by Angus Taylor

07/25/2010

DAY THREE: Sunday, 25th

Sunday 10:15pm

A smattering of rain at the final stretch, if anything brought people together. Jahcoustix showed he is more than the archetypal roots-soft-rock rebel by dropping some soca into the mix.

Boy-made-good Martin Jondo's folksy global mélange was another leftfield but mood lightening choice in the curation: in preparation for the fire-and-judgement of the main event.

It was quite cold when at a quarter to nine, Capleton, left off the posters for political reasons, closed the show. Again turning the word Ruhr into a lion's roar as he did when interviewed at Summerjam, he gave his usual astonishing demonstration of crowd intensity control. The whirling towels and t-shirts that have shown approval over the last 3 days took on a whole new significance during his impersonation of a helicopter during Acres - the most enduring image of the whole weekend.

Sunday 5:00pm

The start times have got progressively earlier over the weekend. So Sunday's opening act needed to be mellower than Mr Vegas yesterday. Bonn's Nosliw, another eclectic homegrown artist had a sizeable group of people swaying between half past one and ten to three.

The first real drizzle cleared the arena before Macka B's set. But the Rasta Postman works in any weather and soon pulled them back. Macka B likes to talk and so an hour and twenty minutes gave him ample space. Instead he opted to keep it simple, playing with rediscovered fire and asked for "a minute's noise" for the Love Parade. The Roots Ragga band's horn section helped too.

DAY TWO: Saturday 24th

Saturday 1:30am

Any attempt to continue with the intensity of Perfect would have been overkill. And again, the nuanced programming showed with the choice of two very popular but lighter and less confrontational acts. The attendance hit record levels for the rapper Sammy Deluxe and eclectic post-modern pop of Patrice – who must be the first person to chat dancehall on the mic with an acoustic guitar strapped to his back!

Sadly, by this stage, news of the tragedy at the Love Parade in nearby Duisburg was filtering through the crowd. Andrew Murphy pointed out, when challenged by a woman in the front row, that the organizers had been deliberating over when to announce this terrible event. Meanwhile another disaster threatened when a few youths tried to gain illicit access to the site by crossing the railway line. Despite these stresses, the more diversely arranged Saturday ended as successfully as the night before.

Saturday 9:30pm

The preliminaries are over. The legendary Dawn Penn sang a mellow selection over some backing tracks including covers of Petula Clark's Down Town and John Holt's A Love I Can Feel as well as some hip hop soul infused new material. The pulling back of the pace meant the party minded went to the recently opened U Club sound tent but it afforded some pleasant downtime before Perfect's show. As if realising the band change might empty the arena, co-host Andrew Murphy summoned everyone with acoustic Bob Marley ballads.

Predictably, Perfect was the performance of the day so far. As well as tough cuts on Irie Vibrations and Tiger Records rhythms he showed (once again after Skarra Mucci) why African Beat are one of the best German labels with 10 Pound Of Ganja. His mixture of roots and dancehall united the disparate strands of the heaving crowd. For, like Prince and M.I.A., Perfect is both style and substance.

Saturday 6:45pm

Day two of the festival was colder but the local supermarket was very welcoming: playing reggae music to entice the customers. Such a warm welcome for festival goers - reggae or otherwise - would be rare in small towns in the UK. Back at the arena a much bigger opening crowd at 2.20pm were greeted by a slightly tardy Mr Vegas and his Thugz Band. A bit of feedback on his mic was a nuisance but the people loved him - especially when he played Heads High, I Am Blessed and paid tribute to the late Sugar Minott, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Toots, Barrington Levy and Beenie Man. He was unusually low on the bill after headlining last year, showing the "curated" nature of the lineup here.

Further proof was found in the bouncy ska-punk vibes of NYC's Toasters. They were an unusual but welcome change of pace and were the first band at the festival to bring some real horns. Roots reggae artists take note, as Tippa Irie recently said, horns "take the music to a higher element". They also brought the sun out from behind the clouds.

As good an all-purpose festival band as they were, some reggae rhythms were needed once the Toasters left. Massive B's Bobby Konders announced Swedish duo Serengeti whose harmonies sounded a little off in places. Cornadoor, who followed, managed to get the supine massive standing again. He's been busy on the festival circuit and his debut album Without Restrictions suggests he could be a future star.