To the sweetest soca tunes for 2014, Foreday Morning patrons headed to the Crop Over hotspot Spring Garden in their thousands during the wee hours of Saturday.
But the wide variety of local songs didn’t stop a musical Trini invasion as played by deejays and entertainers. In the end Gorg’s Meh Rum and Porgie & Murda’s Ben Up were tied for the STAG Tune Of The Road, the most popular local tunes played by the bands in the 2014 Roberts/BL&P Foreday Morning Jam.
First place earned the winner a cash prize of $6 500 and the title of Stag JamTune and with the tie, third place then went to the Sweet Soca Monarch Biggie Irie for his Pankatang.
Mega Monday and Ah Feeling got heavy rotation from the starting point at BIDC car park on Princess Alice Highway. Leadpipe and Saddis had the revellers getting Ben Up and “reversing it back”. Lil Rick had them tipping on their toes while Biggie Irie’s Pankatang had waistlines chipping.
It didn’t take Meh Rum to convince anyone to drink as the drinks trucks were never empty of people with cups in hand.
Last year tunes like Condense and Roll It had their fair share of men trying to “wuk down gal and juk down gal”, and the women came ready with bumpers for the men to Ride it.
Enjoying the 46 bands with pounding music trucks were thousands more who lined the streets, stood on walls or sat in folding chairs, while others made their own costumes and invaded the bands, which caused a problem for band security. Those who couldn’t get inside the rope jammed next to it and even had their friends passing them drinks. Those ones who were more hungry than thirsty found the open restaurants.
Tempers flared at the starting point at BIDC complex when two bands were allowed to “jump” the line and go before truck No. 12. From time to time revellers were also warned to stay inside the ropes otherwise the marshals would pull over the vehicles.
True to the vibe of Foreday Morning, the small, medium, big and extra large came out to party in costumes ranging from T-shirts and shorts, to creatively stripped vests and thongs. The men chose the simple route of painting their bodies in silver or white while one group of four dipped their entire bodies in molasses.
By 5:30 a.m., the morning skies revealed many bodies that were not in nick form as some of the attire left little to the imagination.
By 6:10 a.m., Harbour Road leading to Spring Garden was cleared of trucks and revellers and police had three men in handcuffs aboard a police bus.
There were some who took Lil Rick’s Last Man To Leave song to heart and had to be told by the Barbados Defence Force and the Royal Barbados Police Force to get off the streets as they made their way as a solid unit down towards Spring Garden. (NS)
