Good morning I am still mentally in a congaline.... And Bump and Wining.
After 15 years one of the most greatest Caribbean Bands of all time took the stage for one night only in a venue in Barbados that has not hosted an event for over 35 years.
Spice & Co took to the stage last night to give their fans a proper 2 hour show with just some of their hits.
It was easily one of the top 3 shows I have even been to in Barbados. The crowd was in it from the start of the show Spice showed their versatility performing their track which range from rock to soca and reggae. 2 of the earlier crowd pleasers were their hit Rasta man was one of the crowd favourites along with 'Guns'. Their performance of 'Guns' started from the back of the crowd with the Barbados defense force band marching through the crowd and onto the stage playing the tune ... 'too many guns in this town...'
You know let me tell you the crowd was massive and from all walks of life in Barbados. They were all there to see a band that from my understanding n the 80's were performing just their own tracks and touring extensively. Back together for 1 night only.
Tell me which artiste opened for them? Do you know? That's right no one.
I had the pleasure of jumping into the crowd with the Mr Selwyne 'Get Bizi' Browne and cameras of Caribfyah.com. With the mic in my hand I was able to hear the sheer energy of the individuals in the crowd show came out to see spice. I tell you it was a real pleasure to have these happy patrons screaming and begging for some video light to express how much they loved spice.
Ok so some of you are thinking who the hell is Spice?
Well I know you know them because you know "bump and wine in de congaline" !!
I have not seen a longer congaline in my life! Personally I would have loved another 30 mins of just "bump and wine" but alas ...
The night ended with a major fireworks display the sent the last goose bumps through my spine.
All I can say is
Spice!
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Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device.
By now you've heard, (Nurse) Karen (Etc) is starting off 2009 by shaking things up. We are petitioning MySpace for a new Category for Soca Music. All the info is available online, simply check out http://groups.myspace.com/socanow.
Thanks to everyone who has taken action to show their support, people like Dr. Jay, Ma$tamind Productions, Corey Graham 2.0, Toronto-Lime dot com, the Soca Twins, DJ Spice, My Party Fans, DJ Bassline, and Tropical Fete dot com
To help you follow the development of the campaign, I've created a new tag called "Soca Now". Any time you visit (Nurse) Karen (Etc), you will be able to read all the latest developments by going to the tags cloud on the right hand side and selecting "Soca Now"
Exciting news though! The new campaign will be the subject of discussion tomorrow night in a live interviewed by Nasty Jag Soundcrew in Vancouver, British Columbia (that's Canada, if you didn't know) If you'd like to better understand why this is important, make sure you tune in!
Tune in to the Pirates of the Caribbean radio show at 7 pm Eastern on Saturday, January 10th.
All you have to do is click here , then click listen live.
I promise you'll hear some sweet up-to-the-minute soca music, followed by an interwiew with the Nurse just after 8:15 pm.
Jags, thanks for linking it up. Looking forward to the chat
Here I am with Vancouver's biggest soca fan and advocate, and one of the hosts of Pirates of the Caribbean, De Big Bad Jags!
Good Evening Soca Lovers…I’m Nurse Karen and ah finally back with Doctor Jay’s Rounds. Long time nuh talk Toronto. If you missed me over the last two weeks…I was busy administering a little soca therapy to the people of London England and Brooklyn, New York. I packed up my bag with rags and flags and short pants and took the pulse of soca city overseas. First stop Notting Hill…a decidedly affluent section of west London that was transformed into party central two weekends ago. Sunday morning was an event called chocolate mas which is a j’ouvert like no other. It real dutty…and plenty sweet. No mud, no paint, no powder just sticky wet chocolate syrup. All in yuh hair, in yuh clothes and on de street. Later on is what they calling Children’s day. I’m still trying to figure out why! The area is packed up with sound systems in every corner. I was hearing everything from Dancehall, to Hip Hop, funk, disco, house, and techno…but if you think sumting missing you RIGHT. Two things actually - Soca and well, Children! Big people took over the streets very early on - Getting drunk and belligerent de lil pickney were nowhere to be seen. Tisk tisk England…whappen tuh yuh?! Well, our bri-ish cousins made up for their folly on Monday with the 43rd annual grand parade. I played mas with Poison UK…and dat was bacchanal. Dr. Jay…I was missing you bad, ya kna. Even though DJ Spice was doing a great job handling de music on the road, It was easy to see that the crowds in England eh quite up to de time when it comes to soca music. So I found myself MOVIN TO DE LEFT and FOLLOWING DE LEADER more often than I’d like to admit. None de less….it was pressure. Hypa Hoppa was looking mischievous in his school uniform…Umba de Shepherd was wining pon speaker box. And de rest o’ we were in Malibu Paradise under a Pinapple Sun! Nurse Karen had to leave the band around 6 o’clock for a live carnival broadcast on BBC 1xtra. That’s London’s home of New Black Music. I got a chance to big up Toronto’s impressive cast of DJ’s, promoters and bandleaders for making Caribana one of the best Caribbean carnivals outside of the West Indies. The beautiful bajan host of international sounds of soca, Miss Alex Jordan say to tell allyuh hello.
Click below to suss out my edited video from London England and Notting Hill Carnival.
I getting to New York just now…but I would be amiss not to mention some exiting things happening this weekend. Besides the fact that it’s carnival weekend in Baltimore Maryland, Soca history was made in Cuba on Friday. Machel Montano took the HD show to the communist nation, packing out the Karl Marx theatre in Havana. Last Weekend I was jet setting from heath row to JFK. 5 hours time difference fast forwarded me directly into the New York carnival action. My usual labor day limes consist of boat rides and block parties, but I kept it real simple this time. Last Sunday, I was rocking a pair of 4 inch raspberry stilettos for the 5th annual SAO international soca awards. Kudos…to CJ and the organizing committee for making an effort to recognize the breadth of talent across this art form, but it’s obvious the event lost some credibility after the 11th hour venue change fiasco last year. The event that had been scheduled for the Apollo theatre, got shuffled all the way to club Tobago in queens…a place with plenty vibes, but not what I would call Black Tie sophistication. So RUM JUNGLE was the spot this year, with the likes of Tizzy and EL A CREW, Biggie Irie, Lil Rick and Peter Ram gracing the white carpet. Inside Ajamu, Crazy, Nnika Francis and Skarpyon all took home hardware. But…most of the de trini artistes and dem were noticeably absent. Special congratulations go out to Toronto-Lime dot COM for winning best soca info website two years straight. I took to the stage to pick up the hardware on they behalf. And Toronto-Lime is exactly where you need to go to check out the complete list of winners. After the show, I got all oiled down to jump up with the wildest j’ouvert band in New York. You better believe I dey with my Greenz crew. I love how allyuh bazodee. There was one guy who kept pulling down he boxer briefs as he chippin’…I was having trouble following the political commentary in dat! I closed out the weekend on the parkway running up and down to catch every band. Nice to see Allison Hinds roll it as she gets ready to drop her first solo album in November. The Haiti crew was unstoppable with the loudest trucks on the road. I, was on the last of 3 vincy trucks, enjoying the view. Big up to Soca Jones and Vincy foreign based for giving me a front row seat to see Bomani, Jamesy P and Problem Child perform for the estimated 3 milion people at the parade.
And with that, I kissed the summer vacation behind…and hauled MY behind back to Toronto. I’m nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Please send text me your comments to 9-3-5-9-3-5, now back to de Docta!
Click below to see my edited video from the SAO Soca Awards and the Brooklyn West Indian Day Parade.
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