Jimmy Cliff

It's not everyday I have the opportunity to see a living reggae legend so when I found out that the honorary Jimmy Cliff was playing at the intimate venue, IndigO2, I could not pass up the chance of seeing him.

As a venue I love it as the layout means that you are never far from seeing the stage, no matter where you are - its definitely one for vertically challenged folk like myself!

I arrived just as Cliff was in the middle of his first song and as soon as I clapped eyes on the man himself I knew I was in for a good night.

Wearing a bright red shirt, gold headband, and a Jamaican scarf around his neck, his exuberant outfit was finished off with a pair of sparkling gold shoes; his personality was a definite match for his clothing choice.

Throughout his set Cliff grinned at the audience with what I can only describe as pure contentment and communicated with them throughout, whether it be showing us his array of exotic dance moves to mimic or getting us hyped up by telling people to let go and enjoy themselves.

He was backed up by a superb group of seven performers - five instruments and two amazingly strong backing singers.

It was the pure energy eminating from the stage that really got the crowd involved and pumped up. As Cliff wound his way across the stage, bogled, twisted, and threw his legs in the air, I couldn't believe that he was 63 years old.

At one point he declared to the crowd, "It's so nice to be back in London! I hope I can give you some memories like you're giving me!"

There was no need to worry on his part because he certainly did: the crowd were swaying to all the reggae tunes that his mature and emotional voice created but the real favourites were 'I Can See Clearly Now', 'You Can Get it if You Really Want' and the whole venue sang in chorus with arms swaying for 'Rivers of Babylon'.

Cliff is a cheeky character and left the stage several times during his last songs, only for rapturous applause to bring him back on.

He graciously thanked every single member of his backing crew, as well as everyone behind the scenes before finishing with 'Reggae Night', which had the whole place having a boogie!

I felt the same way I did after I saw Elton John live - the feeling that the older musical legends of our time put the artists of today to shame.

In terms of talent, performance skills, pure energy, and love for his profession Jimmy Cliff is quite simply an epic artist.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.