Beres Hammond in Concert at Hard Rock Live

The Love Within the Music Tour 2011
By M. Peggy Quattro / Photos by Don Parchment

Theres no more beloved Reggae singer and performer today than Beres Hammond. For more than 30 years, Beres has given 100 percent of his energy and love to writing, recording and performing. He has been quoted as saying that he’s happiest when in his convenient home recording studio. Well, after witnessing the outpouring of love and affection on July 29, 2011, inside the 5500-seat Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, FL, all bets are on that the stage is his second happiest place.

Performing for thousands of loyal South Florida fans was the perfect way to kick off the eastern USA leg of the Love Within the Music Tour. The show began promptly at 8 p.m. with Brooklyn-based singer and dynamo Ed Robinson. His energetic performance included his Number One hit Our Heroes, as well as paying tribute to greats Dennis Brown with If I Follow My Heart and Bob Marley with Talking Blues.

At 9 p.m. the ladies went wild when Wayne Wonder strolled on stage in a dark blazer, jeans, and his trademark dark shades. Flashing that winning smile, he began with Its All Right, a Donovan Germain-produced hit for Penthouse. Mr. Germain was in the house, so Wayne added another Penthouse hit, The Saddest Day of My Life. Choosing from an extensive song catalogue, the sexy crooner launched a mini-version series of I Dont Know Why, Live and Learn, and Forever Young, displaying his DJ prowess by also filling in the Buju Banton and Louie Culture parts. Upon dedicating this to “my favorite girl,” Wayne Wonder went into Search Dem Search over screams from the enthusiastic audience. He introduced his new love ode, If I Ever, with a moving vocal, and closed his set with the popular No Letting Go.

After a short set change, and a rocking DJ set of current and past hits, you could feel the charge in the air. The man of the night was about to appear and the crowd cheered in anticipation. As Beres Hammond sauntered on stage, the Hard Rock Live erupted into screams. Looking fine in his black leather cap, jeans, soft tangerine-colored patterned jacket, and leather shoes, Beres greeted the crowd and began a series of short song snippets. The jacket came off immediately to reveal a loose white linen shirt; however, the most attractive part of his attire was that beaming smile. Beres truly loves performing on stage and it shows in every song, every step, and the crowd went wild. No Disrespect, What One Dance Can Do and She Loves Me Now were full of fun and energy. He playfully led the audience with Falling in Love (All Over Again) and adeptly filled in for his friend Buju, Dancehall style, on the wildly popular Stay Longer. A touching moment was when he asked the crowd if they remembered the great Garnet Silk before launching into Mama Africa.

With hundreds of hits to choose from, Beres offered up as much as time would allow. In between Come Back Home, Tempted to Touch, Sweetness, Putting Up Resistance, and Groovy Little Thing, he blew kisses to crowd and smiled at the adoring throng of ladies who pushed to the front waving and offering bouquets of long-stem red roses. Double Trouble saw Beres offering up his famous skank as he held out the microphone for his fans to sing along.

The band and back-up singers were in top form also. Coming to the front of the stage, they contributed lead guitar, bass, sax, and trumpet solos, which brought more excited screams of approval. In a moment of Beres humor, he spoke with the audience and told them: “If everyone would vote for me [as president], no one would need visas to come up here,’ perhaps a reference to the missing Harmony House Singers.

During Pull Up the Vibes, Beres took a minute to show off his multi-talents. He took a short spin on the drums and played on the bass players axe with drumsticks; a short and sweet presentation, but enough to have the Hard Rock massive cry out ‘can you play some more?!’ As he flirted throughout Feel Good, Beres had every lady wishing they were dancing to this Reggae song with the subtle sensual singer. Beres slowed it down with an emotional No Disturb Sign while Love Means Never To Say Im Sorry had the audience passionately singing along.

Beres continued to tease and draw in the ladies with They Gonna Talk, while throwing mad kisses and smiling his mega-watt smile. With no shortage of songs left to performand no time left to perform themBeres brought the show to an end with the classic feel-good Rockaway. Hesitant to leave the love and unity, Beres disappeared stage left with an a capella tribute, singing How do you say thank you.for all you need is love they say no more time

We give thanks to Redline Media Group and Hard Rock Live for bringing South Florida fans a memorable night of Love Within the Music.