Just before entering Excelsior High School in 1965, Michael Jureidini’s father took him to see Ken Boothe perform at the school’s auditorium in Kingston. The performance was mesmerising, and he has been hooked on music since.

Jureidini and his wife Winsome expect to be at Mas Camp in east Kingston this evening for Startime, the finale in the show’s 30-year history. Boothe is not on the bill but some of his contemporaries including Marcia Griffiths, Leroy Sibbles, Boris Gardiner and Horace Andy, are.

The jocular Jureidini has been attending Startime since it started as Heineken Startime at Oceana Hotel in downtown Kingston. When he heard that promoter Michael Barnett planned to call it a day this month, he said he and “wifey” had to be there.

Startime, he added, is a special event for his generation.

“The shows start on time, who is advertised show up, an’ if a man step pon yuh toe him sey ‘sorry’ an’ move on. Simple things like that,” he said.

Growing up in Harbour View, Jureidini is used to that setting. The east St Andrew neighbourhood has a sense of community and was once home to many persons involved in the music industry, including impresario Vere Johns, drummer Lloyd Knibb of The Skatalites, singer Tony Gregory, broadcaster Buddy Pouyatt, and sound system operator Bunny Goodison.

Harbour View also hosted many street dances in the 1970s. Jureidini credits Startime for reviving that vibe.

“When it’s gone there’s gonna be a massive void because nobody has really catalogued these guys (vintage artistes). They give us something you can’t get back,” he said.

The Jureidinis are among the original residents of Harbour View, one of the affordable housing schemes built by the Matalon family in the early 1960s for civil servants and professionals. His younger brother Clyde played for Harbour View Football Club at the Major League and Premier League level, while he is a board member of the club.

He is also seriously into music and “listens as much as I can” to CDs and the Internet.

With events like Startime fast fading from the Jamaican landscape, Michael Jureidini is not sure what will provide him with quality, live entertainment.

“I really don’t know. I guess if I see a show and it is organised, my wife and I will go. But we’ll see,” he said.

U Roy, Ernie Smith, Cornel Campbell, Sanchez and Xylophone are also scheduled to perform at Startime.