Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Arrow performing at the Morgan's Harbour Hotel and Marina, Port Royal on Sunday at 'Soca Madness'. The event also featured the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose, Leroy Sibbles and John Holt. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE EVENT was billed as Arrow meets Sparrow, but it was the Calypso Rose among the thorns who really bloomed and pricked soca sensibilities at the Morgan's Harbour Hotel, Port Royal, on Sunday night.
In the beginning, Fab Five turned to soca after circling the island with Jamaican Woman.
"This song is a slow wine," a band member introduced Good Buddy. They followed with the plea for a piece of "sweet Julie mango", Feeling Horny and their first soca hit, Yu Safe. Ringroad Jam and All Night Party brought up 8:00 p.m. - and the night's MC, Bob Clarke.
There were cheers for Leroy Sibbles, who informed musically "we're having a party tonight" and took the ladies on a "sea of love". He started a run of what he called "freedom songs" with I Shall Be Released and included To The Top before pausing to say good evening. Book of Rules was delivered to strong applause, as was the rocksteady style Only Sixteen.
Grub Cooper on drums played a spectacular introduction before Leroy Sibbles rasped "baby be true..." and he had to restart. "After a intro like dat we haffi tek a res'. De drumma a de bes!" Sibbles said. He ended with a medley of Feel Like Jumping and 54-46.
CROWD RESPONSE
John Holt called for party time and delivered Love I Can Feel and 'Stick By Me' in that mode, before going serious to serious response on Tribal War, which had to be restarted. Tide Is High and On The Beach were appropriate to the seaside setting and by the time he hit Wear You To The Ball many seats had been abandoned. Holt bade farewell with Happy Go Lucky Girl in his encore.
There was a surge for the front as Calypso Rose, large and in charge in blue, spun, swayed and sang Fire In Belize. There was a roar at a tick and twitch of her pronounced posterior and another as one white shoe and then another was sent flying off-stage. She wished Jamaica a happy independence before hitting Punta, honouring the Mexican, Belizian and Guatemalan versions, before heading back to her home with No Mister. She tossed the cordless microphone into the air and also did intricate hand movements, smiling at all times, before easing the torrid pace a bit.
"On January 1 when I woke up I said thank God I am alive at 65," she said, to cheers.
Rose picked up the pace again with I Don't Know, singing briefly to a man dancing just before the stage with "he lookin' so sweet/look at he teet". Jammin' In Jamaica preceded the climactic Fia Fia - and Morgan's Harbour was blazing musically.
THE BAND
Sparrow ran his songs without major interruption, at times instructing Fab Five "keep the tempo!", as he opened Dan Is The Man In The Van. There were cheers for Saltfish and Congo Man, which brought out shouts of appreciation - and accusations of 'lia!'. Sparrow kept a continuous hip-swinging tempo with Mr. Walker and Jean and Dinah, prodding the air with his hips, hitting Drunk and Disorderly and Margarita, before ending with the chant "ten to one a murda!"
There was some dissent for the Sparrow's encore, in which he simply delivered more of his closing number.
A shout of "come on Arrow, tap de foolishness!" brought a chuckle into the silence that greeted the female back-up singer's warm-up number and when Arrow skipped up on stage and asked for hands in the air there were none.
He did an extended chant of la la la soca, which ended to sporadic applause, Long Time fared only slightly better and it seemed at that point that he needed a coalition, rather than his Multinational Force Band, to move the diminishing audience. But there was an improvement for Keep On Groovin and some real cheering - and hands in the air - on Too Much Fete (Never Kill a Man Yet). Tiney Winey perked up things further and Arrow led the hornsmen off the small stage and into the audience for a part of the extended jam of Hot, Hot, Hot, going back on stage to wrap up the show at close to 12:30 a.m. yesterday.
