the waiting room

Womad Singapore 2006

I went for Womad on Saturday evening with Nawar. We’d asked Fizzie and Adila along but alas, Fizzie had tickets for the next day and declined to join us. The event as always was held at Fort Canning. Approaching the main entrance we saw a huge line of people. We flirted with the thought that maybe event security had meant bag checks and full body cavity searches, but they were just people who hadn’t thought to buy tickets earlier through SISTIC. We managed to breeze through with our tickets and onward to the event. We caught a little of Susana Baca representing Peru, but we were way at the back then with no way of squeezing in and the crowd was a little too mellow to get up and dance.

The grounds in front of the Fort Green stage (not in Brooklyn) were incredibly packed compared to the last time I’d been for WOMAD in 2003, people were stretched out on their mats, chatting, drinking and whatever waiting for the next act to come on. And oh my God, so many gorgeous women. I could’ve wept rivers at the hotness on display.

Somewhere in this crowd are hundreds of beautiful women.

Chico Cesar came on and really rocked it, it was very cool, very tight, like Brazilian folk reggae punk if you can imagine that. Cooler than anybody with a name like Chico Cesar deserves to be. Wicked Aura joined them for a couple of tracks and they killed it together.

Nawar and I left the grounds after Chico Cesar’s set because my batteries had died and I’d needed to go to 7-Eleven to replace them, besides which getting drinks there would be far cheaper than getting them inside. Leaving through the entrace directly behind the History museum we saw another ticket counter with no queue, which festival goers probably didn’t realise was there thus resulting in the snaking queue at the main entrance.

And the headliner, closing out the Fort Green Stage for the night was the reggae legend and the right Honourable Jimmy Cliff. I have to admit that as always there’s a tendency for big gigs for the sound mixing to be on the bad side, and Jimmy Cliff was no exception. At one point I was wondering what the bleeping noises coming from the speakers was until I realised it was actually his back-up vocalist. This was strange because the sound for Chico Cesar’s set was excellent, although that might’ve been due to the fact that he only had four people in his band compared to Jimmy Cliff’s nine, including his snake-hipped percussion man.

So anyway, Jimmy played through all his classics, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People“, “Vietnam” (including a rant against Bush and Blair), a few covers (”Wild World“, the super upbeat “I Can See Clearly Now” and an excellent stripped down, percussion only version of the Melodians “Rivers of Babylon“) and everything from his breakthrough The Harder They Come, saving the title track for his third (!!!) encore. People were already leaving by this point but come on, you know he was not going to leave without playing that. He had an enormous amount of energy for a guy pushing sixty, running up and down the stage, skanking, and really great vocals that the poor sound system did nothing to diminish.

What was amusing was when Jimmy Cliff came on after his band set things up, a guy ran to the stage waving his Jamaican flag vest. We’re assuming he was wasted by the this point (it was eleven o’clock by the way) and he was holding up his vest for almost the entirety of the set. What was even more interesting was that the dude had a tattoo of a map of the world on his back. It hardly beats Steve-O’s back for weird tats, but still. And this other guy wanted to start a fight during, of all things, “Many Rivers to Cross“, and had to be dragged off by security, which left Jamaican-vest-waving-world-map-tattoo man a little upset for awhile and he walked off. Only to rush back to the front a little bit later on. It was a little weird because bottled violence guy actually looked a little like Anwar, a suspicion quelled by the fact that I actually ran into Anwar around one, after Jimmy Cliff’s set had ended.

Anyway, good night out. Irie mon, irie.

So we sat around for about an hour after Jimmy Cliff’s set, drinking teh tarik, talking shit and catching bits and pieces of Risenge Makondo Club Set at the Top Stage. We’re sure we see Singapore Idol contestant Nurul Maideen there. Striking up a conversation would involve admitting that I think Singapore Idol’s been rubbish and I spend my Wednesday and Thursday nights watching Rock Star: Supernova on Star World, so I opt to dodge that particular bullet. Nawar claims she’s quite well-endowed, something he says his girl mentioned and something that sadly wasn’t played up on TV.

Leaving the place we saw part of the road being cordoned off for the AHM, which is something I haven’t taken part in for years now. The route’s changed more than a little since I last ran it. In any case, I waited almost half an hour for the NR7 bus (which never came) before having to run to the next bus stop to catch the 65M (which passed by twice in the time it took the NR7 not to come).

Peace.

Technorati Tags: womad, singapore, chico cesar, jimmy cliff

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