Percy Sledge may have been headliner but it was John Holt who brought the house down.

SOUL great Percy Sledge may have been headliner for last Saturday’s R&B and Reggae concert at Jamaica College in St Andrew, but it was John Holt who brought the house down.

The lovers rock pioneer started with Doctor Love and never looked back. He reeled off hit after hit and closed the show with a flourish. Holt left the stage with patrons singing Wear You To The Ball, only to be summoned for an encore.

Even though it was close to 2:00 am, he responded to the screams with If I Were A Carpenter and the Tide Is High.

Prior to Holt’s appearance, it took only one line from Sledge’s Cover Me to get the crowd going. Though his tone was uneven initially, he steadied once his wife Rosa joined him for the follow-up Let Me Wrap You.

Like Holt, Sledge had the crowd singing word for word. Alternating between his seat and reaching out to shake hands with fans, he closed the evening with his massive When A Man Loves a Woman.

Earlier, Third World with singer AJ Brown gave a great performance. Brown did a delightful opera piece with Stephen ’Cat’ Coore on cello, which was followed by favourites like Try Jah Love and Now that We Found Love.

The audience had little time to sit as Gem Myers did solid renditions of Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, the Pointer Sisters’ Jump, My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small and Dawn Penn’s dancehall classic No No No.

She ended with her own One Man Woman to a standing ovation. George Nooks got off to a slow start until he declared ’church time’.

Gospel standards such as Bridge Over Troubled Waters and Broken Vessel won the audience over. So did a stirring medley which included Man from Galilee, When The Saints Go Marching In and What A Mighty God We Serve.

Former Rising Stars contestants Noddy Virtue and Jodian Pantry also gave satisfactory performances.