Soca soldiers fall in

ST ANN’S FORT, the home of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) at the historic Garrison Savannah, was the site of one the hottest theme fêtes so far for the Crop-Over season, the Army Fête, held by Crossfire Ventures and the BDF.  Hundreds of civilians reported for fête duty on Saturday night at the BDF’s Mess Hall, some as early as 21 hundred hours, to party to Antigua soca legends Burning Flames, as well as Soka Kartel, Barbados’ newest soca band and the highly decorated soca soldiers themselves, krosfyah, with the general Edwin Yearwood. The three live soca bands not only represented three eras of superb Carnival and Crop-Over music that drove the troops into a soca frenzy for over five hours. They were a great reminder of what it was like partying to live music when bands were the commanders of the fête circuit during the annual festival.  Burning Flames, which emerged in the mid-eighties as the icon of synthesised soca sounds, took the troops on a soca patrol with a set list harking back to their 1987 hits Carnival Train and Iron Band, their 1989 signature tune Workey Workey, and If You Get What You Want from 1990, among others. Led by the super talented brothers Toriano “Onyan” Edwards (lead singer) and David “Krokuss, Lord Satellite” “NATURAL RAMPLER” Edwards (bass), and accompanied by vocalist Ester Dyer, Flames kept the energy piping hot for close to an hour with songs that reflected their influences from the French Antilles, and other Black music forms.For the troops, the stars of the night were none other than the local soca platoon krosfyah.  Soca General Edwin Yearwood dropped his Crop-Over 2010 tunes Chrissening, Sugah and Ain’t Had Enough that have been blazing on the popular radio stations and music websites, teaching the troops the hook lines to the songs as he performed them. In a rare treat, guitarist Tony Rebel Bailey took centre stage with No Cheating and Khiomal shone in his rendition of the World Cup Song, along with his Chris Allman-produced songs for this year’s festival Wine On You, which secured the vocalist a semi-final place in the Sweet Soca competition, and Not Giving Up.   They included WCK’s ever popular Balance Batty, which is currently being re-engineered by its original producer Cornell Phillips and Kassav’s Zouk la Sé Sel Médikaman Nou Ni in their set, along with the band’s hits from over the years.