'WE SURVIVE' London Calypso Tent, concludes challenging pearl anniversary season.

• LORD CLOAK

WORDS | STEPHEN SPARK

And so to the final night of the London Calypso Tent. This was only the third show of a short and cash-constrained season.

Happily, we were back to a full band – the always impressive ACASA All Stars, with a slightly revised line-up – and the melodious Soca Divettes, looking glam in black with sparkling accessories. Veteran panman Cyril Khamai, sitting in the front row, also chipped in with his scratcher. G String acted as MC.

Everyone in the audience had something to celebrate, not least that we had survived the past two years. ACASA chair Vincent John reminded us that the London Calypso Tent was in its Pearl Anniversary year. (Historical note: ACASA’s predecessor, the Association of British Calypsonians, ABC, was founded in 1991, but the tent started the following year.)

The Divettes started us off with a medley to get us in a musical mood, and it was clear that the sound balance in The Tabernacle was greatly improved – congratulations to the engineer for that. Muffinman ambled amiably on stage with Nothing Stops the Jamming – “We are many, they are few” he declared. Now who could he be referring to? Alexander D Great’s Haiti is a show-stopper of a song, beautiful, powerful and heartfelt, and each time he sings it, it’s with more passion. Sadly, the line “We can’t turn our backs on you again” only reminds us how little the international community has achieved for most Haitians as soon as its attention moves elsewhere.

Taking a few minutes out from compering duties, reigning UK Calypso Monarch G String complained of High Blood Pressure, brought on, by amongst other things, “War and rumours of war”. The song is a few years old now, but his question, “What are they dying for?” is more relevant than ever. A healthy diet might deal with blood pressure, so Soca Kidd, in apron and chef’s tocque, offered us saltfish and callaloo in Bring You Container, a lively, jump-up soca song.

Teetering on the edge of the stage, swaying, staggering and rolling like a sailor on a stormy sea, Dansa gave us some entertaining moves for the appropriately titled Drunk Dance. And, as ever in the tent, there was a change of style when Helena B sang I Feel It, a nice song to wine to in the style of Square One.

After the interval, Alexander, resplendent in grey morning suit as if he was off to the palace, returned to the stage to sing his Britain’s Got Talent number Big Party – and to promote his CD, Peace – Reconciliation. There was a taste of bouyon when Dominican artist Benz aka Mr Gwada came on and sang his Notting Hill tribute, Come Join Me, followed by, Looking fuh Kay. The nice uptempo songs, to PA by DJ Smoov, met with a surprisingly subdued response from the audience, probably due to unfamiliarity.

After another wonderful interlude by the Soca Divettes – all the more impressive because the band hadn’t played the song before – the audience warmly welcomed Clivus, singing Windrush Coming Down, punctuating the verses with his trademark “Wheee!”. He’s had significant health challenges and walks with a stick, as did the next artist, Music Man, who put his all – and a stirring growl - into an excellent rendition of Me Know.

With some calypsonians it can be hard to catch the lyrics; you have to strain to hear what they're singing about. No such problem when Lord Cloak came on stage, lecturing My Brother Calypsonians about their vocal clarity. “You hear me?” Loud and clear, Cloak!

There’s never any difficulty hearing the impassioned and impressive Brown Sugar, whose Four Times Likely emphasised the point that black people are four times more likely to die from Covid. It was good to see her back in action at the tent, and it’s a powerful song, though one that she admitted not everyone will agree with. Her chorus, “We survive”, could be taken as the tent’s motto!

By contrast, De Admiral offered us a vision of an idyllic paradise in the slow-tempo A Beautiful Dream. For an encore he extended his dream to the calypso tent itself.

Rev B can always be relied upon to give us a well-written calypso with some serious social commentary content, and I Can’t Breathe didn’t disappoint. In fact, it proved too powerful for the Rev himself, as he had to stop part-way through a verse, explaining, “This song is so strong for me; it’s emotional”.

At this point there was a pause, as De Admiral read out a roll of honour of London tent calypsonians who had passed, starting with John or Johnny, who died in 1986; Al Hector, founder of the first UK calypsonians’ association (The Man Solo, 1990); Vivien Comma (The Golden Cockerel, 1998); Deryck Neckles (Mighty Astronaut, 1999); Peace & Love (2011); Don Caesar (Rev Sweetfoot, 2015); Ashton Moore (Mighty Tiger, 2017); and Dave Batson (Dave B, 2021). A one minute silence was observed very respectfully.

We were back on the soca road when Batch bounded on to the stage singing Hold On Tight. He started off with the song on his mobile, before the band picked it up; they seemed to be enjoying themselves with it.

ACASA chair Vincent John thanked G String, the Divettes, the ACASA All Stars Band and Valerie Moore, widow of Ashton Moore, better known as Mighty Tiger, who led the Association of British Calypsonians (ABC) from its foundation in 1991 to his passing in 2017. Angela Duncan-Thompson, chair of mas bands association CAMF, received, on behalf of Valerie Moore, the first of the Pearl Anniversary Awards, which of course was to honour Mighty Tiger.

Awards were also made to Michael Friday (Congoes), Errol Brown (Lord Cloak), Elsie McCann (former secretary of the European Association of Calypsonians - predecessor organisation to ABC), Music Man, Aunty Merle (stage management, and so much more) and Clivus Lewis.

The show finished later than it has done for a long time, and rightly so, because this was a rather special occasion – one that had looked under serious threat for most of the year owing to a complete lack of funding. There was a great feeling of togetherness and determination that ACASA, the London Tent and the UK’s calypso music community would rise up from the low point experienced in 2022.

Many plans and proposals are afoot, but they will need to be properly funded, probably with far less reliance on Carnival Village Trust in future. Soca News will keep you informed.

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