The Rounds - April 1, 2007

April 1, 2007
Dr. Jay’s Rounds
By “Nurse Karen”
Good Evening Soca Lovers, I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. We’ve entered Spring and I’m actually starting to believe it.
As Easter rolls around, Jamaica is gearing up for carnival again. Last Saturday, Bacchanal Jamaica founder Byron Lee got the people of Clarendon in the mood at the Supreme Venture Carnival Blowout. The night featured covers of soca songs by Biggie Irie and Alison Hinds, plus the popular annual Tiney Winey competition.
St. Lucia is ushering in the new season by coaxing the big tourist money. There’s a new star studded celebrity event at the Rodney Bay Village Music bash, April 23 to April 25th. The inaugural festival will feature Destra, David Rudder, Beres Hammond, Sean Paul, Maxi Priest and Shaggy. With tickets set at $60 US, it’s obvious that they prefer foreign money to the local kind. For Lucians wanting to check out their favourite artistes, $160 EC is not much of a welcome mat…if you know what I’m saying.
The next big North American street party happens in Atlanta next month. DJ Tony Tempo tells me he will be bringing a mas band this year, which is guaranteed to encourage more participation from the youth. So, if you want to join the action, the parade of the bands takes place on May 26th.
T and T police are out to capture the true pirates of the Caribbean. Perhaps you know of them, you know the kind of people who try to get rich selling things that don’t belong to them in the first place. I have to hand it to the copyright organization of Trinidad and Tobago. Last week they nabbed a couple of street entrepreneurs who were selling bootleg soca CDs for which they don’t own the license. If you’ve ever traveled to the West Indies…or Brooklyn for that matter, you know how much of a problem that is. These guys selling bootlegs on street corners with no shame….and you have to remember, soca music is still an emerging industry. The artists have a short window to win the ears of fans during the carnival season and once it’s done, marketing and promotion is often done at a grass roots level. While I think the fine ought to be much higher then $3000 TT ( about $700 Canadian), I’m happy the cops are finally teaching a them a lesson. Since February of this year they’ve made more than ten arrests. The only people who should be making money off the sale of the music…are the people who are making the music.
In Antigua, spirits were low this week as West Indies fans witnessed their team tek some serious licks from Australia. A rain cancellation pushed the date back one day, which led to lower attendance. Some would say the only highlight of Wednesday’s game was a lunchtime performance by El a Kru. When tizzy hit the stage singing Expose, the crowd got together to jump and wave…which really couldn’t save the team anyway.
And according to Marxman Sri Lanka done knock de West Indies back to 1957. This week I asked Dr. Jay to run a little cricket set to encourage these guys to step it up… I thought I’d better ask the kingdom of soca to give our boys a little inspiration…but inspiration could never substitute for runs….i think I going and cry.
I’m nurse Karen and those were Dr. jay’s Rounds. Send your comments to soca a Flow 935 dot com. Now back to the doctor!