By Gbenga Bada and Olamide Jasanya
Saturday, June 2, 2012, was an unusual one for the silent city of Ilesha in Osun State as Star Trek hosted music lovers at the Zenababs Hotels and Gardens, Ilesha.
The trek which kicked off on Friday, May 25, 2012 at Ibadan, has visited Makurdi and Lagos, and Ilesha was not going to be left out of the fun train.
The show kicked off with music from DJ Tony Blaze’s turn table and at exactly 9:40PM, the compere, Gbenga Adeyinka, mounted the stage and set the ball rolling. He welcomed guests in his usual comic way and continued with a ‘memory lane’ game which required that the audience sing along with some selected songs, starting with oldies like The Remedies’ ‘Belinda’, DJ Stramborella’s ‘Efrebo’ all the way to recent tracks like Olamide’s ‘Eni duro’ and Davido’s ‘Dami duro’.
As usual with Gbenga Adeyinka, there was a dance competition and this time it was ‘Etighi’ dance sampled with Iyanya’s ‘Kukere’, after which upcoming artistes were called on stage. First was Ilesha-based G-boy followed by female rapper, Fiery, then S-DAC, Last Born G, Tiwayne, Pundit and a host of others before the 2012 Star Quest winners, Crystals, appeared with a remix of Gyptian’s ‘Hold yuh‘, Nelly’s ‘f‘.
At exactly 12:36AM when the excitement was beginning to dwindle, Gbenga Adeyinka called on stage M.I and the erstwhile dull atmosphere came alive immediately as the audience sang along with him as though they were determined to prove to him that they knew all his songs. Excited M.I could not hold back his appreciation and he dashed out his sun shades and continued with his performance. Less than twenty minutes later, Wande Coal appeared beaming with smile as he climbed the stage singing his ‘Been Long You saw Me’ track. He followed it up with ‘S’ope tie’, ‘You bad’, ‘Ten ten’, ‘Close to you’, ‘Bumper to bumper’ and other selected tracks to which the audience danced and swayed to.
Next was 9ice whose appearance in a white shirt and green trousers shocked the audience. He thrilled the audience with songs from his ‘Gongo Aso’ album as well as the recently released ‘Basorun Gaa’. Songs like ‘3310’, ‘Photocopy’ and ‘Ju won lo’ increased the frenzy as the audience took each other up in series of dance duels. He went further and asked that the audience demand for the songs they would love to watch him perform and immediately, demands popped up everywhere and 9ice tried to settle all before exiting at exactly 3:25 am amidst claps and adulations.
After several minutes of setting up, popular Juju singer, Yinka Best was ready to deliver. He free styled with some of his popular but old songs which most of the guests weren’t familiar with. Hence, he didn’t get much attention from the audience. He wrapped up his performance at exactly 4:30AM.
In a chat with one of our correspondent, Star brand manager, Mr Omotunde Adenusi disclosed that the success of the show was not a surprise as they had made plans to make sure it was a success.
‘When we started out this year, the plan was, unlike the other ones, we planned to make this one bigger and on a very high note. So I’m actually looking out for other cities that would beat Makurdi. Our plan is to have over ten thousand people for every city we go. Here we have some substantial crowd but we really want to make it very big’.
New artistes such as Waje, D’banj, Tiwa Savage, Naeto C, Wizkid and a few others are expected to join the train as the trek continues in Benin on Friday, June 8, 2012 and in Sapele, the day after, then in Awka on Friday, June 15, 2012 and Abakaliki on Saturday, June 16, 2012. Uyo would be next on Friday, June 22 and finally with a wrap up in Calabar on Saturday, June 22, 2012.
GISTS FROM STAR TREK ILESHA
Gbenga Adeyinka Opened the Floor
The show began at exactly 9:30pm with Gbenga Adeyinka 1st, who kick started the show from the backstage. As usual, the shine shine bobo took up the tempo of vibe as hae charged the crowd to have fun and enjoy the music acts on the bill.
DJ Tony Blaze On Fire
On the wheels of Steel was DJ Tony Blaze, who dished out endless tunes to the Ilesha crowd who couldn’t help asking for more.
Gbenga’s honour for Dagrin!
The anchor, Gbenga Adeyinka is a man with many tricks up his sleeves. At the first leg of this year’s edition, he displayed some skills with DJ Switch and Ilesha wasn’t different as he began the show with honouring DaGrin-a move that saw several youths in the crowd following his footsteps as they all sang the choruses of some of DaGrin’s tunes played by DJ Blaze.
And Honour 4 hip hopers in Nigeria.
In the spirit of honouring the entertainment stars, Gbenga Adeyinka also honoured old tunes of the early hip hoppers in Nigeria. And to that end, artistes like Rasqie, Plantashun boyz, Remedies, Eedris Abdulkareem amongst others were celebrated for several minutes.
Crystals Came All Prepared
The 2012 winner of Star Quest, Crystals Band, came with much vigour and strength as their performance was well lauded and appreciated by the Ilesha crowd. That the band has improved was clear to all, and they did a good job as they held down the stage and proved to be a worthy show starter. Every member of the crowd attested to the fact that it was really a good show by the Crystals.
At about 12:47pm, the anchor of the concert announced the arrival of Chocolate City star, Mister Incredible, who is best known as M.I at the venue. M.I came on stage uncertain about what fans’ reception would be. But the star rapper was blown away when he found out that the crowd had more love for him than he thought. The crowd echoed his songs excitedly and he was so thrilled that he confessed not believing the Ilesha crowd would be so receptive. And at about 1:30am, M.I, who was the first major act, bowed out after thrilling the guests to a lavish banquet of ‘illegal music’.
About M.I and his strip game
One of the highlights of the event was M.I’s strip game. M.I teased the crowd with the songs of some of his colleagues and removed some of his fashion items as the crowd named the singer of each song. He removed his Paul Smith jacket, chain, Hublot Wrist watch, Polo Sneakers, glasses and socks before ending the performance with his hit song, ‘African Rapper.’ The crowd cheered him as he bowed out of the stage.
Wande Coal Got Overwhelmed
Just like he did in Lagos, Mavin Records songbird, Wande Coal showed why he’s a star performer to reckon with. The gifted singer climbed the stage at about 1:49am and left 45mins after. All through his performance, the crowd kept cheering him and asking for more as he kept obliging them and churning out his old and new tunes. Pleased with the response of the crowd, Wande delivered endless hit song after hit song, not pausing to breathe, until his time elapsed before he left the venue.
Twice As 9ice For Ilesha
Baale Alapomeji, 9ice was more than ready to thrill the crowd when he came on at exactly 2:50am. 9ice’s performance was twice as nice for the Ilesha crowd, as he engaged in stage chats and banters. The slim singer has become a Star veteran, and it showed in the way he handled his set.
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