Entertainment

Much more possible from Terror Fabulous

I WAS HAPPY to see a favourite deejay of mine, Terror Fabulous, make a return to performing at the Portmore Awards last Saturday. I was not, however, satisfied with the manner of his return.

Of course, as he has been away from the stage for some time and has had his troubles off-stage, I did not expect an over the top show. However, I did expect more than what was delivered at the Caymanas football field in Portmore last weekend.

My report on Terror Fabulous' performance is in this publication, so there is no need to go over that again.

His ability

First, let us not forget that Terror Fabulous is not an ordinary deejay round here. He has one of the best ­ if not simply the best ­ voices and rhythm riding ability coming out of the early 1990s, when the last good crop of deejays came out, before the rise of the recent magnificent crew, including Turbulence and Ghandi.

Terror Fabulous came up when Buju was rising, Daddy Screw was stinging, Louie Culture was chopping, Tony Rebel was warming it up and Terry Ganzie was slicing. It was a bunch that you had to be good to even keep pace with, much less stand out. And Terror Fabulous certainly stood out.

Let us not forget that Fabulous hit the Billboard charts with a raw dancehall tune, Action, done with Nadine Sutherland, at a time when a dancehall track hitting the charts at all, much less with a dancehall tune that was not remixed, was an incredible achievement.

That aside, he has some serious tunes in Jamaica's music history. Gangster's Anthem is a huge tune by any standards, Number Two is a hell of an anti-gay anthem and there is the Glamorous Glitterous girls tune, which is a big track.

So, although the crowd responded well to Terror Fabulous, with huge forwards for the songs that he did, so much more could have been done to put together a good set for him.

He started with Gangster's Anthem (which it is), pulling up early. Why not drive home the tune, then do another 'hard' tune like Have You Ever Seen A 45 Before, without much of a pause in between them, then Jah Works, doing an extended run of that as well. Then move into the faster stuff, like Number Two, Glamorous, Call Fi Di Hearse (cause one more dead again), Action and his excellent part from Anything For Yu, then a couple new tracks, before ending with the backshot anthem Position. That is not so hard to think of putting together.

Terror Fabulous has the music and better use should have been made of it, on his return. OK, say that he is rusty and they are unwilling for him to go on so long, then the same set could have been run in briefer fashion.

It was good to see Terror Fabulous back in action; next time, I hope that a good set is put together. Properly done, it is a 'cyaan fail'.

After all, Terror Fabulous is a big, big deejay round here.