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Oh
Gawd, Tico
Why the band must go on ... |
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THE
road make to walk on Carnival Day and if you ever had the
chance to play devil mas with Tico Skinner on a Carnival Tuesday
you could get hooked for life.
Until, of course, Tico decides that he done with that and
that he not bringing out a band for Carnival 2K6.
Now, according to what I’ve read in the newspapers,
the veteran mas man, one of the lone surviving traditionalists,
who keeps the protest in the mas has decided that he’s
hanging up his boots, because his partner Sheppy dead.
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BRIAN
“Tico”
SKINNER
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Yeah, I’m
talking about our late editor and founding member of the TnT Mirror
who passed on last March 31.
Now, everyone who knew Sheppy had to understand that he looked forward
to wearing that suit for two days of the year; Carnival Monday and
Tuesday.
Nothing could stop him and even if Tico decided that he was not
coming out on any particular year, the old Shep would have donned
his suit, picked up his briefcase and walk the road, as a free man.
He started the trend a few decades ago and it became entrenched
in the hey days of Burrokeets, which moved out from the club house
on Belle Eau Road, Belmont, a stone’s throw away from the
house where Sheppy was born and grew up, on Augustine Lane.
In the 80s Sheppy would have played himself all Carnival weekend,
but reserved some of Tuesday for taking photos for the newspaper.
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And then one day he bounced up some partners playing with Tico’s
band and they doused him with some blue paint.
Thereafter he became a fixture in the band, in his three-piece and
thing.
And while the Rasta man donned his Babylon suit, Tico played himself
always bareback with a Rasta wig.
Now, over the years with the band, admittedly, I know that the veteran
bandleader has suffered some pain to please the people.
There were the years that he lost heart when some youths stormed,
took over the band and jostled the older folks, as they ran behind
the DJ truck.
And then Tico decided that things could be better and the Defence
Force steelband provided the music the following year as the young
crowd clearly diminished giving the older folks who did not want
to part with tradition a chance to play themselves with peace and
safety.
Thankfully, in the past 23 years or so, Tico has never failed to
hit the road; for that I am most grateful.
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The
late Sunday Mirror
Editor, KEITH SHEPHERD,
in his jacket and tie
J’Ouvert outfit.
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Still, you know,
people cannot understand the exhilaration of playing “dirty”
mas on a Carnival Tuesday; staying real when everyone else is pretending
to be pretty in feathers and bikinis.
It’s pure fun -- and yuh don’t have to jump too high
and mash up yuh foot and yuh back for that.
Yuh know, for me it was always a groovy thing and look how Tico
coming to mash up plenty people Carnival; even though we all know
it would never, ever be the same without the old Sheppy,
Eh, Tico?
What about Sammy Llewellyn, who started his football protest in
the band last year, with his posters calling for the return of Russell
Latapy to the national football team?
Eh, Tico?
What about Olympian Kent Bernard who walks around with ladies underwear
hooked up to an umbrella every Tuesday?
Eh, Tico?
Have you told the blind, White Englishman who comes down every year
to play mas in no other band but yours?
Does he know that he has to chill out in the cold, or try to find
some other band where he would not feel that kind of sincerity and
love even though he cannot see?
And what about the man who’s waiting all year to come out
with his posy full of beer (looking like genuine urine) and a plastic
pile of “poo” in it?
Eh, Tico?
I know yuh lost some good friends along the way, especially the
old Sheppy, but there are people out here who hurting really bad,
also, and know that the only way to heal that is to walk the road
for Carnival day, with meh face covered in blue paint and surrounded
by people who I see just once every year and cannot remember they
face afterwards, because I does be having such a damn good time.
Sheppy is one man who would want the party to go on; even though
the fact that yuh decide not to bring a mas because he gone for
good is a damn big tribute to the man, in truth.
But Tico, after all is said and done, if yuh need a little motivation
to bring out a mas -- which is doing a service to yuh community
-- in this time when ungrateful people rule the town, then I wish
I could provide that.
Yuh know, I wish yuh would understand how much joy yuh bring for
all them years, even if yuh decide to hang up yuh boots and bring
an end to an era.
It just look like I would have to pull together a few stragglers
and start we own thing, from scratch, with two piece of old iron.
But I know I would never have the same exhilarating feeling to sing
“look the band coming” when ah see some rebels painted
blue, red and black drifting among the pretty mas on the track on
Carnival Tuesday.
Thanks for the memories, breds, but I really wish that you would
reconsider that decision.
Sheppy good, yuh know! He goh be knocking iron with Andre Tanker
and Pope John Paul and even Onika Bostic and them up there in heaven.
Is we to catch here, without even a devil mas to play we self!
Oh Gawd Tico. |
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