Love and Togetherness to showcase classics in August
Promoters like Charles Simms consider it their responsibility to showcase the artistes who remain active in concert from the classical era.
On August 17, his Sugarcane Productions and Boundbrook Wines presents Love & Togetherness, a show featuring Russell Thompkins Jr and The New Stylistics at Hope Gardens in St Andrew.
Heather Cummings-Williams, Kashief Lindo, Wayne Wade, and Richie Stephens will also line up for the event.
“People in my age group and older don’t really have much entertainment which they can gravitate towards, so I thought of bringing a very informal group, a group with many hits like The Stylistics to Jamaica. I know it will be a crowd-pleaser,” Simms told the Jamaica Observer.
Thompkins Jr’s distinctive tenor led most of The Stylistics hit songs throughout the 1970s. They include rhythm and blues standards such as Betcha by Golly Wow, Stop, Look, Listen to Your Heart, I’m Stone in Love With You, and Break Up to Make Up. Those songs were written, co-written, or produced by Jamaica-born Thom Bell in the group’s hometown of Philadelphia.
Thompkins Jr left The Stylistics in 2000 and formed his own version of the famed act over 15 years ago.
An accountant by profession, Simms has been involved in show promotion for over 20 years. His biggest entertainment venture came during the 1990s when he was a partner in Heineken Startime, the successful series that reignited interest in rocksteady and roots-reggae from the 1960s and 1970s.
“This time, I decided to go out on my own. Try something on my own,” he said.
The oldies music boom that took place over 30 years ago has simmered largely due to the deaths of major Jamaican acts like Alton Ellis, John Holt, Pat Kelly, and The Melodians. Popular American crowd-pullers such as Ben E King, Percy Sledge, and Betty Wright have also passed on.