Band was looking forward to participate this year...
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IMMEDIATELY after the announcement of the national acts slated to perform at the upcoming 17th Annual St. Kitts Music Festival, many fans and music lovers had expressed disappointment with the exclusion of Kollision Band from the line-up.
This year, the band is celebrating its 10th anniversary and it is yet to have a debut performance at the annual event, taking into consideration that other bands in the Federation had the opportunity to do so on a number of occasions.
Kollison Band has a good track record.
It had placed second in the 2012-2013 National Carnival Road March Competition with a song called ‘Big Shake’ off its ‘Armed and Dangerous’ album, and many people are enquiring when the band would get its time to shine on the ‘big stage’.
Well, SKNVibes recently spoke with the band’s Marketing and Public Relations Manager, Kevaughn Browne, who expressed that the members too are puzzled over the band’s omission and are asking what is it they have to do to be selected, especially after a series of broken promises.
He said the band was looking forward to performing at this year’s event.
“Since the year 2009 when the Lights Out Band got their turn onstage at the St. Kitts Music Festival, we asked several persons on the committee who told us that we would be given the opportunity the following year. After not hearing from them for several years, we then asked last year and was again told hopefully this year. And we thought by placing second for Road March it would have increased our chances of being on the line-up for this year.”
Browne was questioned how members of the band feel about not having been selected this year.
“The band members feel disturbed that we were not selected for the St. Kitts Music Festival line-up. I use the word disturbed because there is no need or room for disappointments after being told year after year that next year one would get the opportunity. I am wondering if there is some other reason for the band not being on this year’s line-up.”
When asked if the band had ever submitted a formal request to the Committee, Browne said, “No, we have been communicating verbally.”
As revealed by Browne, the band’s Manager, Shervin White, had reached out to the Music Festival Committee to air the members’ disappointment.
Meanwhile, the Phase Two launch of the St. Kitts Music Festival of the regional and international acts was conducted during a press conference at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort in Frigate Bay on Wednesday, May 1.
In the question and answer segment, a reporter mentioned the “absence” of Kollision Band from this year’s line-up with the intention of getting an official comment.
In his response, Chairman of the St. Kitts Music Festival Faron Lawrence said, “The truth is there is no commitment per say to put any particular band or local artiste on the show. What we do, we build the show first with regional and international artistes then we see how the local artistes fit into the show that we’re trying to build. And that is basically one of the criteria that we use.
“Again, everybody can’t be on all the time. There’s always a next time. There’s a lot of local artistes who approach us; we have those names and we try where we can to include them in subsequent years and we’ll continue to do that.”
