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Good Times - Mas Camp Village, Jamaica - November 20, 2004

There was one deejay, the Captain Colin Hines of FAME FM, for the entire night. There was almost no microphone chatter and one could almost hear the groans as the music was interrupted to announce a blocking car.

Sugar Minott and Admiral Bailey performed, the former to a chilly reception, the latter to ecstatic howls. The Good Times Gangstas, a quartet of female dancers, utilised Barrington Levy's Under Mi Sensie in recalling a time when the basslines were made for waistlines and cool and deadly was the order of the day. Disco, soca and especially Jamaican music were gulped down by a bumper crowd at the Mas Camp Village in New Kingston.

And (gasp) there was a three-inch block of soul music, during which there was no movement towards the exit.

CELEBRATED

The Quorum celebrated 1985 with 'Good Times' on Saturday night into the wee hours of yesterday morning and when the Sparkles Disco was turned down shortly after 4:00 a.m., Steel Pulse's Stepping Out was obeyed by most of the remaining party hounds. And shortly after Black Uhuru announced that the natty dreadlocks was coming for dinner, but breakfast would have been the more appropriate meal.

Unannounced homage of sorts was paid to the Sleng Teng rhythm, which transformed the dancehall world in 1985, with Johnny Osbourne's Buddy Bye, but the party also edged up into the early 1990s dancehall with selections from the early years of current dominant voices Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and Spragga Benz, as well as a wonderful one that has faded, Terror Fabulous.

Beres Hammond's One Dance and Tempted To Touch were crowd favourites.

And it went back to the mid to late 1970s with Stevie Wonder playing piano on Third World's Try Jah Love, which was enthusiastically received by an audience which had endorsed Jimmy Cliff's Reggae Night.

PREMATURELY SILENCED

But going back in time also meant digging up some voices that have been prematurely silenced and Tenor Saw's Ring The Alarm as well as Garnet Silk's Gave You Everything I've Got were reminders that two decades have passed since 1985. And while the hordes of partygoers cavorted to Supercat's Nuff Man A Die, a video clip of a dance in Cleveland, USA, shown on big screen, gave a rare look at some of the dead deejays mentioned in the song.

While the forwards were consistent for the night, as well as ecstatic 'brucking out' by the women, to the delight of the men, the Heineken sponsored event hit a high when Hines gave an extended reverse spin to Buju Banton's Gal Fi Beg and put on a Jammy's selection.

The clock in Back To The Future ? also shown on big screen ? was not quite in sync with the real time of 2004. When movie time was 12:28 a.m., it was 1:50 a.m. in 2004 at Mas Camp and the party people were shaking a leg to Footloose and Jitterbug.

The 'Della Move', 'Bogle' and 'World Dance' were remembered, with Fab Five going back to the days when Carnival was strictly a UWI thing with Ringroad Jam.

With the credits from the dance in Cleveland rolling one last time, that indefinable, unpredictable party moment when it really breaks up came, even as Marley's Natural Mystic rose into the night sky. Who The Cap Fits helped usher out the diehards and Steel Pulse's Bodyguard wished the late leavers security in the Kingston night.