When the Boss speaks, you answer!

That’s what I always do. I have no choice; it’s my boss who pays me. Some times I am shopping at the supermarket or running on the beach, and a member of the public intrudes in my “private time” and shouts “Ali Singh”, or hollers the chorus of my song “can’t get yuh money back”. Do you think I will ignore and snub them? I think not. Regardless of what my mood is or what kind of a day I am having, I make it my business to say hi and sometimes stop and say a few words.

Why? Because the public is my boss. They are who – by coming to my shows and buying Madd DVDs – ultimately pay me. Can you imagine going into the office one morning and your boss passes and says “good morning” and you don’t answer because you are in a bad mood? What do you think would happen?

Well the same could happen to us entertainers when we don’t speak when our public greets. When you do not respond to your public as you should when you have an event, a person is liable to say “you see that one Peter Boyce, he so unmannerly then, I shout he pun de street the other day and he pass me like I is a bus stop. I am not going to nothing he got”.

When you need another 200 people to break even at your show it is those same members of the public that by attending can make that financial difference. So I have people who stop me in the street and tell me the solution to stop NCF and Calypsonians fighting, who going to be the next CEO of the NCF or simply to voice their support. I listen attentively. Even sometimes I am walking along some body shouts at me a jovial “Peter Boyce yuh Madd ass bitch!’
I cannot walk along with my mouth push up like an unmannerly bitch; I must open my mouth and speak like a polite bitch.

The boss has spoken and when the boss speaks I answer!

Here is one of the hardest songs that Madd has ever done! Written by Eric Lewis, the perennial musical master piece known as Last Saturday Night.This song is as relevant now as when it was released back in 1998. It uses vivid word imagery to tell the story of a “bad boy” and how he ultimately came to an untimely end because of his life style.

Eric uses slang to capture the imagination and the interest of the listener, then when he has you, he shoots you, drops you in a coffin and buries you! I recommend this song to any one who needs to change their evil ways, including NCF!

“This is a lesson for de Bad Boys” Click and listen to “Saturday Night”

 

 Last Saturday Night [5:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Saturday Night is available on “Madd’s Greatest Hits CD”.  You can buy it online at www.bacchanaltime.com

Watch for Madd celebrating 25 years in entertainment in the Show the “Best of Barbados Gone Madd” at the Sir Garfield Sobers Complex on 25th November 2007.

Have you realized how they have this “hidden gayness” thing being placed in movies these days? There’s this trend now, where you are watching a normal movie and all of a sudden some man starts kissing another man in a deep and passionate way. A good example is the movie Talladega Nights; The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. I was watching what I thought was a normal comedy about a racing car driver, next thing yuh know there was this scene where Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen had his tongue down Will Ferrell’s throat. This happened several times in the movie. I had to go and check the rating on the movie to see if it was rated “G” for gayness. It was enough to make you wanna puke.

Its like Hollywood is saying since there were some people who did not have the stomach to see two men “going at it” in the 2005 bulla hit Broke Back Mountain, lets see where we can insert “it” in normal movies so we can catch them by surprise.

Pushing Gayness is Hollywood’s thing, even in TV comedy sitcoms you realize there is this trend where there is always a time when some character announces they are gay and they get all this big audience applause and it’s a big celebration. You know, like what happened with Ellen. In Barbados while we are not as homophobic as Jamaica, I would not advise you to go home, get every body together and excitedly announce that you are gay and expect any applause or celebration. It probably might be a good idea to explore alternative living arrangements before you do as that sort of thing is still frowned on down here.

So watch out for the Gayness they hide in normal movies to try and sway you. There’s a new movie now out starring Kevin James and Adam Sandler titled “Chuck and Larry”. I’d be careful with that one if I was you!

My freaking hand is empty, empty like my head, empty like the promises you get from government! Freaking empty! What is this empty hand crap now you may ask? Allow me to elucidate.

35 days ago, on Tuesday 21st August 2007 to be exact Government hosted a cultural industries consultation at the Barbados Hilton. You remember, the one where I puked. Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Owen Arthur, proudly announced the forming of the Festival Events Bureau which was to “save” Crop Over from the “inept bungling of the imbecile NCF”. (My quote here)

While I was in the process of making my contribution on this auspicious occasion, identifying salient points of concern about this new Bureau, the Prime Minister pointed out to me that the policy document I was quoting from was outdated. I did not have the current document from which he was quoting . Which translates to sit down and shut up yuh idiot you ent know what you talking bout! Being the uppity ignoramus I am, who does not know his place, I had the audacity to ask for a copy of the document to be circulated so I can peruse and participate in the process.

The PM had personally expressed concern to me that the document had not been circulated to the industry before hand and that that should have been done by the NCF. (He seems to forget they are imbeciles). It was stated that copies of this special document would be circulated to us so we can participate in the process. 35 days later, look at my hand, look, do you see a document?

NO, it is empty, empty like my head, empty like the promise we got from the Government!

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker teamed back up recently for another blockbuster movie Rush Hour 3. The continuing adventures of an unlikely pairing of a Japanese Cop “Chan” and Black American “Tucker”. This time on location in Paris. This movie was quite funny, hilarious at times even. Not as great as Rush Hour 1 and 2 but still worth the price of a movie ticket.

How ever I would like to mention one scene in Rush hour 3 I found to be disturbing….

(more…)

The Empire will rise again!
News from the Government is that the Empire Theatre in Bridgetown is being refurbished at a cost of ten million dollars which is what it will cost to restore the now derelict cinema to its former glory.

For years I have been hearing of this restoration of the Empire and I always get the impression that the entertainment industry is supposed to be happy about it, and I am at a loss to understand why. When the Empire is restored, it is said by Government that artistes AND the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) stands to make significant revenue staging events there. The Government spoke of revising building plans after receiving “consultation”. I am not aware of any entertainment entities that were “consulted”.

As usual, we entertainers being asses, are not worthy of being asked a question. Government policy is, lets spend the 10 million dollars first and then hear people’s opinion when they start cursing at the mistakes made when it is finished.

Well I say lets start cursing in advance! (more…)

The Ultimate Party

This is footage of the band Krosfyah performing at the ultimate party for Crop Over 2007 Euphoria. I have been a Krosfyah fan for ages, from the time they were a little “Crossfire” and spelt their names right. Under the management of famed entertainment manager Phil Philips, Crossfire rose to international status with the release of the mega album Pump me up back in 1995 featuring Nicholas Brancker productions and Edwin Yearwood compositions.

Crossfire then became Krosfyah which is different but the same thing and is now managed by Michael Agard and features Edwin, Khiomal and Tony Rebel etc with Ingrid working behind the scenes.

Here is krosfyah when they performed at Euphoria 2k7….. reboot your computer, its going to be hot!

* Did I mention Edwin and Khiomal are in Bacchanal Time and you can look for them in the 2007 dvd coming soon? well, I just did

Peter Boyce – Musiker, Comedian, Boss bei Madd Entertainment und Bashment
Time Calypso und selbsternannter Entertainment Entrepreneur – hat ein
Weblog, in dem er lustige Geschichten erzählt, Interviews und Podcasts
bereitstellt, weiterführende Links angibt und eben Insider Einblicke in die
Bajan und karibische Kultur gibt.

Es werden auch immer wieder ernste Themen wie Homophobie aufgegriffen oder mal unbekannte Artists vorgestellt.

You are probaly saying “What the ass is Boyce writing here? He’s finally flipped out”. Well what you are reading here was taken from a German website named dancehallmusic.de who have an interest in Boyce Voice. I am not 100% sure what they are saying and am a little bit concerned of the mention of “homophobie” in the last sentence there. I am not homo any thing nor a phobie either. Unless its something good in which case I am. It just goes to show BoyceVoice is going places and being read from people from all over the globe via the net.

The internet is making the world a smaller place that’s how Johannes Kueckens and Martin Stahl got into contact with Madd to make our music available on their Faluma website which also operates dancehallmusic.de . I met with Martin over lunch when he came down for Crop Over to check out the latest music releases. Martin said that while the market for soca music in germany was small his company was committed to promoting the genre. It is really amazing how soca music can transcend language barriars and be accepted even by a relative few in a foreign territory like Germany.

When we talk about producing calypsos with international appeal, it might mean we should consider recording some german calypso tracks on our albums to target that market. Can you sing “raise yuh hand” in german? Well start learning!
So I want to big up the German posse, would like to do it in German but I am pretty ignorant, sometimes even just English is difficult for me.

One of the Boyce Voice posts that Martin said he liked was My Pretty Shirt so he wore one when we had lunch at Ship Inn, which was cool as I was wearing one too, you can see them in the above picture and there’s Carolann between us, well she is just pretty!

>*Note: For the record I would like to state that I DO have some shirts that aren’t pretty!

I was at David Kirton’s launch of his new album Time for Change a few months ago when I heard his Green Camouflage song. I fell in love with it immediately.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that my favorite colour is camouflage which happens to be illegal wear in Barbados. Since you cannot wear the clothing I compensate by wearing socks having a pen, part of my car is camouflage and as I sit writing this I am wearing a camouflage boxer (check out my pics below)
So when I heard David’s song I was impressed that some one had finally dedicated a song to a colour as magnificent as camouflage instead of just singing about women all the time. In addition to Green Camouflage there are 10 other tracks on David’s album described on his website as modern alternative roots reggae songs with organic strong lyrics. That means it’s healthy for you to listen to them.

You can check out David’s impressive website on this link here. And click to take a listen to “Green Camouflage” compliments of his wife/manager Noelle.

 

 Green Camouflage [3:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

We focused previously on a derogatory “F” word today it is an “N” word!

Recently in Miami a stand up comedian was yanked off stage for using the nasty “N” word, that “N” word being nigger. This particular comedian continually used profanities and racial slurs through out his time on stage which offended the black people in the audience and there were a lot of Black people there as it was the “Black Enterprise Magazine Golf and Tennis event”.

Now before you get all fired up and start asking how that could a white comedian go to an event attracting mainly black audiences and expect to diss them like that! Let’s take a look at this “white” comedian shall we? (more…)