Billy Ocean: A Caribbean “King”


Billy Ocean, Jocelyn Brown, Soul ll Soul and the Gibson Brothers all performed in Christchurch Park on Saturday 9th July in a Club Classic Concert as part of this year’s Ip-Art.

There may not have been as big a crowd as you would expect for such a great line up, however the audience were all up for a great night out.

Jocelyn Brown was superb even with a throat infection. She was only on stage for 20-minutes or so due to being ill but she still sounded great singing ‘ Somebody Else’s Guy’ among others.

Soul to Soul had the crowd on their feet dancing and singing along to ‘Back To Life’. Karen Wheeler was pitch perfect throughout as was the youngest member of the group Charlotte Pele who sung a sample of the bands new material ‘Today’.

The rain did fall but no spirits were dampened especially when the energetic Gibson Brothers appeared on stage. With dancing as electric as his blue sequined jacket they worked the crowd into a salsaing frenzy with hits like ‘Disco Inferno’ and ‘Cuba’. The Gibson Brothers had everyone singing along and even got four very lucky ladies on stage dancing- something I’m sure they will never forget.

The only downside to the evening were Rob and Chrissie from Heart FM Breakfast, They were really dull and boring and really didn’t seem to get into the spirit of the evening, that said we hadn’t come to see them.

Billy Ocean was awesome. He had the moves, the voice and only his grey hair betraying his age – everyone was on their feet and the audience practically sung ‘Suddenly’ for him. There was not a note out of tune as he talked and joked with the audience seeming as eager as them to stay on and sing one more song.

There was loads of audience participation throughout ‘The Going Gets Tough’, and Billy Ocean certainly got the biggest cheer of the evening.

The atmosphere was great.

The Club Classics Concert was reviewed for Ipswich24 by Katie Dinsdale.