Category: Entertainment

Nine delegates to contest crown

Calling all tourists, domestic and international mark your calendars as; plans have commenced to make Bartica Regatta 2010 even bigger. Regional Chairman Holbert Knights has informed that the events will be staged for the period March 13 to April 5 this year.

Aside from the boat races the major attraction and entertainment packaged comes through the annual Regatta pageants. This year nine beauties from the mining community have been selected and have commenced training to see who will be crowned Miss Regatta 2010.

They will be sashed at an official ceremony on March 20. Added entertainment will include a Dance fiesta; featuring the Classique Dance troupe and the Famous Pose dancers. That event will also be used to honor outstanding Barticians as well as champion racers, footballers and athletes. On that occasion too there will be the awarding of Grades Six and CXC scholarships from 2009 and the showcasing of video highlights from the 2009 pageant and races.

On April 1 Regatta gets a real jump start with the welcome party that offers a gate prize of US $500 that includes a dance clash between dancers from the USA, Bartica and Georgetown at the Gardens in Second Avenue.

On Saturday April 3 the Modern and Platinum Square will come alive for the annual Regatta, Street Jam where patrons will party all night to popular stereo sounds.

The Easter Sunday REGATTA is set for April 4 at the Golden Beach, Third Avenue and will feature Canoe racing, at least three Canoe skills competitions and Power Boat racing. The committee is promising that prizes will be handed out immediately after each race.

The Pageant is set for April 4 at the Admin and Modern Square and will feature nine delegates including Patrice Wilson, Lydia Timmerman, Rebecca Sattur, Nickesha Fraser, Tiffeny Wong, Latoya Allen, Nikita Henry, Jessica Mc Kenzie and Anice Hicks. As part of the pageants offerings the delegates will present on their chosen platforms live on TTS channel 5 one week prior to the pageant.

On pageant night international singing duo X2 featuring Adrian and Jumo will entertain patrons. The delegates will be featured in swimwear as well as a talent segment.

On Easter Monday the beach party and family fun day is carded to be staged at the Golden Beach, Third Avenue and will feature Canoe racing, Canoe skills competitions and Power Boat racing.

When the sun sets from 17:00hrs the atmosphere will be transformed into a concert setting that will be dubbed the official Regatta Wash Down. There X2 as well as a yet to be named international artiste will take to the stage constructed over the Golden Beach.

By Mondale Smith

While there is no sure word on whether Guyana will be having an Accolade- the music awards of Guyana this year– it looks like an international group is set to honour stake holders in the industry shortly.

For the first time in its short history, on Sunday April 25, the Guyana Artistic Music Awards (GAMA) is set to be staged at the National Cultural Centre to honour not just locally based artistes but Guyanese entertainers from 14 territories in the Diaspora.

The promoter is the ‘Guyanese Canadian Artistic Enterprise’ company based in Toronto Canada and is headed by promoter Sherlock Shepherd. Working alongside is co founders Randolph Waterman CEO of “Randolph’s Building & Renovation Company”, Elton Joseph CEO of “Nortel Upholstery” and Andrew Francis CEO of “Ark Plumbing Inc.”

GCAE has promoted annual boat rides, concerts and dances during the Caribana Celebrations every summer since 2002.  The company also promotes various events during the year featuring Guyanese and other Artists from Canada and around the world.

The last GAMA was staged in Toronto Canada in 2008. It was organised by GCAE in collaboration with “Massive Bunch Entertainment”.

It is being staged in Guyana this time around because the promoters have expressed the belief that Guyanese music has made commendable strides.

The Guyana Artistic Music Awards (GAMA) of Canada is an annual community event created to promote and recognize Guyanese talent internationally. It will feature 29 Guyanese acts spanning 14 countries on stage entertaining. Some of the lot will receiving awards in various categories.

Among those listed to be honoured are  Lionel Abel, Mark Bryan,  Otis  Holder,  Dave Martins,  Sammy Baksh,  Sash Persaud,  Tony Ricardo,  Ivor Lynch,  Kenny Lawrence,  Phil ‘Bumpy’ Dino and Patrick ‘Patto’ Gonsalves.

Originally, the event was to have been two-fold but Shepherd said that after discussions with senior authorities locally, he was advised not to stage two back to back shows. The other is the Guyana Reggae Sunsplash.

“We are aiming to create a product that can become a marketing tool for the tourism industry while aiding in creating a Guyanese cultural identity that is on par with the international musical requirements, Shepherd said.

The promoter is of the belief that the awards to be staged annually would encourage artistes to up their game and work towards bettering their musical and entertainment offerings.

That Sunsplash is carded for April 17 as a prelude to the awards so that locals can experience live performances from Guyanese musicians who are doing their thing for Guyana in other countries.
The GUYANA REGGAE SUNSPLASH is carded for the NATIONAL PARK.

Some of the nominees resident in Guyana include Shelly G, Tennicia Defreitas, Jumo, Adrian Dutchin, Timeka Marshall, Mariam Williams, Jory Hector, Melissa Vanilla Roberts, Bones Man, Kester D, JB, Big Red, Alabama, Cid Hooper, Young Bill Rogers, and Cliff Davis. The nominees residing in France include Ras McBean and Colin I and the England based artistes include Joe Tex.

The Jamaican based nominees are Imykal, Fire Juice and Major Joe B, while the USA artistes include Zebulan, Kapa Shanti, Prakz, H20, Redemption and Yonette Hooper. From Canada the nominees include Telescope, Donna Makeda, Prince Ally, Cyborg, Mandela and Daddy Rusty.

There is also an editor’s award that will cover the media for best print, television, radio and Internet personalities.

The organisers say they will be consulting with the Ministries of Culture and Tourism to endorse the Awards and to get the relevant support.

Local sponsors listed for the event thus far include Carib Beer, Wireless Connections; White Castle Fish Shop, FCE Systems; American Exchange Barbers, Colours, Lenscraft optical, Aubrey James Video productions amongst others.

They are awaiting confirmation from the telephone service providers of Guyana among other corporate entities.

According to Shepherd the local event will be a Red Carpet affair at the National Cultural Centre with a Cocktail Event to follow. The list of artistes that number more than 15 for honorary awards will be announced later but this publication understands that Barbados based international artistes Eddy Grant will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award wile Jamaica based Natural Black should take home the International Music Ambassador Award.

Why GAMA?

When asked why such an event given that Guyana has its Accolade awards the organisers said the GAMA of Canada started around the same time that the Accolade Awards started without any prior knowledge about the Accolade Awards.

GAMA was created after the President and other members of GCAE realized that many Guyanese artists living abroad had made tremendous strides in the Entertainment Industry and so decided to create this event to award and honour these artistes.  The difference with the GAMA of Canada and the Accolade Awards is that GAMA honours Guyanese artistes worldwide while the Accolade Awards only honours mostly Guyanese artistes in Guyana.

“After presenting the first GAMA in Toronto Canada, we realized that we were only connecting with Guyanese artistes in Canada and USA, when there were Guyanese artistes all over the world in many different countries making their mark on the Entertainment scene and so we decided to include Guyanese artistes from other countries”.

The GCAE decided that Guyana was the fittest place to stage the present Awards show because it is strictly a Guyanese Awards show and they wanted to honour not only the Guyanese artistes living abroad but also those living in Guyana.  “We know that everyone cannot travel to Canada and hence the decision to stage the event in Guyana was decided upon.

Some of the international sponsors are ARK’S plumbing Inc, De Castro & De Castro Construction Co, Channaman’s Restaurant, First-Class Printing, Calypso Hut, Tennessee International, Freight Inc, All Natural Beauty Supply Product, Randolph Cuilding and Construction and Titan Tours Airlines.

By Mondale Smith

Local singing sensation, Clifton ‘Passion’ Adolphus known for songs such as Me Alone, Ah come out to Dance and Abusive is set to release two new singles this weekend.

The two songs titled Caribbean wine and Inside the party, according to the 31-year-old, will be released for the first time on Television stations such as HJtv 72, NCN-11, HBTV-9, NTN-69 and HGtv 16 as well as MBC Ch 42.

These songs are Groovy Soca-styled.  The Caribbean wine is a humorous way of   describing the gyrations of persons of various body types and there is also a shame face wine being portrayed by the X-Factor dance group and members of the Trendsetters Sounds.

Inside the party is specifically for people who have not gone to a party in a long time and possibly will meet that special someone. The videos filmed in Guyana at the Umbrella resort were produced by the Gathering of the People Television Productions.

Passion who has contested six soca monarch titles, unsuccessfully, opted out this year because he says entering the competition has proven more of a financial burden to him with little or no results or compensation.

The local singer who wishes that he could have made a career out of singing says he is constantly on the grind but cannot at this time. “I haven’t given up on the Soca monarch competition because if you win there is much to be gained so I took a rest this year but I will be back”.

He let on that he is currently more focussed on producing his tracks and as a result he’s also hoping to help other perspective artistes who want to get their music produced but can’t afford it. He’s also in the business of writing songs for artistes.

To date passion has 21 songs fully recorded to his name and some are still to be released. He has also launched an album titled ‘Flavour of the Caribbean’ that featured production work from Kingdom Friends’, Kross Kolor Records, Dynamics and Platinum studios.

By Mondale Smith

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

Yesterday the artiste, who is in the process of constructing a house, collected his cheque and a trophy from Ansa Mcal Managing Director Beverly Harper at the company’s head office East Coast Demerara.

While thanking the company for keeping the competition alive and sponsors GT&T as well as DDL Soca soft drink he said, “The million dollars mean a lot to me, it could not have come at a better time.”

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 bill 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.

“When I wrote the song I took into consideration the fact that every country with a carnival always sings about their festival while we don’t have many people singing about Mashramani and it’s what makes us unique as a Guyanese people so I don’t care what no body say Mashramani time is we own…” he said.

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 prizegiving ceremony is set for March 20 at the Umana Yana. (Mondale Smith)
Imperfect thoughts are the cause of all humanities ills, including disease, poverty and unhappiness.

By Mondale Smith

If one assesses the Mash KIK Tour it would best be dubbed a well planned and organized event which probably came from the proven event management abilities of the Wildfire productions group. They offered a good example of what should be done to please patrons as an example to other budding promoters.

Security seemed one of the group’s highest priorities, and the music systems, lights, and other things were well in place.

However, as agreed by group head, Jonathan Beeepat, the crowd support was not as they had hoped or anticipated for.

Patrons who attended the Linden show obviously had a blast but the crowd support was poor. However, the Berbice show was well attended to the point that Beepat confidently said “Berbice will definitely see more of Wildfire Productions events”.

Konshens, his young apprentice, Darrio, and the Konshens Movement were an amazing group to work with, Beepat said. He also noted that of the many artistes his group has brought to the local shores none have been more fun, professional, and easy to work with than them.

In Beepat’s assessment, “Konshens is on his way to being one of the biggest names in dancehall/reggae music industry and the amazing part of it is his humbleness.”

He said that from experience many artistes talk about being humble and down to earth, but Konshens lives the talk.

In Linden, there was some rumours that the show was cancelled. Konshens was notified and  joined in doing all necessary to dispel the rumour through PA and TV programmes.

This happened even though he needed rest coming from a club show the night before.  He threw on his white vest, cut jeans, sneakers, grabbed a Mackeson and was ready to go on the road.

On the road, Konshens was out walking alongside the PA truck, signing autographs, giving away promotional CD’s, taking pictures, hugging the ladies, and just working the road all around Linden.

In Berbice, Konshens did not miss the opportunity to be part of the Mash celebrations as he also walked the road interacting with the crowd and stopping at each sound system to give the people a sample of his voice. The ladies were crazy for the artistes to talk to them.

Crowds continually flocked to the Wildfire team to the point that what started out as 12 of became an entourage of hundreds following the artistes while he walked throughout Main Street, Berbice.

Beepat said his team “had a great experience with Konshens, and we will be working with him again in the future”.

His team was privy to be behind the scenes and to get to know some of the plans of the Konshens movement and listen to tunes which aren’t even released as yet and the collective sentiments are that his music is what dancehall needs.

It is safe to state that his gritty vocals, blended with some of the hottest dancehall beats, and covered with the message he puts in his music are among the ingredients that makes him truly the next big thing.

Konshens is always conscious of what he wants his youthful followers to hear, and he lets people feel the good vibes message in a style which that they all can relate to.

The Wildfire show was sponsored by Mackeson and Giftland Officemax with much gratitude to Miguel of the Konshens Movement.

Beepat cognisant that Georgetown was left out of the Konshens tour experience promises that “Georgetown can expect to see him, and when he comes again, Guyana will be mesmerized!”

By Mondale Smith

The place to be  tomorrow   especially if you are talented  youth aged  4-14 is at the Theatre Guild  , Kingston for a chance to show case  your talent and possibly win some cash in the Cellink KidStage talent competition. The fourth preliminary round of the Cellink KidStage was boosted last week when eleven contestants made it through to the quarter finals.

Moving on to the 2nd quarter finals are from last week’s competition are Alphius Bookie, Jeremiah Williams, Navendra Singh, Maria Collymore, Akeeda Whaul, Tamara Innis, Steffon Ageda and Dexter Nelson.

“I feel excited, overwhelmed and motivated that I am selected in the top 10”, noted Whaul who believes that KidStage has so far caused her to realize her dreams in the Arts. Ultimately like all the other contestants she desires to move higher in her vocals and thus encourages all children to be part of this “dream-realizing programme”.

Weekly successful participants move on from auditions to preliminaries and out of the February 27 auditions six lucky contestants, were favoured by the judges including Amanda David, Alliah Corlette, Aaliyah Rosheuvd, Kyle Archer, Melissa Benjamin and Tiffany McAlmont. This bunch will be on show on tomorrow, March 6, at the theatre Guild, Kingston.
Meanwhile performances last Saturday were hype and stirred the audience to thunderous applauses as Andre Duesbury dominated through his sterling performance and song “Teacher, Teacher”, which presents the teachers’ plight of working hard, ring a bell, work overtime in the fields, yet “no big money”. Being the crowd’s favourite, Duesbury felt flabbergasted that at 8-years-old, he is already a “Guyanese star”.
Caption: Budding star Andre Duesbury delivering the sterling Teacher, teacher

By Mondale Smith

Jamaican Dancehall icon, Baby Cham, and Anthony B were the two major acts carded to perform at the Mash Explosion concert but that never materialized much to the disappointment of fans.

Much confusion followed as irate fans looted the bar and broke up a sound system. The promoter Nigel Harding has since issued an apology and promised that the artistes will be performing at a free show sometime in the not too distant future.

While none of the artistes’ camps have confirmed this statement Baby Cham has sent an apology to his Guyanese fan base for his non-performance at the National Park on Saturday February 27.

The artiste and his team left Guyana disappointed and said that this happened “after the promoter, Seven Star Entertainment, failed to meet obligations”.

Cham explained, “We always honour and respect our fans and unfortunately a number of requirements were not in place; certain obligations were not met by the promoter and we were not able to make it to the venue to perform for the fans.”

Apologizing for the unfortunate situation, Khorie Ann Robb, Public Relations Manager of Headline Entertainment, a booking agent, noted,  “Our non-appearance was in no way due to our fault …we were present and ready to work. The promoter failed to handle the situation the way he should have and as such we had to leave the country without performing.”

The artiste is anticipating a return to the country to perform for the people as Guyana still remains one of his favourite markets.

By Mondale Smith

…says negotiation underway with artiste to hold free show

Nigel Harding the promoter of the botched Mash Explosion which saw angry patrons demolishing $$M in audio equipment is issuing a public apology to the patrons for what he called a delay in getting the artistes to the National Park.

The delay was caused by late payment to the artistes Anthony B and Baby Cham who did reach the venue at about 02:00hrs

Harding conceded that the artistes were supposed to take the stage at 12:00 but because of the nonpayment this did not happen until 02:00hrs when Anthony B attempted to calm the crowd but the audio system had already been damaged and the microphone was not working.

He added also that the owners of the audio equipment have been compensated however this newspaper understands that only a promise has been made thus far.

As it relates to his rendezvous at the Alberttown Police Station Harding said that he was invited by the police and thought it best to meet there after the owners of the equipment that was damaged had lodged a complaint and he was unsure as to the level of hostility against them.

He said that contrary to rumours there were no threats on his life.

At the beginning of the show there were no signs of worries as local artistes performed but the extended music on speakers by DJ’s brought on suspicions.

When it was realised that the headline acts would be a no show the angry patrons began to ransack the bars claiming that they had to get their money’s worth but it did not end there.

The angry patrons amidst a hail of bottles began damaging the audio equipment including speakers and band equipment among other items.

However, according to a reliable source, the ruckus started just as the artistes were about to appear on stage having worked out a financial arrangement with the promoter.

It is unclear if anyone was arrested as gunshots could be heard ringing out in the air with police at their wits end to restore order.

Sources within the Vizion Sounds promotion Inc. distanced themselves from what triggered the chaos, pointing out that they were merely hired by Harding of ‘7 Star Entertainment’ to help promote the show and were not responsible for the payment to the artistes.

By Gary Eleazar