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25 YEARS of JHE LONDON CALYPSO TENT

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25 YEARS of JHE LONDON CALYPSO TENT 25 YEARS OfJ HE LONDON CALYPSOTENT Calypso in London 25 YEARS OF THE LONDON CALYPSO TENT by STEPHEN SPARK With a historical introduction by John Cowley Trafton Publishing On behalf of the Association of Calypsonians UK Calypso in London 25 years of the London Calypso Tent ISBN 978 0 947890 09 4 © 2017 Trafton Publishing and the Association of Calypsonians UK The Association of Calypsonians UK (ACUK) The Yaa Centre, 1 Chippenham Mews, London W9 2AN Web: www.acukheritage.co.uk Email: [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any mean, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Short passages only may be quoted for the purpose of review. For permission to quote or reproduce longer extracts, please apply in writing to the copyright-holders via the ACUK addresses above. The publication of this book was made possible by the generous support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Westway Trust and Carnival Village. ON OF TI C IA A C L Y O P S LONDON S S O A CALYPSO N • I TENT A K N U S C A U • K ACUK Logo.indd 1 11/10/2017 09:54:56 Designed by Phil McAllister Design Printed and bound in Great Britain by Berforts Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... vi Glossary ........................................................................................................................ viii The pioneers of calypso in Britain ...............................................................................1 The London Calypso Tent ............................................................................................6 Calypso and the start of Notting Hill Carnival .......................................................6 Calypsonians fight for their rights ............................................................................10 Early days at the Tent ...................................................................................................11 Junior interlude..............................................................................................................13 Cloak’s decade ..............................................................................................................15 Calypso enters the new millennium .......................................................................17 Woman take over ..........................................................................................................19 The Tent moves to a new stage ............................................................................. 20 Calypso rising............................................................................................................... 22 Golden moments in a silver jubilee ...................................................................... 26 Tribute to Tiger ............................................................................................................ 28 Calypsonians in profile ...............................................................................................32 London’s calypso roll of honour................................................................................63 Pre-ABC Calypso Monarchs 1974–1991 ................................................................63 ABC/ACUK Calypso Monarchs 1992–2017 .........................................................64 ABC/ACUK Groovy Soca Monarchs 2007–2017 .............................................. 65 ABC/ACUK Junior Calypso Monarchs 1993–2011 ............................................ 65 ABC/ACUK Black History Month Junior Monarchs 2005–2011 ................... 66 Behind the scenes .......................................................................................................67 III Preface ack in 2005, Ashton Moore, known to generations of London calypso-lovers as the Mighty Tiger, president of the Association of British Calypsonians, proposed putting on a small exhibition at the old Yaa Asantewaa Centre of some of the Bphotographs the author had been taking over the past eight years for Soca News magazine. “Perhaps we could even produce a booklet,” I suggested. The project never progressed beyond the initial planning stage and was shelved. Over the years, more photographs were taken until one day someone pointed out that 2017 would be the London Calypso Tent’s silver jubilee. “Per- haps a small commemorative booklet could be produced,” I suggested. The small booklet somehow grew into a book and surrounded itself with an exhibition, calypso workshops, a dedicated archive at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and an online archive. Writing a book is straightforward; sorting through hundreds of mostly indifer- ent photographs and choosing some acceptable views is less so, while attempt- ing to create a coherent picture of the past 25 years from the few scraps of paper that remained in the Association’s long-forgotten filing cabinet at the Yaa Centre proved harder still. Like so many other aspects of Caribbean culture and carnival in Britain, calypso has failed to take good care of its own history. Many of ACUK’s own records have been lost or disappeared into private hands. Few independ- ent reports of calypso performances survive, especially from the pre-ABC years, although from 1996 previews and reviews of the tent and results of the Monarch finals were (and still are) published from time to time in the magazine Soca News. From such an incomplete record, it has been impossible to do justice to the eforts of the calypsonians and organisers who kept the artform alive in Britain through its ‘wilderness years’, when calypso’s popularity had waned and it was too often dismissed as “old people’s music” – if it was even thought about at all. This book, then, is just a starting-point: it is full of gaps, inconsistencies and, despite the very best eforts of all concerned, doubtless contains inaccuracies. I can only ask readers to treat those flaws as a challenge – to research and write, to record, film and photograph, to collect the memories of those who were there and those who played a part in sustaining the calypso artform in London. The online archive – www.acukheritage.co.uk – is there to be used and added IV PREFACE to with information and memories, visuals and sound. The best of the physical artefacts, such as flyers, programmes or tapes, will find a safe home at the LMA’s Calypso Archive. Twenty-five years is a good point from which to look back on past achieve- ments and ahead to future prospects. Calypso is in good voice these days, but we need to bring on the youngsters so that the skills of composition and pres- entation are passed on to future generations. Tiger said, presciently, in 2006: “To develop calypso better you must involve the children. Because when peo- ple like me and the Mighty Sparrow die of, and these children know nothing about it, that means it’s dead.” To ensure we have something left to show our children and grandchildren, we need to take much greater care of our shared history and cultures. If we do not value them, we are failing to respect ourselves and dishonouring those who came before us. In the brochure for the first of her indoor ‘carnivals’ in 1959, Claudia Jones wrote, “A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom.” And no music better fits the description of “a people’s art” than calypso. Maybe that is why the artform has been looked down on by those who feel it is not a music worthy of serious study – at least in Britain. Nothing could be fur- ther from the truth: calypso in London has more vigour, polish, passion and imag- ination than the vast majority of mass-produced commercial music. Competition keeps it sharp; the ready wit of the audience keeps it grounded – on stage you can be a star, but afterwards you’ll have to queue at the bar like the rest of us! Above all, it’s such a pleasure. The last words belong, again, to the late Ashton Moore: Once you know there’s a calypso tent you just have to be there – it’s a feeling, it’s in your soul, it gets there. And once you’re a man like music… you just can’t get away from it. It’s a lovely thing. Stephen Spark, Balham, October 2017 V Acknowledgements ehind any author’s name there lies a whole network of people without whom nothing of significance could have been published. Chief among these ‘unsung heroes’ (to borrow the title of one of his own B2017 compositions) is Alexander Loewenthal, whose work as calypsonian and educator Alexander D Great is known to so many. Despite endless tasks of his own, he has never failed to do his best in responding to the barrage of questions – often fired of in the middle of the night – about dates, names, titles and much more. The late Ashton Moore, aka the Mighty Tiger, will always have my gratitude for his enthusiasm and encouragement through my 20 years of reporting on and photographing performances at the Tent. Nicole-Rachelle Moore’s research into the history of calypso and the Tent and her well-written articles for Soca News have been valuable sources of infor- mation in preparing this small volume. John Cowley has established a solid reputation as one of the foremost researchers into music of Caribbean origin, and this book has been immeasura- bly enhanced by his historical introduction
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