With close to 40 years in the business and more than 20 albums to his name, Jimmy Cliff is truly one of Jamaican music's living legends.

Cliff's earliest hits, Hurricane Hattie and Dearest Beverley were produced by another legend, Lesley Kong and established the young singer on the ska scene.

Island Record's Chris Blackwell brought Cliff to international attention in the late Sixties and, in the early Seventies, the singer became a movie star when he took the lead role in the seminal The Harder They Come.

During his career, he has worked with artists as diverse as former Wailer Peter Tosh, Kool And The Gang, Erykah Badu and Elvis Costello.

His latest album, Fantastic Plastic People, will be released in September and the 30th anniversary of The Harder They Come will be celebrated with a concert in Jamaica next year.

Thus the rammed Concorde 2 crowd was in a mood of high and eager expectation as Cliff took to the stage.

The singer had with him a very tight and rather flamboyant outfit of musicians - faultless but rather too polished for this reviewer's liking.

The spectacular, drawn-out finishes to virtually every track did little to add to the listening experience and, in fact, eventually became quite grating.

Cliff's set covered the span of his long career and took in almost all of the many eras and forms Jamaican music has experienced during that time.

The old classics such as Wonderful World, Beautiful People and The Harder They Come drew the biggest cheers from the enthusiastic audience but these were interspersed with newer offerings which ventured into dancehall and even drum 'n' bass.

However, there were too many tracks which bordered on pop balladeering and, although he still has an impressive range of nifty and energetic moves, Cliff is well into his 50s and the voice has lost some of its edge and power.

Never one to be particularly involved in the spiritual or Rastafarian side of the music, it was somewhat ironic that the best offering of the night was a version of Rivers Of Babylon done in a pared-down roots style with the vocals accompanied by powerful hand drumming almost in a Count Ossie style.

I admit that, against my better judgement, I had allowed myself to be persuaded that this gig was going to be something really special so, perhaps, on reflection, I should not have been surprised that I came away feeling disappointed.

I couldn't exactly fault the performance but there was just something not quite there.

As they say: "The harder they come ..."