No Show of Mercy

A local event promoter wants his patrons to know that the non-appearance of an advertised dancehall artiste at last weekend’s event was no fault of his.{{more}}

Davon ‘Basic’ Cato, head of Curve Entertainment, insists that he is at a loss as to why Jamaican performer ‘Merciless’ failed to turn up at ‘King of the Dancehall 2’, which took place at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex on Saturday, April 2, and also featured fellow Jamaicans Konshens and Chino.

“I’ve never heard of him not turning up for a show at all. It’s not like we didn’t do what we were supposed to do… because he was excited about coming,” said Cato.

Cato recounted that he had been in talks with the entertainer, whose real name is Leonard Bartley, to perform at the event.

He said that initially Merciless turned down the invitation, due to an engagement in Amsterdam, Holland, but a cancellation of that event renewed his interest in travelling to St. Vincent, where he had performed on a previous occasion.

“I had him in the budget from before so it wasn’t a problem. I sent him the information to put his voice in the ad so people could hear him say for himself that he coming…. I sent his ticket, his deposit and he was ok.

“His manager called me and tell me he was getting ready to go to the airport (on April 1st) and that is the last I heard from him… we were expecting him but the man just never showed up,” Cato noted.

According to Cato, calls were made to the entertainer and his management on that day and days after, but until now they are unable to communicate with them.

He vowed that he would call the performer until he gets to the bottom of the situation.

Cato said that the patrons expressed some satisfaction in the event, even though he sees the need for improvement in some areas.

The $5,000 sound clash was won by DJ Bad Ways, and patrons expressed more satisfaction with the performance of Konshens than that of Chino due to familiarity of his songs.

Cato said that the let down has not deterred him from moving forward with his promotional ventures, as he is already working on another venture in the near future.

This is not the first time that Vincentian promoters have been hampered by the non appearance of Jamaican performers.

Some years ago, dancehall artiste Adijah ‘Vybz Kartel Palmer failed to turn up to an event that he had been advertised and paid to appear.