It was a night to be remembered, when Dancehall deep voiced star Bay-C showcased his latest release, the Holy Temple album. It all took place at the Pallet, Kingston’s popular restaurant and live music lounge.
The night began with tracks from the album being played by Zip FM’s YRush. As journalists, celebrities and music lovers poured, one could hear album tracks like ‘Sahara Queen’ and ‘Heart Of Men’ being pulled up!
After an hour of mingling, the night officially kicked off with popular comedian Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley. Johnny had patrons cracking up as he made fun of himself in comparison to Bay-C’s ground breaking project. Holy Temple boasts 10 tracks with 10 accompanying videos and Johnny set the tone for what was to be a visual exposition. As MC for the night’s proceedings, Johnny showed his mastery at keeping the audience entertained while anticipating the arrival of the night’s featured act.
Then the man of the night appeared. Bay-C took the stage to a warm welcome from an ecstatic audience. Decked out in full blue jeans suit with a pair of bright red sneakers, the ‘Straight Outta Portmore’ deejay looked young and hip. In true Bay-C style, he eloquently thanked everyone for coming out while making special mention of his parents, fellow TOK members Craigy T and Alex, and celebrities Agent Sasco, Suku (Ward 21) and Kumar (formerly of Raging Fyah) in the attendance. He then went on to describe the 6 year journey of making Holy Temple, the spiritual message of the album and the intimate love stories written into this masterpiece. Bay-C then invited the audience to watch a special director’s greeting from Israel based Benjamin Lidsky. Lidsky shot and edited the entire Holy Temple album.
After a short message from the director explaining the creative process of shooting 10 videos around the globe, the lights went low and the videos began to play.
The first video was Run From Poverty, shot in the streets of Kingston. Producer of the track, Frankie Music, who was present was obviously enjoying this track. Then came the title track, Holy Temple, shot in the Negev Desert of Israel. The crowd seemed utterly engaged as the visuals, reminiscent of an ancient Christ-like film, projected across the screen. In stark contrast, the third video Poltergeist which was shot in the snow filled Alps had the audience on the edge of their seats. The polar difference between desert and snowy mountains made it clear to viewers, the magnitude of time and effort put into creating this project.
At this point, Bay-C took the stage again to explain that the 3 videos seen were already released on his BayCVevo channel. He went on to share that the next 3 videos that would be shown would be world premieres. As such, he had staff pass out feedback cards and asked the audience to vote on which video to be released next. Everyone seemed to love this concept, a chance to be included in the project intimately.
The first world premier was Catch That Train, shot in Munich Germany. A black and white video with a touch of bright red throughout the video showed a very artistic approach to a simple concept video. The next video was Love Potion, shot in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. This POV video of two lovers ended with a resounding round of applause. It was clearly a crowd favourite. The final world premier for the night was My Love Away, shot on the Lime Cay of Jamaica. Packed with some breath-taking drone shots of this beautiful isle, the audience applauded again.
After a short intermission, as if the video premieres were not enough, Bay-C did a wardrobe change and returned to the stage dressed in black leather jacket like a rockstar! He performed ‘Catch That Train’, ‘My Love Away’, ‘Run From Poverty’ and ‘Not Forgotten’ with resident band The Jam Is Back. The audience could not get enough. At the end of the 4 tracks, Bay-C thanked everyone for coming out and passed the mic to other acts who continued performing in the venue’s standard jam session style.
The night ended with Bay-C signing autographs on copies of the Holy Temple Cds which were on sale.
Bay-C seemed to have won the hearts of everyone who was in attendance and if this album is any indication of this artiste’s calibre, Bay-C seems well on his way to stamping his name as a legend with this epic body of work.