Comedy of errors at iSA AwardsBy Joan Rampersad Tuesday, November 29 2011
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Colin Jackman (right), CEO, SAO Soca Awards Ltd/Soca Awards Organisation, on stge with Arthur Marcial (Kalyan), left, and Pelham Goddard (Charlie's Ro...
The International Soca Awards which took place at NAPA on Saturday was a comedy of errors that was only saved by Master of Ceremonies and comedian, Tommy Joseph, who had the crowd in stitches every time he took the stage.
Hosted by US-based iSA organisation, SAO Soca Awards Ltd./Soca Awards Organisation Inc, and supported by Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism reportedly to the tune of $1.2 million, founder and CEO, Colin Jackman, known as CJ in the calypso world, had assured that everything was going to be in place for the event. However very little planning seemed to have gone into the project.
It should have been apparent to the media that things were going to go awry, the day before the event at a “Meet with the Stars” function organised by the promoters. No “star” was present, and neither was Jackman. Chairs around the special reserved table remained undisturbed.
The soca awards function began with a creditable rendition of the National Anthem, sung by Megan Waldron. Then the comedy began.
The event was billed as a gala awards ceremony with a high profile international entertainment superstar – who Jackman had expected in the country on Thursday – as the “special invited guest presenter.” There was no “international entertainment superstar” at the event. Instead, those duties were left to J Angel and Joseph, who donned a pinstrip jacket, white t-shirt, jeans and black dressed shoes. However long before the end of the show the audience agreed he indeed dressed the part.
The first performer of the night – Yankey Boy, dressed in plaid shirt and jeans – gave the audience a taste of what was to come with less than stellar renditions of “Ah Drinka”, “Come Test Me” and “Show Me Your ID,” all sung to tracks.
After that, it seemed the producers made things up as the show went along. It soon became clear there was no stage manager; the glass part of the awards given to winners were marred with finger prints; Divine Echoes the accompanying band for the night remained on stage for the entire show whether they were accompanying artistes or not, even though there is a movable stage for that purpose. Also, there was no visual presentation of the artistes, nor their videos to accompany either the nominations or the presentation of awards. Instead, the written names of the awardees and very few still photographs of some artistes were shown. A programme of the events taking place on stage was never distributed to the media.
To give the audience the first “live” performance was Allrounder who stripped from a white hat and white suit to a silver cut away tights and a printed t-shirt to sing “Body Wine”.
Later when “Shal Marshall and Super Jigga TC’ were called to collect the award for Best Soca Music Video of the Year, patrons noticed that Kerwyn Thorpe came on stage and it had to be explained that the latter is in fact the person responsible for the music video.
After a time lapse with nothing happening on stage – one of the many that will take place throughout the night – Divine Echoes struck up “Dollar Wine” for Colin Lucas to do his thing but it was one of the band members who began the song before Lucas made his appearance on stage sporting red and white cycle shorts and top to match. The bard gave an energetic performance, engaging members of the band and Joseph to do their versions of the dollar wine.
Cassie opted to sing his “Town Ting” to tracks after which the comedy continued.
When Miss TT-World Leigh Ann Forbes and US-based Trini artiste Stuntman were called on stage to present some honourees, including Errol Ince (absent) and Winston “Gypsy” Peters (absent), they did not seem to be aware of what they were supposed to do. Stuntman was heard saying: “So what are we doing here?”, while Forbes sweetly stated: “I don’t know... presenting?” At this time there were no trophies and no artiste to collect anything. They left making way for Joseph to pull things together. He too was heard saying: “I’m just filling in here because I don’t know what is happening. I’m just talking.”
Eventually the band struck up and Superblue walked on to the stage to a standing ovation, and soon had patrons dancing to “Soca Baptiste”, “Ethel” done in blues and calypso styles. He then walked into the crowd, all the way to the back of the Lord Kitchener Auditorium to greet guests as he sang “To Love Somebody”. As he got back to the stage he was met there by his daughter Terri Lyons who sang with him, and received another standing ovation at the end of the song. He closed his live performance with “Get Something and Wave” after which he was presented with a SAO Hall Of Fame Award.
A 20-minute intermission was taken ten minutes before the original scheduled close of the show. Some time later Ravi B opened the second half of the programme with “Ah Cyah Come”, “Doularie” and entertained the crowd going with his special chutney dance to “Drinka”.
Honorees Pelham Goddard representing Charlie’s Roots and Arthur Marcial of the now defunct Kalyan were denied the opportunity to speak after receiving their awards. Goddard, who has produced some 13 road marches said afterwards: “I wanted to say thanks for being given the opportunity to be part of the creation of soca music but I didn’t know I came here to play dolly house where the children didn’t know what they were doing.”
Next act was Stuntman of “I Like to Move It” fame, who performed his hit techno music song – which was used as the theme song for the movie “Madagascar” – backed by Divine Echoes. It was a powerful performance.
After a couple more awards were presented Joseph did a bit of “Tiney Winey”, mimicking Duke and Shadow in the process. The crowd loved it. Megan Waldron with “It Hurting”, and TC with “Speaker Box” and “Action” also performed.
Then came more comedy. Joseph actually left the stage to get information about what was supposed to happen next. On his return, he called on Machel Montano to present Stuntman, who recently performed to some 25,000 persons in Russia, with an award. It was a surprise to Stuntman – and some in the audience – given that the award was for his contribution to Trini music.
In accepting the awards he too urged local artistes to get their act together and get their music heard on international airwaves.
At the end of the show a number of patrons commented on the unprofessional and sub-standard event, and notable absence of major soca stars, wondering if this was the reason for not handing out a number of awards on the night, including Soca Duo or Group of the Year, Best Soca Collaboration of the Year, International Soca DJ of the Year, Best Soca Compilation Album/CD of the Year, Best Groove Soca – Female, Soca Producer of the Year, Soca Chutney Song of the Year, Favourite Soca Online Radio, Best DJ/Radio Host Soca Artist (DJis/Radio Host that sings) and Best Soca Pan Song (TNT Special).
Awards given out on the night:
Best New Female Soca Artiste – Fire Empress (present)
Best New Male Soca Artiste – Madzart (absent)
Best Soca Compilation Rhythm of the Year – Honey Rhythm by Kernal Roberts (late)
Best Soca Chutney Music Video of the Year – Ravi B (present)
Best Groovy Soca (Male) – Benjai “Trini” (absent)
Best Soca Music Video of the Year – Kerwyn Thorpe (present)
Best Uptempo Soca Award (female) – Michelle Xavier “Feting For Days” (present)
Best Soca Artiste Album/CD of the Year – Machel Montano The Return (present)
Slam Your Favourite Award – Nebula 868 (present)
Best Uptempo Soca (Male) – Machel Montano “Advantage”
Best Soca Radio DJ of the Year – Marlon Mr Soca Music
Best Soca Info Website – trinijunglejuice.com (absent)
Overall Soca Chutney Band of the Year – Karma
Soca Song of the Year – Kees “Wotless” (absent)
Honourees:
SAO Legend Award – Allrounder
SAO Trustees Award – Charlies Roots, Chandileer, Sound Revolution, Fire Flight, Kalyan (present) and Blue Ventures
SAO Technical Award – Frank Martineau (absent) and Roy Maharaj (present)
Missing Honorees:
SAO President’s Award; The Colin Jackman’s Award – Winston “Gypsy” Peters
SAO Life Time Achievement Award - Errol Ince
SAO Legend Award – Anthony ‘Mighty Gabby’ Carter
SAO Trustees Award – Chandileer, Sound Revolution, Fire Flight, Blue Ventures, Byron Lee & The Dragonaires
SAO Technical Award - Frank Martineau, Cliff Harris, Randy Glasgow.
