MONDAY 28th AUGUST 2006:
I arrived at 08:50 and the sight that met brought joy to my heart. The man dem were on hand, all except Mark who had overslept.
Blood Shanti and the Smith family, Marco and Lucca, Sweet T, and a few other helping hands were present and so the set up was done in quick time.
The police inspector from Sunday came over as we were setting up to have a chat and to tells us that a sound system called 'Midnight Express' that were playing round the corner from us on Middle Row looked liked they were being derailed and being pushed into the shunting yards, as they were not going to be allowed to play today due to their ignorance. Let me explain, according to the inspector, when they were asked to wind up their set at 19:00 they decided to continue playing. They also to try to entice the people to stop the police from approaching the sound and basically in the eyes of the police tried to start a riot. That is the ignorance of some people, their actions could have caused all kinds of problems not only for the innocent revellers, but also the implications for all the other sound systems present at carnival would have been disastrous. All Kenny baby wants is an excuse to stop the sound systems from playing at carnival and these fools would have given him the ammunition he needed to have us all banned.
Looks like they will not be getting a license next year. Life lessons can be hard. As I said before, ignorant fools!

Mark and family arrived at 09:40 after spending half an hour trying to find a place to park.
Come 10:45 the sound was up and running and the regulars were taking up their positions for a daylong session. We didn't real start properly till midday, just running a selection of tune as we fine tuned the set.
But at midday Aba started to tear up the place and the people kept coming.
Samira was back, but this time she had brought some cool drinks to quench her thirst.
The lady from Japan was back, so was Ari and crew. Sista Millie and bredrins.Barba, Babs and George from Leicester, Napthali and the 'University Of Dub' crew were there. Napthali clambering over boxes to stick up the 'University of dub' posters. he even stuck one on the back of the truck. Basically all the long time regulars were in attendance as the sun made its presence felt.

Well what can I say (write) that I haven't said (written) before. Well I will just relate some of the things that happen.

At 11:30 along came King Charles master amp builder to the chosen few.

"I can't stop. I have to go round the corner and check out dem bwoy dem and I will come back when I have sorted dem out" were the words he imparted.
"Where are you going" I asked him? "Just round the corner" he replied giving me a funny look as if he wasn't clear enough the first time.
"Midnight Express" I asked? "Yes" he replied. "Well I wouldn't bother if I was you, cos it looked like they have been derailed"
I continued."Me no" he said. "They have had a few problems with their amp and set up yesterday and I am going to sort it out fi dem".
I put a friendly arm around his shoulders and told him he wasn't going anywhere.
Now King Charles is a happy, smiling man most of the time, but he is a little volatile when needled.
"Weh you mean me not going anywhere. You hear dis Joe"! Aba just smiled and tried to stifle his laughter. This just made King Charles a little agitated.
I repeated that they had been derailed and King Charles, with his arms folded, which is a bad sign, was just about to go into one when I said "They are not playing and they will not be allowed to play, as the police have locked them off".
Charles just stared at me and said " You lie"! Then Aba confirmed my statement. We then explained to him what we had been told in the morning by the inspector, Charles was gobsmacked. He then broke into a wry smile and started shaking his head, and started muttering about "How dem stupid" and other such West Indian homilies.

Blood's daughter Sarah wanted to go wander off to check out the Carnival site and what else was going on, as she had seen Mark's charges go wandering off into the crowd. Catleen her mother was having none of it and ordered her to stay right wher she was.
Her brother Alan was in hysterics over the situations and even more when I took the photos of his sister sitting on the floor with her mobile in hand, looking dejected and miserable.

Well the vibes increased as more and more people can to tune in. One man and his drum gave an example of some of his skills over a few riddem.

The police inspector came out off his HQ more than once during the day to check what was going on, and I could tell he was more than a little shocked at the amount of people present.

But the highlight for me was the serious hard stepping being done by man like Dj Stryda, Goma, Addis, Man from Gloucester whose tam kept falling off his head as he skanked to the music, Samira. The Aba-ite with the missing hand who didn't miss a beat and the multitude that just kept rocking. It is an awesome sight to see so many people under one groove, fi true.

Well right on cue at 18:30 the police started to make their presence known and a sargent was despatched to inform us that we should consider winding up as the 19:00 curfew was going to be strictly enforced. I acknowledged his request and went and informed Aba.

W played solidly for the next 15 minutes which seemed to upset the police sargent and he motion to me to come and speak to him. I told him that we were aware of the time and that at 19:00 we would be stopping. I don't think that he believed me.

At 18:50 Aba stopped playing and informed the crowd that he would be playing one last tune and after that the crowd should disperse nice and easy, so that next year we and they could have this experience again. The crowd were vocal in their disappointment that the session would be finishing, but Aba placated them. He put the needle on the record and rinsed out the last tune.

At 18:59 he lowered the volume of the music until there was none and bade farewell to the assembled. The police inspector and Sargent who were now right in front of us, smiled.

"There were a lot of people here today" he said to me as we started packing up "and the best thing was, there was no trouble", he continued. I just smiled and nodded as he shook mine and Aba's hands and thanked us for keeping the crowd in order and our corner trouble free. He did say though that the music was reverberating though the school where they were and that even with earplugs it was LOUD! Jah know!

Blessings, peace and love to all in attendances .We hope that you enjoyed yourselves and we hope to see you next year,same time, same place Jah willing.

One Love
                The Humble Lion  
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