London Calypso Tent for 2010

I promised that this blog won't be all about mas because Carnival is definitely more than mas in my opinion. One aspect that has been neglected to date is Kaiso. Kaiso in the UK has been thriving under the aegis of the Association of British Calypsonians Calypso Tent. Established almost 18 years ago, it has been growing from strength to strength and features calypsonians whose quality could certainly rival that of Trinidad. After the elections this year, we will be sure to be hearing some hard hitting, biting political commentary. The songs usually have a British focus but there is also the Groovy Monarch competition which features sensational energetic artistes like Cleo and the lady with the golden voice- Brown Sugar.

This year the tent opens July 30 and runs every Friday- August 6, August 16 and August 26 (the Calypso Monarch Competition. The kaisonians alternate songs each night so it is best to come see the singers every other weekend. It is a boss lime- the bar downstairs sells Cockspur and there is usually roti and pholouri selling outside.

Tickets this year are on seetickets.com making it easier to show your support.

I will be featuring short features on each of the calypsonians in the Tent from now onwards until 30 July!

De Pepper Dam Buss!

A Busspepper fete in London used to be a classy affair. Like-minded professionals converging together to enjoy themselves in a safe ambience, within the elegant bars of the City's favourite hotspots. Food was provided -Caribbean style, the music was an eclectic mix of soca, reggae, dancehall and rnb but to be honest, all I can say is that as of late, the Pepper Buss!

I took my "good self" and went to Busspepper's anniversary party the weekend before last. I did not deign to post this review before now because what I could have probably said was good to forget. I was also temporarily placated by Mateen and team's apology but since, more than one week later, I have not been offered a refund or any type of consolation measure, I have decided to open my big mouth. As The Guardian say- comment is free!

First of all, I invited over 7 people to this event who had never been to a soca event before, because I believed that it would be value for money and we would have a good, uneventful, enjoyable night out.  We were promised no queuing if we purchased tickets in advance. I therefore spent the grand sum of £105 to ensure that my guests would not be queuing at all, as I am not able with parties where I have to feel like I am begging to get in. In grander clubs like Mahiki and Movida, I do not even pay so at least if I am paying, let me have the privilege of walking in with dignity. In a complete breach of pre contractual representations, when I arrived, there was a line that was as long as the steups on my mouth, serpenting its way (not even snaking!) around the entrance. I was advised that there was no separate queue. Two of my guests turned back. The rest of us waited for one hour to get in.  I do not like seeing trouble for my money. If there was an issue, I expected the organisers to be there facing the heat, explaining the situation to patrons. Instead Busspepper management were inside (in the warmth) leaving the crowd control to the management of Sway and me, in the cold. No fair. I almost started to cuss then but I remembered that I was a professional woman and the Jamette-Fierce inside me should be restrained.

One hour and a half later, when we finally got in, the venue was packed. The place was hot as a room built for sweating cocoa. The rooms were sweaty and stinking. Not what I expected.  There comes a point at which the organisers need to stop selling tickets to ensure that the venue has the ambience that is desired. Instead the party was very "wash you foot an come" and as long as patrons were paying, money was being accepted.  I am not an elitist and everyone has the right to have a good time but the guestlist should have been closed from the first 800! Instead 700 tickets were sold and monies were being accepted at the door. The result? An overcrowded, packed out venue where no one had a good time.

I always have a problem with Busspepper music and this fete was no different. If you gone to one fete, you gone to all. The DJ mix is that predictable. The soca features only Trinidad soca. The reggae features the same old time tunes. Not when we have such a rich catalogue! Where is the Vincy soca, the Grenada soca? Where is bouyon and zouk? Jamaica had a really good reggae season. Gyptian's Hold Yuh was not played. Neither were hits like Busy Signal's One More Night and Night Shift. These songs are mashing up the Caribbean. Are these DJs really in tune with the music scene? Lazy Lazy Lazy.

I am really disappointed about the experience I had and the lack of redress and unless something is done, I would not be attending their fetes again. Sorry!

Poison Review

If it's one fete I have to go to, is Poison's band launch, and no matter how I cuss them this time, Wendel and he boys seem to have come correct so I give Jack he jacket and give Jean she drawers.

The venue was a 100% improvement over the last time and so was the decision to have it on a Friday although I almost didnt make it as it was such a nice day and I celebrated by having a liquid lunch that continued way until evening. You done know we don't have it nice up here in terms of weather so when the time come, it needs to be abused!

I was waiting to see all the costumes at the launch and after my rich diet of boss looking taster costumes, I must admit that Poison had to come really strong to keep me on my tiptoes and to keep me interested. This time round, they chose the theme That's Amore. Love in ordinary parlance to me and you. I liked the theme, its simple but still sassy.

The first section was Black Magic. I have seen many a silver and black costume this season but I think this one is one of the better designed ones, especially with the white towering headpiece. The belt and bra are a bit ordinary and underwhelming but the combined effect is sexy understatedness. You might be asking, how does Black Magic fit into the theme of love? I guess it must be some kind of Melda-Oh Sparrowesque Obeah Love but they should have just called it that, no?  Model rocked the hell out of the costume.

Desire was next, and I was thrown a bit with this one and this is what happens when people order costumes without deciding on a theme. I do not get the idea of blue with desire unless they talking about some kinda "blueballs" syndrome- this should have been a flaming red or orange costume! The Indian inspired headresses I am not so sure about how it fits in as well. This costume is aight. Just aight. Not enough feathers for a feather whore like me!

First of all apologies for the pics. Wendel why the pics an dem so small? People want to salivate over the costumes. That's when you rely on friends with a camera and they don't have batteries! Anyways me likey this one! Its called Jungle Fever. It has a huge headpiece tick, the green allows it to fit into the theme, the male costume looks like something people would step in, and the overall effect says well embellished. It kind of looks like a Spice bootleg but I am not a Carnival purist so I give it a big pass. My favourite of the lot!

This one was called Erotica. This is probably the least erotic Erotica I have ever seen as there is nothing erotica or teasing on show... this is the most conservative bikini mas costume I have seen in a while. I was making up my mind on whether I liked it- I certainly like the tutu effect, then I had a Eureka moment-  I realised that it is perfect for covering up the effects of non exercise and diet, ie perfect for me. I like white for the road in blistering sunshine and I think the love theme with the backpack and the headpiece is a good attempt at interpretation. Kudos to the designer. However the effect is more a Queen of Hearts than Erotica (unless the corset and tutu are backless?) Not a bad try but much better than last year.

I fell in love with this costume. (Better pics soon come!)  It was called Tempest and for those of us who have not played in pink before this is a good chance to get lucky as the shade is rich and the headpiece is sizeable.

Poison is offering, as usual, an all inclusive experience on the road, with continental breakfast, goodie bags, matching costume jewellery for the costumes, snacks, PAs with soca artists and a whole host of things. So far so good! I am already heating up, getting ready for Wet Fete. Costumes range from 125-150 squid!

Tomorrow review of Busspepper Fete over the weekend.

(All pictures from Poison UK website Their rights are reserved).

Where is UK Soca Music?

Notting Hill Carnival is amazing in many respects. The pan, the kaiso and the amazing costumes filling the streets in riotous colour. One aspect that many would find grating however, is the fact that the soundtrack to Europe's biggest street festival is undoubtedly the soundtrack of the islands with no interjection whatsoever from the United Kingdon. The UK soca music scene, if not dead is on its very last legs. UK originating songs do not make it on the playlists of UK based DJs- to obtain validation, artists need to do a Kerwin Dubois- go down to Trinidad and make it big- only then will they obtain some semblance of credibility. Songs produced in the UK often sound mediocre, belying that they have been assembled in someone's front room.

This is an absolute shame, because we do we have some class acts in the UK. Scrappy, the Monsterratian sensation, with his megatune "Start to Bounce" totally demolished Poison's Wet Fete last year- his music is rhythmic, his tunes are original and his voice rivals Bunji any day any how. On the female side, Ms Desire and Chardonnay are two big female soca artists with equally as big voices who would purr their hearts into groovy soca. Our own Brown Sugar and Helena B are bona fide soca gurus. However gone are the days when fetes featured local artists such as Kerwin Dubois (at the time), when Tudor Rose featured artists like Grenadian Ronnie and when UK artists had their own niche and their own corner of the market.

It is such a crying shame that I applaud the decision of Soca News to create a UK Soca Monarch competition. I hope that this competition will resuscitate the soca industry in the UK. I have a feeling that the breakthrough will happen here- the UK musical industry is at the intersection between rock, indie and rnb and all of these genres could do with a soca injection.

MASQUERADE 2000 and TEN

After the absolutely wonderful display of costumes we saw for Bachanalmas and Jewels de Carnaval, I must admit that my expectations are now hyper high in terms of what the market should expect for Notting Hill.

On M2K 2000, I probably did not fall in love with any of the costumes but they were vibrant, bold and arty. Masquerade 2000 describes its band as the leading band in Europe- this is probably up for contention given the proliferation of bands in the Notting Hill Parade but what I can say is that they are probably one of the more better organised bands and they are marketed very well. Masquerade 2000 has, for example, been showcased at the V&A museum, they have appeared in various carnivals across the globe and representatives have taken part in the International Kings and Queens Competition in Trinidad.

In 2010 they are bringing us “The Gift”. All the costumes range from 80 pounds to 120 pounds and at the time of writing one section at least, was already sold out. Their mas camp is located at 17 Argyll Avenue in Leyton (Unit 2). The sections are, in order, Carnival Art, Pop Art, Optical Art, Futurism, Cyber Angels, Cultural Angels and Graffitti. Neither the website nor the photos I managed to obtain explains what the sections are but I think the general vibe was to emulate the kitschness of the popular art movement, applying some element of science and technology and a general wanton escapsim to the costumes. I applaud this very much, it is very easy to come across with a Warriors/Tribal/Asian/African theme every year, I love the thinking outside of the box.

As for the costumes- they are definitely unusual in their use of masks but I do find the design a bit retro considering that they are meant to represent futuristic, pyschedelic concepts. Personally I also find them a bit heavy on the extras- there is a LOT of fabric and extra detailing, which would make me wonder how wearable they are on the road.

NHG'S pick? The pink and purple. That skirt adds just that extra bit of flair to bring out some sassy whinery. Wink wink.

Poison FINALLY getting lethal

Well it look like the big bad Poison decide to get off their laurels and to finally host a launch, if I was waiting for food I woulda done dead already!

This is unacceptable given that most of the power players have already launched and I ain't hiding to tell nobody that Poison damn Late. The theme is Amore- variation of love, and as I am all loved up, I am looking forward to seeing the 5 sections that they are going to put on but they better don't come with no Cheryl Cole esque interpretation like putting us in combats and telling us is Fight for This Love. The themes better come strong as they had all the time in the world!

Those of you who attended the disaster of a launch last year where they attempted to woo us with free barbecue chicken wings (hello? chicken wings are a quid for two pounds in Tesco?) by taking us to the vacuous Ministry of Sound on a Sunday, will be glad to know that the launch is going to be held at a more intimate venue of the Cobden Club up West. Us Southerners will find it a trek especially those of us that live close to SE1 but time to shake it up.

They ent losing this degrees ting at all boy! So this one will be zero degrees. Dey shoulda start it at 10, you don't want to start nutting cold!!!

We Tiefing a Little in Amsterdam...

Carnival Tabanca is a serious serious disease. It has been undiagnosed hitherto by Western medicine men, and exists purely within the West Indian cultural vaccuum. It is characterised by an intense longing to be in an enclosed space with as many people as possible, gyrating to the sounds of soca music.

To those of us who went to Trinidad this year, we did not have a bad case of Carnival Tabanca as we had our fill- but instead we had a serious Machel Tabanca. Machel chose to sit the season out and we had to make do with the HD Family. Ah mean, we dig Patrice and Kerwin is we boy but we real miss that "Huhhhh" and de "mad madder mad man" that is characteristic of our Crown Prince! Machel Tabanca is a different stage of the disease altogether, sufferers will be heard reciting the words of "Big Truck" at random intervals, searching for YouTube videos of "Too Young to Soca" and going insane when they hear the opening strains of "Tiefing a Little". They may also sign off as "Jack Horner" in their emails and need Machel songs like they need paracetamol for a headache.

To those of you suffering from late stages of Machel Tabanca, and can't fly to Miami or New York where all the shows seem to be taking place, TAKE NOTE the man himself will be in Amsterdam on Saturday 2 July for the first time in Holland.

Tickets are 22.50 euros (just about 20 quid). All yuh know that one ent missing me. Dah is meh man right there. Somebody say Easyjet!