Bredda Hype in fine form as he defeated Black Scorpio outside Ken's Wildflower Lounge, Portmore, St Catherine, on Saturday night. - photo by Mel Cooke

The large open space cordoned off by crowd barriers behind Ken's Wildflower, Portmore, St Catherine, was like an accident scene which attracts eye-witnesses out of thin air in the hours before Saturday night turned into Sunday morning. There was, for all intents and purposes, no one gathered in front of the stage with the two disc jockey controls set up on both sides.

Then the clash action started and a substantial - though not huge - crowd gathered, occasionally dispersing to escape the intermittent rain, to witness the figurative write-off of King Mello and Black Scorpio from the 2009 'Guinness Sounds of Greatness' in the season's first clash.

Each clash consisted of a 'juggling' round of 15 minutes each to get the audience in a party mood, a 'tune fe tune' in which they exchanged commercial releases and a final 'dub-fe-dub', a battle of alternating specials done specifically for the sound system playing the recording.

The dancing Guinness girls on stage, clad in slinky, stretch black material which clung to exciting places, were a hit with the men and, during the clashes, also split into groups and supported one or the other sound system.

Black Widow's defeat of King Mello was nowhere as definitive as Bredda Hype's hammering of Black Scorpio, the latter and later of the night's two encounters marked by handclaps and boos for the noted battling sound system which marks it 40th anniversary this year.

Jack Scorpio's entry into the fray to be the frontman for his sound system late in the clash did not make a difference. Still, at the end, a smiling Scorpio said "I love how a busload a oonu come" to those whom he perceived as diehard Bredda Hype fans in the audience.

That clash was also marked by a first-round slip from Bredda Hype which let in a curse word in a song, just as the Guinness ladies were gleefully pumping away at the Bicycle, courtesy of Kartel. It threatened to mar the night, as it was announced that points would be deducted from Bredda Hype, which had been playing up a storm. This did not sit well with the audience, but host Elva handled the moment well, reminding all of the Guinness Sounds of Greatness rules and just who was spending the money, as well as the fact that the show was being produced for television.

And at the end of the night, DJ Smurf, who along with Squeeze were the night's judges and whose vote counted for 30 per cent of the total score (the other 70 per cent left to the crowd) said "me haffi big up Bredda Hype fe a tune deh, Hit The Road Jack". The rock and roll song had come at the end of the second round, in which the sound systems battled with an exchange of 45 rpm songs and tore the house down.

In the first clash of the night Black Widow won the first two rounds, while King Mello did serious damage in the dub fe dub round, but the victory had already been sealed. However, King Mello's specials, including Johnny Clarke adjusting the lyrics of Move Outta Babylon to instruct the opposing sound system "move outta dis ya lawn" were vastly superior.

Sound-system tradition

The Guinness Sounds of Greatness competition, a corporate structured imitation of a time-honoured sound-system tradition which has declined in recent years, did not escape the afflictions that sound men have faced, the police asking that the system be turned down during the Black Widow/King Mello clash. And they did not depart from the time-honoured method of sound-system operators dealing with such instructions, turning it down for a while and then increasing the volume for the enthusiastic crowd outside Ken's Wildflower.

The Guinness ladies were a very attractive addition to Saturday's 'Guinness Sounds of Greatness' opening clash outside Ken's Wildflower, Portmore, St Catherine. - photo by Mel Cooke

Then the clash action started and a substantial - though not huge - crowd gathered, occasionally dispersing to escape the intermittent rain, to witness the figurative write-off of King Mello and Black Scorpio from the 2009.