Soca star Machel Montano recovered from a nightmare week and found his Carnival form to close the Plymouth Jazz Festival in emphatic fashion when he dedicated his performance to recently retired West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara and also seemed as surprised as everyone when the world double record holder decided to join him on stage.
"Keep going, keep moving, don't you ever stop. The road is long and rocky but I know you're gonna' make it," he began, singing the lyrics to his 2005 Carnival hit "We Not Giving Up", bringing tears to the eyes of the batting star. Montano embraced the emotional Lara and sang a new song he had written especially for "the world's greatest". "Anything they can do, you can do it better because you are the greatest".Lara took the microphone from Montano and turned to the packed Plymouth recreation park to offer his gratitude. "Thank you so much for the love and support. The difference between me and Machel is every time he comes out here he scores a century. He doesn't know about failure," Lara joked.
Montano capitalised on Lara's appearance and romped home with a slew of his soca hits, even dropping a verse from his school boy hit "Too Young to Soca" during an impressive hour-long set.
He told journalists minutes before his performance that the events of the last week made it "difficult to focus" on preparing a set for the show. Montano and his entourage were accused of being involved in a fracas outside Club Zen in Port of Spain last week.
Review of Elton John's performance at Plymouth Jazz Festival 2007.
