Expectations ran high for Saturday night's Elephant Man/Shaggy concert at White Hill Field - and the concert lived up to it all.

Without any incidents worthy of note (besides the artists' performances), and even the rain holding off until minutes after the concert ended, promoters thought the concert had been a huge success.

And the fact that the show ran more than an hour over the estimated finish time was just a bonus for the enthusiastic crowd.

"It's been just a phenomenal show," said public relations coordinator Sherri (J) Simmons as the concert ended shortly after 1 a.m. "As you know, when we've been making the rounds with the press, we've been late everywhere we go ... and part of the reason, particularly in the case of Elephant Man, was everywhere we went he was mobbed.

"I think it bodes well for the future of Triangle Entertainment."

"I think it went well, we had enough security, everyone had a good time," said promoter Stephen Henderson, who estimated the crowd at between 3,000 and 3,500 people. "It came off good, all the acts showed up."

The Royal Gazette learned Shaggy and Rik Rok (who sings with Shaggy on the hit "It Wasn't Me") cut it close, only arriving in Bermuda at around 6 p.m. Saturday night.

"And we leave at seven tomorrow morning," said Rik Rok, who added he would "most definitely" come back to the Island.

"Everything I've seen, I'm really impressed ... The people are friendly, the girls are beautiful. Hey - that's all I need."

And although their careers have taken off internationally since the last time they were in Bermuda, the artists were not at all fazed by their success.

"Well, it's a show, we get to jump up and down, make noise ... it's great, who could ask for a better job?" said Rik Rok. "Especially in a beautiful island like Bermuda, it can't get no better than this."

"We're the same old guys form the old neighborhood," said Rayvon, who sings with Shaggy on various tracks including "Angel". "We give 100 percent every show, whether it's ten people or 10,000, it doesnt make a difference ... The last time I was here, which was about eight years ago, I had a lovely time and now I'm coming back, and I'm glad I'm here."

"We might step up a little but we don't change, same beat, same climbing up, same making people enjoy themselves," Elephant Man told The Royal Gazette. "It's been a long time we don't perform for you all, so I had to do this for you. I didn't want to finish the set but Shaggy had to come on ... I don't do it because of the money, I do it from my heart and I do it for the people. That's what I do and I do it my best."

And Shaggy told the crowd himself how much he valued the fans from the islands who listened to his music long before he broke into the international music scene.

"There's a lot of people that have known Shaggy since the Hotshot album," he said. "But there's a lot of people here that have known Shaggy for much longer than that."

On a final note: when asked what their favourite thing was about Bermuda, every single performer without hesitation replied: "The women".

As Shaggy put it, they have good food and nice weather in Jamaica. "So why do we come here? Must be the women!"