Third World brings the heat at 20th “Love” Edition of Rototom Festival in Benicassim, Spain
We were not in Jamaica but it was nearly 96° in the shade last night in Benicassim, Spain. Legendary Reggae band Third World, who celebrated their 40th anniversary this year, blessed us by their presence and gave an incredible performance at the Rototom Festival 20th Love Edition. For health reasons, Bunny Rugs, lead singer of the band, could not perform with them but AJ Brown did a very good job replacing him and demonstrated to be a great performer.
For a little more than hour, Third World delivered a rich and colorful sound of Reggae music mixed with other genres of music such as Soul, Funk and R’n’B. You know that unique vibrant blend of crossover Reggae that only Third World can play the way it must be played. They started with some laid-back Roots with songs such as “You’re Playing Us Too Close”, “Roots with Quality”, and “Ride On”. Later on they picked up the pace and also played some of their biggest hits including “Reggae Ambassador” and “96° In The Shade” after a sensational guitar solo.Tony “Ruption” Williams performed a spectacular djembé solo and entertained the crowd inviting them to join him to “play some drums”. After performing this little entr’acte and bigging up Bunny Rugs, Ruption went back to his seat to back up the band with the drums on “Feel A Little Better Now”. Then it was the time for Stephen “Cat” Coore to showcase his skills. He grabbed his cello and took place at the center of the stage and started playing a couple of songs including “Air On A G String”, and by a cover of “Redemption Song” made famous by Bob Marley (Watch the video below).As Cat was introducing the members of the crew, AJ Brown just started improvising and sung “Sweet Dreams” for a couple of seconds before introducing Mr. Stephen “Cat” Coore, one of the founder member of Third World. In order to close the show they performed 2 more hit songs “Try Jah Love” and “Now That We Found Love” also reminding us that the main message that was meant to be spread that night was LOVE.Last night, Third World was here to celebrate with us their 40th anniversary, the 20th anniversary of the Rototom Festival and also Marcus Garvey‘s birthday. Marcus was an important (political) figure for Jamaica and Rastafarianism. Therefore, the legendary Reggae band had to pay him hommage on stage not only by mentioning him while performing the song “The Spirit Lives” earlier but claiming his name loud and clear.The show was exceptional. In my opinion, they couldn’t find better than Third World for the opening of the 20th Love Edition of Rototom Festival.You can also listen to the press conference given by Third World right after the show at Rototom Festival below:
Third World Interview @ Rototom Reggae Sunsplash Aug 17th, 2013 by Krazygyal on Mixcloud
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