Isn't it ironic, when your ship finally comes in, you find you are at the airport! Sometimes the sun shines and sometimes it pours. You may own a raincoat and an umbrella, but you have left them at home! (sigh!) Some people you can rely on and some others just lie!

Yes dear reader you find me in a melancholy mood; musing about what a turbulent week we have had in preparation for this year's carnival. None more so then the one Blood Shanti, who by the close of play on Monday night had gone without sleep for over 96 hours in his quest for power. No he had not turned into a megalomaniac, he was just trying to source a generator.

"Wha! How come you man knowing that you play carnival every year and dat you need to bring your own power in the form of a generator, why didn't you have one? Even the man dem selling de food pon dem stalls have a generator!"
Yes dear reader. I know! I can hear you screaming at the point made in the last paragraph;
'he was just trying to source a generator'.

Well before we go any further with this report, I have to state a few facts which may or may not be known to you.

Firstly we have to pay, yes you have read right, PAY to play carnival! The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, The Carnival Committee, Lottery Fund...etc
DO NOT GIVE US OR ANY OF THE OTHER SOUND SYSTEMS, ONE BEAN!!!!! They are takers not givers!
Some of the other sounds may get some small sponsorship, but that is what they have gone out and procured for themselves. We on the other hand do not have any sponsorship and therefore have to fully fund it ourselves.
Once we have amassed the monies for payment to those that demand payment. No pay, no play! They then also want us to jump through hoops with their various forms, requirements and last minute alterations. Trust me, they don't make it easy.

Rough breakdown (without figures) and some of the bureaucracy is as follows:

We have to PAY for the pitch.

We have to PAY for a street traders licence, so we can run our stall..

We have to supply our OWN power which means we have to hire a generator and a large one at that.

We have to have our OWN liability insurance which isn't cheap, specifically for the two days.No insurance, no play!

We have to PAY for the barriers used around our sound.

We have to Pay PRS/PPL.

We have to do a 'Risk Assessment' and the way they go on about it they seem to forget that the one they are using as an exemplar (The best way to do it and present it) is the one that I did 6-7 years ago when they first brought that restriction in. No assessment, no play!

We have to be on site by 09:00. There is NO leeway! Sunday is testimony to that fact.

We are subject to regular spot checks throughtout the day just to make sure we have not contravened one of the many rules and regulations that have been imposed as conditions for us to be able to play carnival.

Every year sound man haffi put him hand inna him own pockets and draw out coins of the realm just so he can play Notting Hill Carnival; and every year there are making it harder and harder fi dem very same sound man to participate.

It will have cost us (can't speak for any of the other sound systems) in excess of £2000 / 2400 Euro to play carnival this year over the projected two days. But the public perception is that we are paid!
This perception is fostered by 'the powers that be' so that when they bring in even more stringent controls (and they will), to reduce the number of sound systems at carnival, the public will see it as a consolidation of the best and dashing of the rest, and that they are fiscally responsible and managing their entertainment budget effectively.

You have a section of the 'powers that be' that don't want sound systems at carnival,
"It detracts from the very essence of what carnival is about" is one such quote from someone who was in high office
('Mr Livingstone I presume'), who has no idea about sound systems, their history and just how embedded in our culture and the history of carnival, sound systems are.

Carnival was and is about the West Indian community celebrating its pride in its rich and diverse culture and to show it to the people of Britain, so that they too could come and celebrate it with us. This has now become the World and to have the World come and celebrate it with us.
Prior to the carnival being instigated by Claudia Jones in St Pancras Hall in 1959 and then developed further in 1965 by a local woman Rhaune Laslett, who invited the West Indian community to take part in a street festival, all that Notting Hill was noted for was the infamous 'Notting Hill Race Riots' of the late 50's and early 60's and prior to gentification, the dismal 'Rachman' housing. Carnival changed that. Not 'the powers that be' or the politrickians, but the West Indian and local communities putting on a celebration pon the streets of Notting Hill!

Back when the West Indian community first settled in England there was a tradition of 'Rent Parties' and as the name suggests this was where people had parties to raise the money to pay dem rent. Usually held in one or two rooms of their multi-occupancy building. Their friends and neighbours would gather and buy food and drink supplied by the host/hostess.
The music was supplied by that stalwart of every West Indian home, the 'Blue Spot' radio gram.
This tradition continued right up into the early-mid 80's when along the way they morphed into 'Blues Parties' and the radio gram was replaced by sound systems.
There was also the tradition of the not so legal, drinking and gambling dens (Shubeens), where a little sound system would play. Nuff time these 'Blues' and 'Shubeens' would get raided by the police. I remember and maybe you can too, that on any Saturday night you could not walk in any area such as 'Brixton, The Grove, St Paul's, Chapel Town, Handsworth' and not hear music blasting out from rooms and houses all over the place. It was plentiful.
When carnival was first set up those small sound systems that were playing in these 'Shubeens' and 'Blues' parties set up outside dem and dem friend's yards and played music. No longer confined to the cold dank basements of some 'Rachman' hovel, they were unleashed onto an unsuspecting indigenous people and bwoy did the people dem love it.
Metro, Duke Vin, Clifton The People's Sound, Count Suckle, Lord Satchmo, Tom The Great Sebastian, veterans one and all, who paved the way.

Carnival is billed and known as a 'Free Street Party', even though there are some serious 'GINALS' (unsavoury characters), that are trying desperately to cash in on its monetary worth. It is free to the people that attend, but it costs the participants, whether they be stall holders, sound systems or Mas.

Well if we are so vitriolic, why do we do carnival?
We do carnival as an event to bring education and understanding and yes, entertainment to the people, who have travelled from the four corners of the Earth to listen to us and the other systems that are taking part in carnival.
Anyway it is not vitriol or angst. to state facts, it is informing the people 'wat ah gwan' and this web site is all about education. Seen!
But we do have a fustration with the way all the sound man dem are being treated by those who have a stranglehold on the carnival; and try as they might and bwoy do they try...........................Dem caan stop Jah Music from play, yuh hear!

One of Lioness's favourite tune has the lyric: 'Born and raised in the Ghetto and we know suffering, suffering, in in' and aint dat the truth!

I will now proceed to enlighten you with the report on carnival and the week leading up to carnival. Are you sitting comfortably, well then I will begin.

One Love
                The Humble Lion  

Index / NH Report 2010 Page II

ALL IMAGES AND TEXT COPYRIGHT © Falasha recordings