It has been a long six years to wait for Dave Martins and his band The Tradewinds to perform again in the Cayman Islands.

However, good things do come to those who wait. So it was last Saturday 27^th July when Mr. Martins and The Tradewinds were headlining their “Back Home” performance, fans enthusiastically gathered in increasing numbers at The University College of the Cayman Islands’ (UCCI) Auditorium and waited. And waited we did.

The doors opened at 6pm and we waited.

The event was originally scheduled to take place at the UCCI Campus Courtyard but because of the inclement weather during the day, especially the morning, it was decided to move everything indoors. As soon as the decision was made the weather improved!

Whether (pun intended) that had anything to do with the waiting I can only suspect it did as there was a lot of equipment to move. But four hours is a very long time to wait.

Thankfully, we had the Thanks and Praises Band, famous for their usually religious blend of gospel music, and they did a very good performance of a medley of Bob Marley numbers in keeping with the near anniversary of Jamaica’s Independence.

Finally at 10pm Dave Martins led Clive Rosteing, Jeff Japal, Harry Cupid and Richard Terry on to the stage and the Party began.

They managed to pack in all their hits and other well known favourites with a large number of songs written by Martins himself. He is an excellent writer and he has been sorely missed.

The dance area was crammed with people and the long wait was forgotten. The two hours danced by much too quickly and at midnight we all departed still “swinging our engine”.

Please don’t keep us waiting so long again Mr. Martins. Your Tradewinds are very special to Cayman. As one of your songs says, “Come Back Soon”.

PHOTO: The Tradewinds performing at The Guyana Folk Festival in 2003.