Heroes Music Festival Honours Past

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Music

Saturday, 23 July 2011 02:30

By caribarena news

Amid a light-hearted atmosphere and sombre reflections with the hope for sustainability, Antigua and Barbuda’s first-ever Heroes Music Festival (HMF), the brainchild of popular entertainer and promoter Lester “Sober Silk” Buffong (formerly Daddy Silk), was launched Monday night at the Jolly Beach Resort.

Backed financially by business brothers Samuel “Ben” and Alexander “Zanda” Isaac of Super Power Electronics,  the event will pay homage to the country’s five National Heroes – rebellious slave King Court (Prince Klass), pioneer educator Nellie Robinson, Father of the Nation Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Sr, former Premier Sir George H Walter, and cricket legend Sir Vivian Richards.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and his predecessor, Lester Bird, will be among the honour roll.

Silk, who has rehabilitated from drug addiction, also announced that British rock legend, Sir Eric Clapton, the founder of the Crossroads Centre, on Antigua’s pristine east coast, where he recovered, will receive a lifetime award at the October 29 festival at a venue to be announced.

Arnold “Tekel” Gomes, the first Antiguan to grace the hallowed NBA; businessman and commentator Ludwig “LMR” Reynolds, and social commentator Said Greene will also receive life achievement awards.

With entertainment from rising Jamaican reggae crooner Andy Livingston, and enterprising American hip-hop singer Diva, the audience – a mixture of politicians, socialites, and business executive – were treated to a launch to savour.

When Silk quipped: “People are taking about retire. We are not going to retire. We are going to ‘re-tyre’. We are going to buy four new tyres and come again," people were in stitches.

“I went to Ben and Zanda with the idea, and I had to talk to them for a year for them to buy into it,” he said.

Greene, who delivered a critical oratory on the decline of Caribbean music and culture in some aspects, said the festival was befitting of Silk, who overcame drug and alcoholic abuse to persevere with the idea.

Greene bemoaned the “vulgar” lyrics used by some regional singers, which he reasoned threatened the historical process the Caribbean endured from slavery to emancipation, contending that the education curriculum needs “a cultural component".

He referenced the emergence of mobile phones as a source of education and technology advancement, while condemning its ban in schools.

He said the festival could be a “defining moment for a new Africa economic” quest, and called on the government and the private sector to support the initiative.

He advocated for more sculptures to be erected depicting Antigua and Barbuda’s outstanding citizens.

Richard Apparicio, the business manager of the National Festival Office (NFO), stand-in for finance minister Harold Lovell, said the potential of the entertainment industry in the Caribbean still remains largely untapped.

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He wants to see HMF become part of the national calendar, and hoped that it will be “turning point” in given Antigua more of a permanent presence on the regional music landscape.

“Especially when the government wants to brand Antigua and Barbuda as the music capital of the Eastern Caribbean,” Apparicoo said, citing the Spencer administration endorsement.

Eustace “Teco” Lake, an opposition MP, also gave the Antigua Labour Party’s support for the HMF, and said “our culture has been recorded.”

Journalist Timothy Payne, creator and editor of the weekly NewsPages newspaper, said he was approached by Silk and the Isaac brothers to re-launch his Pages magazine, which has been defunct for the past two years.

He said the re-launch issue – which will feature Jamaican reggae star Jah Cure on the front cover, has been pushed back to next month to preview Carnival 2011.

Jah Cure and Antigua’s music maestro, “Sir” Clarence “Onguku” Edwards, the leader singer of the Red Hot Flames, will be the headliners for the HMF.

Payne said some of the country's top and blossoming athletes will also be profiled in the August issue.

There will also be a special feature on a nature park owned and operated by former West Indies batsman David “Supie” Joseph.

The launch was spiced up by performances from Livingston and Diva, who brought the audience to their feet in their inimitable and different style.

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