Winning the Carib soca Monarch $1Million first prize has greatly improved life for father of two, Orlando Joashashen and his family.

The Berbician who now resides in Parika is a Forest Ranger by profession and has been in the competition for several years. He had won the best newcomer prize when he first entered several years ago but this time around took the lions share. He said the monies would be used to complete the construction of his home at Tempie village.

Aged 29, the artiste called ‘Bones man’ says too that he is preparing for the Soca monarch 2011 title in Trinidad and Tobago as a Guyanese ambassador, and on that occasion he  will be  “coming 10,000 strong”.

He also sounded a warning to prospective Soca monarch contender that he will be defending his title with dynamism for the 2011 local competition.

Bones man also extended gratitude to his producer and mixer Burchmore Simon of the Kross Kolor records and explained that his winning formula was to focus on highlighting the festival that sets Guyana apart from the other countries.

Second and third place finishers Melissa Vanilla Roberts and Beverly Williams also collected their cheques for $500,000 and $250,000 respectively. Roberts also collected her $50,000 cheque for being the adjudged the most voted for artiste in the competition. 

The national prize giving ceremony is set for this weekend at the Umana Yana.

________________

Mondale Smith

 

Contrary to Promoter Nigel Harding’s report that an arrangement would be made for compensation of damaged equipment following the unfolding at the recently staged mash explosion, no monies have been paid as promised and the promoter has left the country. Reports are that he has also been blacklisted by local authorities.

However, if all does not go well soon, his brother, Kenneth Grant Stuart, a mason will be in the hot seat because he has signed a document with the police as the show’s co-promoter.

According to an agreement made in the presence of ranks at the Alberttown police station Harding will have to pay a total of almost $3m in damages for equipment and other cash related expenses starting with US$1000 followed by other payments.

The US$1,000 was to have been paid on Wednesday but that never materialised.

Danley Major, owner of Kingdom Friends Studios, whose sound equipment were used for the show said all told, his losses amount to almost $3M and that his studio is seriously hindered by the damage to his equipment.

Hoping that the promoter will honour his promise, yesterday he said, “I’ve not received any payments to date, only promises.” He said that his equipment was chartered at the last minute by Ian Johnson and Gail Vieira of Vision Sounds. 

He reported that from communication with Ian Johnson and Gail Vieira for Vision Sounds they cannot undertake repairs or payment for the equipment. From the inception of the promotion Vieira said her company is not the promoter neither is it in charge of the promotion “we merely reached out to the promoter who sought our assistance”.

Yesterday Major said, “I saw disaster coming since earlier in the day but I did not expect it to be at such a degree”.

He said that on the night of the concert when he realised that something was not right because of the delay in the arrival of the artistes, he went home and returned to the national park at 2:00hrs when the show was to have been concluded.

He said, “People start pelting bottles and a DJ had to run for cover off the stage and left the music playing”.  In his description he said “If you see bottles like rain… They break up everything on stage”.

But that was nothing compared to watching several men with broken bottles in hand heading to the area where his sound console was. He said, “I watched in horror as they walked to the console and throw it down and one start lashing it down”.

He had spent years accumulating the money for this vital piece of equipment.

While the promoter, Harding, reported that the artistes did arrive at the National Park Major is adamant that he did not see any of the artiste at the location.

He reported, too, that “I did hear one gunshot ring out and then I see everybody scatter”.

Reflecting further he said, “When the confusion started firemen, police and everybody bruck out, including some of the unarmed police ranks who couldn’t do anything.”

Major, while expressing worry at his losses, said the experience proved that there is need for a governing body to whom promoters must lodge a security deposit that covers any eventuality like this one. He also said there should be a serious screening process before permission is granted to promoters to stage shows locally. This is done in Suriname. 

He said that what made things worse is the fact that while the unfolding was taking place at the National Park the promoter was nowhere around. Several persons who offered assistance to the promoter reported that they could not locate him after the show.

One said, “It was only after we reported the matter to the police station that they were able to invite him to the station where he said that he was  fearful for his life”.

_______________________

Mondale Smith

Its official, for the second year in a row Melissa ‘Vanilla’ Roberts age 27 has copped the Road March queen making it her third hold on the title. This is the official results out of the Mash Secretariat which state that her song ‘High’ was the most played along the Mashramani route on February 23 and as such she has been adjudged the 2010 Road March queen. Prior she had won the title in 2007 when she sang ‘Queen of the band’ then again in last year and this year.

This was her 4th year in the competition but she only missed the title by one point in 2008 when Big Red won with ‘on the road again.’



Her song high came up against fifteen others including Jumo’s ‘in de air’ and Bones-man’s ‘Mashramani time is we own’. When contacted with the news Vanilla’s reaction was “ok I trust your information but I don’t really react in anyway out of the ordinary when I win.”



She said the song written by her manager Burchmore Simon is about the colourful festival of Mash and encourages all to get involved in building the spirit of Mashramani as we festival taking it to the next level.

Simon also wrote ‘Wrap it up’ and ‘mama I don’t want to be born’ and both were adjudged as winners of the 2010 junior calypso competition and the HIV/Aids song competition. Simon also co-wrote the winning Soca monarch song done by Bonesman titled “is we own”.



Of her win for a second year Vanilla said she is elated and hopes that this trend will continue. She let up that this time around because the quality of soca music around “I wasn’t sure if I was going to win this year but last year I was certain when I won with Rude.”

Vanilla also placed second in the soca monarch competition as she had don last year with rude and said that she will certainly be going up for the title of soca monarch next year as well as going for a three-pete.


Burchmore Simon her manager said “it was a great season and Vanilla’s win is an additional incentive to continue to work hard and dedicate ourselves to further developing the music industry”. Two weeks from now Vanilla who hails from Berbice but resides in Georgetown said her fans can look forward to yet another scorching video from her. She will be releasing a video for her single titled “Pressure”. She expressed gratitude to all her supporters and said

“I could not have done it with out you the fans.”


Story by: Mondale Smith.