Men of Steel, Rae of rapture

REGGAE LEGENDS Steel Pulse had fans jamming until close to midnight at the 19th St Lucia Jazz Festival on Saturday night.The evergreen music had fans shouting for more as lead singer David Hinds and the rest of the band, took them down memory lane with hit after hit.Favourites such as Rally, Chant The Summer Day, Stepping Up, Rebel Red Eye Blues and Pan Africa Unite, which was sung for the people of Haiti, had people singing by rote or just soaking up the  hypnotic vibes.Patrons were so caught up in the rapture, that when the band wanted to end their set around 11:35 p.m., the shouts for more quickly became a chant.Members of Steel Pulse soon responded to the  call, and returned for another 15 minutes or so to do Leggo Beast and Go Barrack.As become custom, the day got underway with  a line-up of local acts, which included  Ronald “Boo” Hinkson. He shared the spotlight with emerging talent Tempest, which he and some others have been grooming.American singer Tracey Hamblin also appeared with Hinkson and his friends and left the females in the audience with a serious message in the song titled I Ain’t No Longer User Friendly.Corinne Bailey Rae, who made an historic debut  on the British scene as a singer/songwriter in 2006, took Pigeon Island patrons through a range of emotions with her soul searching and sometimes melancholic pieces.Her hit songs Put Your Records On, Till It Happens To You and I Don’t Wonder Why were done along with covers I Only Have Eyes For You and Doris Day’s Que Sera Sera, which brought her set to a close.