Christmas Eve ’23 in Fort Lauderdale had some Jamaican musical flavor all courtesy of Walshy Fire, DJ GQ, and a live performance from Visions Band. Dubbed ‘Visions Christmas Eve’, the event took place at a venue called Blue Martini—regarded as a premier cocktail lounge, restaurant, and nightclub in the city. The Christmas Eve event also featured sounds provided by DJ Mikey Mike of WZOP/WZPP FM radio of Ft. Lauderdale.
Visions Band Kept The Crowd Alive
The happenings at Blue Martini really started percolating from 11pm onwards, seeing that Christmas Day was steadily approaching. DJ Mikey Mike kept things warm with a selection of great tunes from the reggae, dancehall, afrobeat, and soca genres. Meanwhile, Visions Band impressed on stage with a steady flow of tunes that they covered from big name artists that included living legends as well as several no longer with us—including Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Bob Marley, Wayne Wonder, just to name a few.
Without a doubt, in South Florida Visions Band is a marquis brand where live performances of reggae, dancehall, and soca music are concerned. Not only that, but Visions Band has over two decades of experience in live concerts, music festivals, and also corporate events.
Walshy Fire:
Born under the name Leighton Paul Walsh, ‘Walshy Fire’, is a Jamaican-American DJ, MC and also a world-renowned record producer who is part of the dancehall reggae-influenced group Major Lazer alongside fellow DJs Diplo and Ape Drums. What’s more, Walshy Fire has toured with the legendary Black Chiney sound system, which has played a prominent influential role with regard to the development and evolution of Major Lazer—especially in the context of formulating mashups that mix hip hop or R&B inflected sounds with reggae & R&B artist vocals. Eventually, the process of developing mix tapes by the Black Chiney collective of DJs, engineers and MCs would serve as the training ground for Walshy to hone his remix producing skills.
Meet DJ GQ
Born under the name Gary Hardie, ‘DJ GQ’ is a Miami native, who was raised in Jamaica by his Cuban and Chinese Jamaican parents. His musical pedigree is certainly impressive, as he has some top-notch affiliations in the industry—including with Akon, the late DMX, Skip Marley, and Mr. Vegas, just to spotlight a few. So too, DJ GQ has served as the tour DJ for Vincentian international soca superstar Kevin Lyttle, who is perhaps best known worldwide for his smash hit ‘Turn Me On’. And not only does DJ GQ continue to maintain frequent South Florida nightclub residencies, but he also performs internationally all through the year, as well as does specialty shows on Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Radio (SirusXM).
Photo – Nick Ford
