SKULLDUGGERY sections.

All the sections of SKULLDUGGERY are on their website now you ill find full info on the band and definitions of the sections. check it out!

Oasis takes mas higher

Thinking of trying something new for Carnival 2011? Maybe you’d like to play mas for the first time. After all, truth be told, you haven’t lived until you’ve measured the road with a Carnival mas band.

Oasis, a five-section Carnival creation led by Jody Ann Herde, was launched on July 18 at Saute Trinidad and Tobago, held at QRC grounds. From great food served up to tantalise the taste buds of the anxious patrons, to decor that proved appealing to the eyes, and a layout which emphasised that every single detail received attention to ensure the event began and ended on a high note.

Djinn. Photos: Sean Nero

With sumptuous food the order of the day, the venue saw an influx of guests just after 6 pm. Among them, comedy queen Rachel Price, who told the T&T Guardian she’d come in anticipation of having sushi but was too little, too late. On the tasty culinary list was bake and shark, gyros, pelau, sweets, roti, chinese cuisine, and souse. Lines stretched as many savoured the taste, coming back for more as the evening rolled on.

Striving to define our people

The unveiling of Oasis came just after 8 pm, and the media were privy to a pre-presentation briefing of the band’s main goal and priorities heading into the 2011 season. “Our primary goal in creating the band was to indeed be an oasis for masqueraders who had gotten lost in the desert of large, impersonal mas bands,” said Herde.

She highlighted that Oasis seeks to define the people of this country as Trinbagonians through the designers’ striking presentation of elements. “It is a premium all-inclusive band that features a variety of elements, which will ensure that we continue to raise the standard of our Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago to superior heights. Our band is dedicated to quality, to ensure we create the ideal road paradise,” said Herde.

According to the bandleader, Oasis was born out of Carnival 2010 and seeks to provide a personal family-like experience for its players. The five sections, Golden Eagle, Kolibrie, Gilia, Ghost Flower and Djinn, will amass to only 1,000 masqueraders on the road next year. From hues of the sun to the aquamarines of the Caribbean Sea, each section exemplified the beauty that exists in T&T, causing mas lovers to emit impromptu shrieks of excitement when the models took the stage at around 8.30 pm.

Get ready to wine!

The beauty of any band’s costumes is usually enough to get folks on board, but according to Herde, there is much more to thrill the fun-seeker in their 2011 presentation. “Our masqueraders’ enjoyment, comfort and security are our top priorities. We have gone to great lengths to ensure that our revellers will receive an intimate premium all-inclusive experience.”

Herde said anyone playing with the band will enjoy an efficiently staffed premium bar, delicious meals, music provided by top DJs and above all, room to wine. Stage side, the beauty of each section modelled, was lapped up by the crowd, and even though it was another “bikini and beads” band, those in attendance couldn’t shy away from the reality that there was something mystical and sexually enticing, beyond the ordinary that emanated from atop the stage.

The event climaxed just after the presentation, with a performance by International Groovy Soca Monarch, Shurwayne Winchester and the band YOU. So now you know, and if Oasis sounds like the cream of the crop to you as we head into the season of revelry, link with them by calling 48-OASIS.

ABA A LUKE

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TRINIDAD, GRANDMOTHER OF CARNIVALS

According to an HBO special aired recently and viewed by millions throughout the United States and Europe, Curacao hosts the, "Caribbean's biggest carnival." And the Notting Hill carnival is promoted as biggest street festival in Europe and grandest of West Indian Carnivals.

Both these events generate millions of dollars in revenue for their countries. They each also attract thousands of international visitors who fill hotels and spend millions on a good time.

MASMAN: Brian Mac Farlane
 speaks about how he deals with mas production
 during the panel discussion titled, Look De Brand Coming.

These carnivals and the many others like them around the world were spawned by Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, but with the exception of local Trinis and Trinidadians living abroad, no one seems aware of this.

Leader of the Legacy Mas band, Mike Antoine who is involved in 12 Carnivals around the world said from his observation, "Trinidad is fast becoming the grandmother of Carnivals" because the carbon copies are developing faster than Trinidad's and attracting greater numbers that include people that used to come here for the festival.

Antoine stated this during a panel discussion at a symposium presented by the University of Trinidad and Tobago at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain from June 28 to 30. Titled This Business of Carnival, the symposium sought to explore how Carnival and the culture, arts and entertainment revolving around it be effectively exploited.

This discussion was titled Look De Brand Coming and sought to look at the business of mas and whether it was making any significant impact as far as being a revenue generator for local producers and the state.

Wendell Manwarren was the moderator. The panel consisted of Antoine, Brian Mac Farlane who has won the last four Band of the Year titles, Gerard Hart from Harts Mas Band and Renwick Browne of the National Carnival Bands Association.

While the discussion was supposed to look at how mas can be further developed as a viable export product in itself and also how spinoff industries can be created and nurtured things went the way of a heated debate over whether or not the bikini and beads style of costumes was destroying traditional mas and stifling the creativity of Carnival.

Hart was placed on the defensive when Browne and Mac Farlane expressed that much of the traditional mas and the people's creative spirit has been lost because of bandleaders that, "take the easy way out" and go for simply decorating bikinis and putting wee wee trucks on the road.

art and Antoine countered saying they were only providing what their masqueraders ask for and if they were to make a switch from what they do now to more traditional style mas or create costumes using large amounts of fabric rather than beads and feathers they would be out of business. Antoine said when he was first invited to produce mas in New York for Labour Day, he in fact replaced Peter Minshall because the people there wanted a change.

The discussion never got around to addressing how can elements of carnival be developed to both create export opportunities for products, services and skills as well as to attract more new international visitors to carnival here because time ran out as the panelists remained focused on the debate over bikinis and tradition.

Mac Farlane even suggested that there be two Carnivals each year with the traditional mas having its place before Lent and the beads and bikinis taking over the streets during August. The one thing all the masmen agreed on was that mas needed to be returned to the Big Stage at the Queen's Park Savannah.

Another exciting panel discussion was titled On With The Show and looked at the business of festival events. Jason Williams was the moderator for this panel which included Roy Maharaj of TriStar Promotions, Frank Martineau of Spektakula Productions, Joel Morris from Noise Productions and Sayeed Emamali who serves as a consultant to promoters. Absent were promoters William Munro, Dane Lewis, Cliff Harris and Randy Glasgow.

The main focus here was the lack of venues to hold large events. Maharaj said some years ago he approached former prime minister, Patrick Manning requesting a piece of land upon which he could constructa concert venue that would have been available to all promoters. He said Manning looked over the proposal in which Maharaj showed that he had already secured some of the $15 million needed and was well on the way to getting the balance.

Martineau said people have the wrong perception about promoters thinking they are all millionaires. He said they don't understand how much money promoters invest in shows and that many times they end up at a loss.

When someone from the floor raised the question of promoters providing foreign artistes with better promotion than locals especially during carnival, Morris said that is not true. Morris said he produces the ads for most of the promoters and that the local artistes receive equal billing to the foreign acts because several ads are produced and played for each event.

On the question of payola at radio stations, Morris said it has and does happen, but now less frequently because of the advanced technology at radio stations. Morris said promoters would pay DJs to play their ads more frequently than the ads of other promoters having shows at the same time or to play the songs of the artistes on their shows more. "DJs don't walk with their own music anymore. Everything is loaded up on computer so it's harder to do that," Morris said.

There were also panel discussions on the pan and its development and place in Carnival. The overall point of view here was that not enough pan music is played on radio and there should be a rule put in place making it mandatory for mas bands in the Parade of the Bands competition to have steel orchestras providing some of their music on the road.

Kim Johnson of the UTT Academy of Letters and Public Affairs said in his presentation that pan has to be properly branded as coming from Trinidad so that whenever people anywhere in the world needs anything concerning the pan they will look to Trinidad first. "It must be known worldwide that if someone is looking for the best pan they will come here. They need the best teachers, they will come here.

Also making presentations at the symposium were, entertainment consultant, Josanne Leonard, music producers, Carl "Beaver" Henderson and John Afoon, businessman, Robert Amar and musician, Mungal Patasar.

By Wayne Bowman 

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A new beginning in Mas | The Trinidad Guardian

A new beginning in Mas | The Trinidad Guardian: "A new beginning in Mas
ANGELO MARCELLE
Published: 14 Jul 2010

Skettel-ton was one of the more impressive designs.
Photos: Angelo Marcelle
It has only been four months since Carnival 2010 closed its doors and already band launches have begun. Bandleader Peter Samuel’s Woi! Mas presented Skullduggery—the beginning of the New Age, at the Anchorage in Chaguaramas on the evening of July 4. The new entity showed a merger between traditional mas and all the amenities of a successful contemporary mas band. Also merging were their committee members, which comprised five carnival interest groups.
The venue reeked a retro feeling. Skulls and skeleton decorations draped the walls, while teaser models paraded in costumes. Live entertainment was provided by Charlie’s Roots and a host of other DJs. Although it was a carnival band launch, somehow Kerwin Trotman and Nathalie York, who started the vocals for the band, saw it fit to start with Neo’s Closer, but later, brought back memories of the band’s former lead singer Chris “Tambu” Herbert."

SKULLDUGGERY PRICE LIST

Skullduggery have released their price list for their costumes check it out...

If you need more information see the website .

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SKULLDUGGERY a mas not for the Bacchanal Elite.

Skullzman.

I like many others around the world stayed up to watch the first launch of Carnival 2k11 Skullduggery.  I for one was not disappointed. A lot of post launch post mortems have resulted with different conclusions, some liked it some loved it, others hated it. Yet others thought it was complete and others incomplete.

I think skulduggery is a triumph, while critics call it a jouvay band, ole mas, cheap looking, etc what they all fail to realise is that, this is what Peter Samuel and Co wanted , this band is a fun band in the truest sense of the term, the fun bands of the bikini and beads stopped being fun a long time ago. Their fun with all the razzle dazzale of marketing photoshop  and now promises of ‘intimate experiences’ has the 21^st century masquerader so far removed from the spirit of carnival, MAS and FUN that they will not recognise fun MAS, it if it fell from heaven with a sign saying ‘I am mas’ in neon lights.

For the weeks preceding the launch there has been articles in the Trinidad press and on the net, there have been interviews and articles on the designer, band leader and theme of the band, hinting what the band will be all about, yet many of us seemed to miss the clues .

The Promo for the launch voiced by Peter Minshall just about summarised the entire band he called it “mas resurrection, after false alarm” who can remember the theme of 2010’s band of the year?

And if you, do what was resurrected?

Carnival traditions.

Two Face.

“Mas with wit, mas with mind, just like long ago...” before the ‘bacchanal elite’ led by the middle class, took over carnival, mas was much more, than the bling and vanity of today, it was a social expression, like calypso mas too commented on and ridiculed through satire the society of the time, this was not mas to a formula, this was creative expression through high thought and social observation.  Skullduggery is a mas in this creative stream, it is filled with symbolism not in just the names of the section, but the mas itself, a practice long lost to the ‘bacchanal elite’ if in fact they ever knew it.

‘Bacchanal elite’ is a phrase created by the author Earl Lovelace who states in the essay ‘In the Voice of the people’  “What we have arrived at then is an elite that I call the bacchanal elite, an elite that is familiar with the region in a way which the colonial elite was not, but has no culture beyond entertainment to fight for or to advance and that can only have money as its god.”

Skettleton

Skullduggery then, with its  reference to local dialect  and social symbolism, is a mas of the wider society, those that have to read the papers and witness the effects of the social skullduggery  on a day to day basis, and those who live it too. The grass roots people who suffer the violence of present day baajohns, those who know the local macco’s , who lose out because of corruption and grease hand. It those who live this life that invent the jargons and produce  the culture. It is they who understand and value the beauty in what is ours, the beauty in we, the ‘bacchanal aesthetics’ Skulduggery is their mas.

In a carnival today where themes don’t exist and fantasy plumes and glass stones, reflect the pretty but cold reality of societies soul,  Skullduggery  to the ignorant eye is almost an ‘anti mas’.   while bands today are designed  by as many contributors as there are sections  all seriously competing against each other under one banner in the name of ‘fun’. Skullduggery is designed by one designer looking at society and what it has become, satirising reality in a colourful parlance that we know.

But seem to don’t want to know.

Mamaguy(female) Source,
Trinidad Carnival Diary.

Look at Mamaguy, now Mamaguy  is classical satire, this is literally a mockery of the ‘serious fun mas’ of today,  like the Dame Lorine of the 18^th century , Mamaguy pokes fun at the bacchanal elite who mamaguy their masqueraders every year with the fantasy of beauty excess and stupid expense.

Real mamaguy!

Baajohn: (Female)Photo source,
 Trinidad Carnival Diary.

Baajohn  is simply an exercise in social commentary, gun barrel  and knuckle duster t- shirts barbed wire skirts,  cowboy hats  and bullet belts,  Badjohn  without doubt reflects the insane levels of badness that permeates  today’s societies  all over the world. BaaJohns no longer carry white handle razors but are almost urban solders in the front lines of urban war zones this is contemporary mas at its most visual.
Skullduggery is without a doubt a mas with its fingers on the pulse of contemporary society, and with the trappings of plastic chains, recycled plastic bottles, and handmade paper accessories this mas not only pays tribute to the creative traditions of Trinidad Carnival, but reflects a supreme confidence in the made in Trinidad brand, and in so doing becomes a polar opposite to the themeless mamaguy of the bacchanal elite, for whom nothing made in Trinidad seems worth celebrating.

Peter Samuel.

Sonya Sanchez Arias.

Peter Samuel and Sonya Sanchez Arias in their first outing together in Carnival, have boldly taken on a challenge that no band, serious, fun, or otherwise has dared to take on in the past 10 years (except Minshall in 06). That is to address the state of the society through the art of the society in a voice that is our own a tribute that the bacchanal elite does not care to pay or wont dare to pay because... lets be honest they can’t.

Socucouyant.

So to those who think the mas needs tweaking, pants too long, to much going on ...look again , look at the mas not through the fog of fantasy but the lucidity of reality, look with the eyes of a calypso, look for the message, the signs and symbols in the transcript, and if it still look off key look at the society...it look on key to you?


Mas Assassin.



Skullduggery Mas Camp Day One from Mark Lyndersay on Vimeo.
A quick panorama of the Skullduggery Mas camp on the evening of July 09, 2010, our first day of business for the band.

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MAS JUMBIES: Trinidad Carnival 2011; Bourgeois