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Energy – The Carnival Concert |
Written by : Natasha Ofosu
Location : United Kingdom
Posted : Oct 15, 2009 : 8:17:50 AM |
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After years of domination by Machel Montano, soca’s hottest couple, Bunji Garlin and Fay Ann Lyons, ushered in a new era in the history of PoisonUK’s Carnival Friday fetes. Backed by the Asylum band, they headlined ‘Energy – The Carnival Concert’ on 28th August, earning an accolade which had hitherto eluded them.
The artists used the platform to brilliant effect, bringing a militant brand of blazing soca to the Troxy, East London, which was eagerly consumed by the large audience. Comparisons with Montano were inevitable, and it seemed apparent, from the empty space in the venue’s ground floor, that the performers did not have as much pulling power as their predecessor. However, the venue capacity is apparently greater, so it may be difficult to judge.
Reigning Trinidad and Tobago International Power Soca, Groovy Soca and Road March Monarch Lyons opened the band’s set with Heavy T Bumper, the catchy tune which won her the groovy title. That song, as well as her other crown-winning hit Meet Superblue, saw Lyons going back to the root of soca, fusing simple lyrics with beautiful guitar, brass and drum riffs.
Garlin, celebrating his tenth year in the soca business, and clearly happy to remain controversial, stated during one of his many chats with the audience during the set that not everyone would like what he had to say or sing, and that that did not faze him.
In the almost two hours that the pair were on stage, they took patrons through almost their entire repertoire of hits. Fay-Ann’s intro initiated a tag-team system with her husband, in which one song smoothly segued into another; Heavy T Bumper rolled into Garlin’s Banana, then Plenty Gyal, then Lyons regained the spotlight with Focus on Me. Other crowd-pleasers included Fireman, Snake Oil, Licks, Bomb Song and Fete from Garlin, while Lyons worked her magic with Break Away, Get On (her 2008 Road March hit) and Get On Bad, in which she took the role of the late singer Onika Bostic to duet with Garlin.
Showing the breadth of their musical knowledge, the couple also performed some of their favourite covers. Lyons led the way, paying tribute to the late Michael Jackson with a triple treat: Thriller, Bad and Billie Jean. Garlin, in contrast, kept things strictly Caribbean: he chose Gabby’s Boots, Ah Want It All D Time by Johnny King, and Soca Baptist by his father-in-law, Superblue.
The performance was punctuated by guest appearances from Benjai (Rodney Le Blanc) and chutney star Hunter (Lalchan Babwah).When he joined the couple on stage, Benjai’s solo set was disappointingly brief. He performed the classic By De Bar and his popular 2009 offering, Drunk Again, later returning briefly for Clear De Way before rejoining the chorus line. Hunter handled his London debut with ease, and brought humour to the stage as he performed his 2008 and 2009 hits Bring It and Jep Sting Naina.
In a dizzying climax to the show, the likes of which the Art Deco Troxy had probably never witnessed before, Lyons had patrons running from left to right, back and forth on the dancefloor between banks of wary onlookers as she sang her 2009 Road March and Power Soca Monarch smash, Meet Superblue. The energy with which the show ended, belied its lacklustre beginnings, when Barbadian sensation Peter Ram had got things started with his soulful soca track Woman By My Side; things went rapidly downhill thereafter as he chose to let the audience sing his songs, eliciting a poor response.
London boy Scrappy, representing Montserrat, was more successful and kept his performance short and sweet, with one song. The atmosphere seemed to heat up with the appearance of New York - based Grenadian singer Berbice, as the crowd revelled in singing his 2008 hit, Traffic. However, Berbice then proceeded to race through his other songs, calling to the sound engineers to, “Run de track fast”, and the tactic ruined the atmosphere.
It was left to veteran Iwer George to get the party started right. Only when he bounced onto the stage did the tempo and temperature of the event begin to soar. Although he belted out hit after hit, George didn’t need to. His set took care of itself, with the audience enthusiastically backing him on each track: Carnival Come Back Again; Trinidad; Fete After Fete; and Ready. George sent the crowd wild when, performing Water, he liberally sprayed the audience. He later repeated the act when he invited Kerryn ‘Super Trini’ Seale on stage to see whether he could ‘mash up’ the crowd whilst performing with Iwer. Sporting a red Mohican haircut and wearing red overalls, Seale matched George with his command of the crowd and won £50 from the singer. Speaking after his performance, George said: “I was last in London eight years ago, and after all that time I still come back and mash up the place – now that’s a story.”
The entertainment value of the show went up a notch further with the arrival of Lil Rick. In a sometimes hilarious performance, the Barbadian executed a number of eye-popping gyrations which could have merited parental advisory warnings. Rick’s vocal delivery did not falter either, as he opened his set with Cyar Wait and steadily flowed into hits such as Hard Wine remixed with a Kassav rhythm, Two for Two and Girls Gone Wild.
Together, Iwer George and Lil Rick created a fitting preamble to the night’s main act and eclipsed the unexplained absence of St Lucian Soca Monarch Ricky T, who was a no-show for the second year running.
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