My main peeve with this launch was the time.The media launch was scheduled to begin at 8:00pm. I got to Alchemy (which is a real nice place by the way, I have to go and boogie down there sometime) just about 8:00pm. I didn't want to miss out on anything just in case they started early, but I didn't need to worry, cause in true Trini fashion the media launch started an hour and a half later.
Now even though I keep saying "media launch" it was really more like a "Friends and Well Wishers Launch" cause as far as I could see/identify (with my untrained eye) there wasn't really much media personnel there. The usual suspects were missing, like a Peter Ray Blood, David Wears or even a Triniscene. There was also no information about the band handed out to the "media" before or after the actual launch.
Anyhoo, I getting ahead of myself a bit. At 9:20 when there was a decent size crowd, the launch began.
Ms. Odeka O'Neil was the presenter for the evening. She gave an overview of the growth and history of the band in terms of where they came from to where they are now. Showtime Trinidad we were told, has no one manager, but instead 6 team leaders.
The team members then unveiled their banner "Showtime Trinidad - Carnival Is We".
After this Ms. O'Neil introduced the Synergy Soca Star winner Richard "Chynee" Valentine who performed his hit tune "Wanna be Like". It was my first time seeing him perform live and I was impressed.
After Chynee's performance we were then handed over to the PRO Mr. Damian Leech.Mr. Leech then went on to introduce each member of the Showtime Team. (Please excuse me if my spelling of names and so on are off, I received no info to verify what I heard and took note of).
Ricardo Lewis who is the Production and Road Manager, Rhoda Lewis (his wife) who is also a PRO, Kevon Enille (I did not catch Kevon's title), Denicia is the Model Manager and has been the face of Showtime in the past, Kendal who is a Production Something, and finally, Mr. Godfrey Enille who is their mentor (and budding photographer).
The members of the team then unveiled the name of their presentation for Carnival 2010 "Matrix". After a vote of thanks by Mr. Lewis, the media launch was over. It took all of 15 minutes.
I did take the opportunity after the official launch to speak with PRO Damian Leech. Showtime Trinidad is looking at a band of around 800 persons, although they are not yet sure of the number of sections. Keeping in mind the economic climate in the country, the band is looking at having starting prices backline costumes at $2000.00. There will be backline and frontline costumes. I understand that The Harvard Section is also to be part of Showtime Trinidad.
Overall I think there should have been more information available to the media, but what I did like is that the band is made up of young people. I am looking forward to seeing their presentation of costumes for Carnival 2010.
8 comments:
Ummm, so you and the other attendees had to wait (waste) 90mins for a 15 minute buildup to the unveiling of THE NAME of their 2010 presentation? Why didn't they just do a media release and have it published in the dailies? That would have saved them some money too.
That's some valuable time they took from y'all man. A sneak peek at even a sketch of one of the proposed costumes might have made this worth it....Sorry for your loss AC lol
Why didn't they just do a media release and have it published in the dailiesI was thinking the exact same thing ennekaycee. They would have saved themselves some money too, not having to rent Alchemy and pay for the bar and dj setup etc.
I would have been pisted!
Sorry u had to go through that!
To me this really makes them look unreliable, did they even give a reason for the waste of ppl time, i'm sure if they did u would have included it! this seems like a sign, what will happen come band launching time or worse yet costume distribution.
After this, disorganization is the word that comes to mind!
n e how, d upside, at least now we know that Alchemy is worth checking out! lol
Afro Chic, you should have also said that the one hour delay was caused by an earlier function that ran later than usual. You were told about the reason for the delay. All the information about the band was to be handed to you but you left right after the presentation. Sorry for the inconvience and your copy would be delivered to you soon. Thanks for being there.
Hey AC,
Love the new look of the site - shaaame i eh check yuh out in a long time, but it lookin good man; very chic.
Thanks for taking a look-see at Showtime for us too. I am also interested to see their 2010 presentation. Lehwe see how many ppl they can pull in.
All the best to you Showtime.
@anonymous
It sounds like you are affiliated with the group in some way. Even if I buy in to your reason for why the launch started late, that should then have given you more than ample time to be perfectly ready and set up -- i.e. have all of the materials ready to hand out to your attendees. This just sounds like poor organizing.
To all: I had a wonderful experience playing mas with Showtime this year and believe me i've had other experiences with other well known bands and i must give congrats to all the team members that made my 2 days worth it. To all the haters try and give Showtime a chance, don't just take one person view on the event
Chynee is everywhere, think i saw him perform in showtime band in legacy last year for carnival tuesday, it was greatly entertaining.
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