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Wednesday 19 November 2008

Iluvlive was Dynamite!!!

Posted by Tahirah

Yesterday, Iluvlive hosted a special at Cargo.


The place was rammm....a vast number of music lovers straight across the spectrum came out to see Wretch 32, Natty, Laura Izibor and Ms Dynamite. Such a vast number that guestlist was over-subscribed and the door staff were letting no one in unless they were on the guestlist or they had pre-paid tickets.

Although I knew the night had a STONKING line-up, I neglected to sort out getting myself and my two friends on guestlist because I assumed it would be cool. So to hear I had at least a 1-hour wait, I was somewhat dejected and I contemplated going home.

We weren't totally ready to give up though. I'd dedicated my Facebook status to the show - I wasn't going to miss it! One of my friends was on a mission to find food, so we took a twenty-minute walk to Liverpool Street's McDonald's (where we wasted an hour and I treated myself to a nice cuppa) before deciding we'd try again.

A slight hustle, a little help from my friends - hold tight Mr Fish, Alex and the kind band member - we got in, just after ten. With Twin B and Ras Kwame hosting, Vis and lots of the 1Xtra familia in the audience it felt a bit like a reunion. I also saw loads of other familiar faces.



I'd missed Wretch 32 and girl band Pheonix, but luckily I got in JUST in time for the incredible Laura Izibor. I'd been beating her tune From My Heart To Yours (which is available for LEGAL download NOW) for a while so I was amped to see her. Her powerful crisp vocals resonated through the crowd - that lady has got soul pervading from the ends of her 'fro to her fingertips. She also threw out some Irish charm with her crowd banter. "Ms Dynamite has got her work cut out coming on after Laura" someone in the audience murmured. 











Natty followed Laura. I'll be honest, Natty hasn't totally captured my attention previously. I liked the odd song which I heard but I hadn't actively seeked out his music. Monday night I got an understanding of the positive critique he's recieved from media bodies. While I doubt it was his strongest performance, it was charismatic and provided a nice slice of "roots" I haven't seen on stage for a while (it's been a minute since my last reggae concert). Oh, and he's cute so most of the girls in Cargo were hooked from when he first stepped on stage.




















Then came the headlining act: Ms Dynamite

Quite simply - She's back.
Performing mostly fresh material, pathetic sound engineers couldn't stop Dynamite. Her performance was engaging, energetic and real. She exposed herself to us in the audience, talking us through her new and old material. She had us jumping to classics including Booo! her verse on So Solid's They Don't Know and Ms Dyna-mi-tee (which she admitted she hates). The set also featured guest cameos from Bashy (whose mixtape bashy.com you should purchase NOW) and super-duper beat boxer Faith SFX who provided the beat for a few tunes including Booo!!!

As always, the UD crew did it big.





video filmed on my little digi-cam

Lesson of the day: forget trying to support by paying the full wack! ALWAYS sort out guestlist/tickets (",)

Tahi...x

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