By Nooreen Kara

Hammersmith Apollo, London - 15 February 2005

On February 15th, Jagged Edge and 112 joined forces to seduce London. The result? Shirts being ripped off, irresistible moves, fainting women and one fantastic show; this Valentine’s special was one not to be missed by couples and single ladies alike.

While Jagged Edge were headlining this concert and 112 were therefore simply stated as support acts, the Atlanta quartet in fact stole the show. The curtains drew back revealing the live band, and the group stepped on stage to ‘It’s Over Now’. These guys were hot; Q charismatically ripped off his vest, Slim oozed sex appeal and Mike and Daron – especially Daron – looked damn fine from my front row position. You could tell they weren’t lying as Mike sang: “But I'm a player, and it's kinda sad that it has to be”… and as sad as it may be, if you’ve got to be played, hell why not let it be by one of these 112 boys?!

They went on to play some of their slow jams including ‘Cupid’. “Cupid doesn't lie, but you won't know unless you give it a try” – almost every member of the audience melted with the lyrics and the accompanying sensual vocals; every note they sang was on key and their dance routines were exactly on cue. They seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves onstage too, laughing between one another like the old high school best friends they are, and continuously giving props to the London crowd for being so live, of course hyping everyone up even more. Q, unfortunately having now been re-shirted by a crew member, proudly showed off his iced-out 112 chain and all four members continued to give us some heart-filled performances.

They then sang ‘Only You’ and two songs from their new album ‘Pleasure and Pain’, ‘If I Can Hit’ and the next single, ‘U Already Know’. They obviously couldn’t leave without rocking the house with the smooth hit ‘Peaches and Cream’ – “Peaches and Cream/ I need it cause you know that I'm a fiend/ Gettin' freaky in my Bentley limousine/ It's even better when it's with ice cream/ Know what I mean?” Erm… no, but hey if you’re offering…! That song then ran into the bass-pounding club vibes of ‘Dance With Me’, both of which shook the crowd and got everyone moving. They ended their performance with all four members waving to the audience, Daron laughing with a ‘This looks really cheesy’ look on his face before joining in.

The four-piece Jagged Edge, consisting of Kyle, Wingo and twin brothers Brian and Brandon, then came out to ‘They Ain’t JE’, before celebrating the lives of Pac, Biggie and of course Jam Master Jay and going into the ‘Let’s Get Married’ remix which Run DMC feature on. They sang a Keith Sweat tune, ‘Promise’, ‘Gotta Be’, ‘He Can’t Love You’ and gave an excellent smoke-filled performance to the melodic ‘Walked Outta Heaven’. Kyle, with his jeans sexually halfway down his legs, cooled down the overexcited crowd by throwing water, and Brandon was mobbed as he momentarily jumped off the stage - (oh yeah, thanks to the girl who almost ripped off my finger in an attempt to get his towel. I will never understand how anybody can be so desperate to have someone’s bodily secretions hanging on their bedroom wall, JE or no JE). Anyway, the group then went away before returning to perform the compelling track ‘Where the Party At’, accompanied by streams of confetti and every member of the audience bouncing to the addictive beat.

The flyer for this concert labelled it the ‘Jagged Edge live experience’, and it sure was that – for all of the 45/50 minutes they were onstage. After they had finished ‘Where the Party At’, they trudged off. Actually, Brian went off half way through that song, for no apparent reason. Either way, none of them said goodbye or thanked the crowd, unlike their predecessors 112.

Overall, it was a great show despite the short set by Jagged Edge and the slight disappointment at the end. I will definitely be checking out both of these groups’ forthcoming albums, and if this performance was anything to go by, so should you!

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