It would stand to reason that if your headliner has not had a real hit in over two years -- and your second attraction is a relative newcomer -- then perhaps you should try to make your admission price as low as possible.

Now don't get me wrong, Tony Rebel is a massively popular artist and Zebra is perhaps the hottest new export out of Jamaica in years, but truthfully, the prospective audience would only be interested in either/or and would therefore pay $30 to see Mr. Rebel alone, or, of course, Zebra alone.

Throwing them both onto a concert ticket and charging $40 for the entire package was perhaps, in retrospect, not wise.

I mean, I don't know if High End Entertainment and Dread & Baha made any profits or not, but I do know that this was a show that could have drawn a bigger crowd (for sure).

And speaking of the show, on the whole it was a satisfactory outing, but would I have been happy if I had paid $40 to see the show? I really can't say.

See, I arrived after 11 p.m. and found a relatively small crowd that was scattered around the vast Clearwater Beach Park, vibing to the sounds of the mighty Souljah 1.

Having missed the local acts completely, I came to terms with my folly and then just looked for a spot where I could sit back and evaluate the happenings at this much vaunted Culture March 99.

Soon after my arrival, the Save Band invaded the stage, "Straight from Jamaica!'' And after demonstrating their proficiency with the instruments that make the music, the band made a little space for the Silk Brothers.

I'm sad to say that I was not really moved by the Silk Brothers because I am a huge fan of their tragically deceased brother, Garnett, and I really did want to like them. They did reach modest heights with covers of their brother's classics like "Fill us up with your mercy,'' "Kingly Character'' and the all-time reggae classic "Hello Mama Africa,'' but overall, they didn't really get much love from the crowd, nor did they impress this reviewer.

The next act to take the stage was Skullman, who emerged from the side of the stage shouting big-ups to several local `crews' and `massives'. Skullman did quite a short set, but was very energetic and did move the crowd somewhat, inciting the release of the infamous `cloud of fire' (somewhat of a salute created by spraying a flammable aerosol can onto a lit match or lighter - harmless fun), on more than one occasion.

The portion of the crowd that he appealed to most was the younger group, basically the Zebra fans who, ironically, were perhaps too young to remember the song that was the highlight of Skullman's set: the late 80's hit "Jump and Spreadout.'' Oh wait, did I not mention that the crowd was noticeably polarised, I mean in terms of who came to see what. I could be wrong about this, and perhaps all reggae is beautiful in its own right and some people came to enjoy the entire show, but wait until you hear what happened after the Zebra set.

Zebra marched onto the stage with much fanfare, lighters went up (as did `clouds of fire'), air horns went off and young arms reached for the sky as their new hero exploded onto the scene.

And while this late 90's Tiger clone ran through his many current hits, I couldn't help but think back to just such performances by Supercat or Buju Banton back when I was a kid, and how I used to carry on just like that.

But anyway, Zebra dropped all his most potent hits right onto the crowd's head, with the highlights "Selassie Warning'', "Rupert'' and his glorious finale "Unfair'' causing the most ruckus. And while my little bout with nostalgia gave me a warm, positive feeling about Zebra's performance, what followed was outright disrespect.

Rebel overcomes wayward crowd Now this was no fault of Zebra's, he did his job and did it well, but immediately after his set, approximately half of the over 600 strong crowd made a dash for the parking lot (I guess it was past their bedtimes!) This did not do a lot to endear Mr. Rebel to the crowd I'm sure, but he just absorbed the insult and did an outstanding set.

During Zebra's set there seemed to be an increasing Police presence, and the reason for this became glaringly obvious when, at around 2.10 a.m. the lights and sound were turned off as Mr. Rebel was in full flight! And while I was walking to my car with a very bad taste in my mouth, thoughts of how bad this review was going to be danced in my head. But just as I opened my car door to get in, someone pointed out to me that Tony Rebel was still singing -- this time with the crowd -- "If Jah''no less! What a revelation! Ten minutes later I found myself back in the middle of the around 300 committed reggae addicts, singing and dancing to Mr. Rebel's impressive catalogue of Reggae classics -- and they turned the lights and sound back on too! Tony Rebel kept us hypnotised for another half-hour (at least), refusing to stop even when the actual promoters pleaded with him. We sang along to hits like "Nazarene Vow'', "Vibes of the Times'', "Teach the Children'' and the monumental "Know Jah''.

He even did a sweet rendition of the Otis Redding classic "Dock of the Bay'' in a Bermuda flavour. There were many notable features of this performance, but perhaps the most poignant was Mr. Rebel's heartfelt tribute to the dearly departed Dennis Brown, a medley we all felt in more than just our wide opened minds.

For many of us, the last half hour was what made the whole thing worth it, and would probably have worked just as well even if they hadn't turned the lights back on! It was a magical vibe right here in Bermuda, where magical vibes are becoming more and more common.

So in the end, maybe it was worth $40 to just see one or the other, it's just unfortunate that more people didn't think so.

Vejay Steede REVIEW REV