadium.
Despite the late cancellation of headliner Wyclef Jean, who remained in the US to support the telethon for his native Haiti, the 5,500 diverse crowd seemed to enjoy the chance to dance up a storm in the humid conditions.
Perth’s antiquated sound laws meant an early finish time for the event, which had to slot in the eight acts in under seven hours on the one stage.
This meant far shorter set times than usual, and a lot of waiting while frantic sound crews tried to meet the tight deadlines, often falling short by up to 30 minutes.
The live acts were a mixed bag, and Jean’s cancellation definitely left the top end of the bill lacking a big finish.
During Blue King Brown’s 20-minute set , there was enough mention of the Haiti crisis to prevent other acts from even bringing it up.
Julian Marley delivered an up-tempo set that invoked the spirit of his late father, and was a late afternoon highlight.
Sadly, prolific reggae duo Sly and Robbie didn’t deliver the epic set the crowd were anticipating, whether it was the poor sound mix or short time slot , something was amiss.
Jean’s former Fugees bandmate Lauryn Hill was a late addition to the bill and following Jean’s cancellation, it was announced that Hill would bringher own band for her first ever Perth visit.
It was disappointing then that one of the biggest selling female acts in recent years was delegated to second billing behind the oft-touring Shaggy and only offered a 35-minute set; just enough time for seven songs.
But what a set it was.
Since Hill’s rise to fame in the mid-90s with American hip-hop group The Fugees, and then with her astonishing solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Hill has avoided the spotlight, with media reports of bizarre on and off stage antics.
So expectations were low for the hip-hop superstar, but she blew the crowd away as she rapped like the icon she once was on Lost Ones and a powerhouse Ex-Factor.
Marley returned to the stage to join Hill in a heartfelt duet of his dad’s perennially popular Turn Your Lights Down Low.
Surprisingly, Hill then gave the crowd an electric trip down memory lane via a Fugees onslaught.
After How Many Mics and Fu-Gee-La, Hill upped the ante with the anthemic Ready or Not – a song Hill restarted, not satisfied with her band’s commitment to the song – before delivering Killing Me Softly, without a doubt the song of Raggamuffin 2010, one which actually had the crowd reaching for their lighters, a rare sight to behold these days.
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