If it's not the brand spanking new venue or the adoring crowd he left behind, Horace Andy is certain to remember one thing about his Dublin gig last night.

"I've been singing for thirty years and this is the first time I don't smoke a spliff onstage," the smiling Jamaican told the crowd mid-way through his set.

Smoke-free workplace laws may be an alien concept to such UK-based Rastafarians, but it certainly doesn't show in the nimble 53 year-old bopping onstage tonight. With an energy bound only by his bandmembers sharing the small stage, Andy oozes a humble, respectful warmth. "I'm so happy to play for you all tonight," he says with his hand on his heart, "straight from the heart." One girl in the audience feels so bad about his smoke-free predicament that she makes an offering of chocolate. "Is that hash?" he jokes.

It was a mighty impressive performance from the reggae legend, despite the fact that the band was down three heads from the 7-piece band that was billed. A crowd-pleasing set that spanned from his early Studio One days into deep, dubby waters and Massive Attacks moments of greatness, highlights included 'Skylarking', 'Money Is The Root Of All Evil', and a token, yet welcomed, tasting of the 'Hymn of the Big Wheel'.

Photograph by Danielle Brigham.