RPB selling prize car

CALYPSO MONARCH Red Plastic Bag (RPB) will soon be scoring some other firsts.

The nine-time monarch, who has won a total of six cars, is putting the latest addition up for sale.

Speaking at the official handing over of the fully-loaded 2009 Toyota Carolla at agents Nassco yesterday, RPB said he was forced to liquidate the largest portion of his Crop-Over winnings for the first time in order to recover some costs.

"I can't afford to keep this car, after spending so much money on recording an album, and the amount of money that I would have spent on Semi-finals and Finals, not to mention Party Monarch, the whole season in general. I have to sell this vehicle.

"I've always said that if I go into competition and I don't win, I can easily end up in the red, because of the high cost of being part of Crop-Over and being part of the competition," he disclosed.

He said that there were a number of other artistes who spent a lot of money and did not recover it.

The veteran calypsonian said he might also have to consider looking for sponsorship to help mount his defence of the calypso title next year.

"Costs are really becoming prohibitive, and if I don't do that, I may not be able to do as much in terms of what I produce at Crop-Over and if I want to continue to be a part of it, I need to look seriously at the economics of it," he said.

In thanking Nassco for its prizes and the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) for providing the forum for artistes to express themselves, RPB said the average calypsonian could get more out of the festival that makes so much for the country.

"I know quite well that unless you reach the calypso Finals or the Soca Monarch Finals or whatever, that is the only way you find yourself in a position to win money or to get money.

"I think that most of the calypsonians who make big contributions to Crop-Over, they don't really get a lot out of Crop-Over. I wonder how some of them actually are able to produce music every year," he observed.

Noting that the major shows were the ones that attracted the bigger purses, De Big Show singer said a component needed to be included in Cohobblopot that allowed the artistes who did not make it through the various competitions to "get a chance to be part of a major event".

He said featuring the "one-hit wonders" at the Sweet Soca competition was a step in the right direction, but more needed to be done to assist the others.

While Bag said it was cheaper to get music on the airwaves with the advent of digital downloads in particular, he said the quality was lacking in a lot of cases.

"I still think that there is a lot of music reaching the radio that is not properly mixed and mastered and we have to be careful with the quality of sound that we are going to get on radio," he said.

The reigning monarch said about 85 per cent of the music was being produced by youngsters and they had to be encouraged to continue to make their contribution.

"We have to look at ways again of working with them and getting some of the more experienced musicians to work with them and show them what to do, in terms of getting that quality that is necessary." (YB)