Touch and Knetik on the road for Carnival Monday

Come Carnival Monday afternoon, persons looking for a traditional on the road t-shirt band experience will have the opportunity to jam with seven-time Road March winners “Touch” coupled with the high energy music of “Knetik”.

The two local bands have teamed up to bring to Carnival Monday (July 10), a t-shirt band that is expected to appeal to both mature and younger patrons.

Yesterday, speaking during the launch of the 2023 initiative, sound engineer and Touch’s manager Julius “Jules” Williams said Touch is back.

“Today in St Vincent, Touch and Knetik are the only two functional bands…functional, experienced, recording bands…that have some Road March winning experience, track record…,” Williams commented.

He said that while Touch is proud to be known as a “big people band”, come July 10, they will be “giving you big people music, small people music, ‘smallie’ music; we are going to treat you on the road for Carnival…”.

The t-shirt band “is going to be powered by Touch and Knetik”, according to Williams who added that his band is known for quality music on the road and for being very competitive in the Road March area and has hardly ever lost this competition.

“What I am not going to tell you at this point in time is whether we are going to be competing for Road March, but I can tell you if we decide to compete for Road March, we don’t play to lose, we play to win…,” Williams boasted while adding that they are looking at having two trucks on the road, one with Touch and the other with Knetik.

He said the bands are looking to attract no fewer than 5000 persons as is the norm when Touch does a t-shirt band.

The Touch-Knetik experience is being sponsored by among others Log Enterprises, WE FM and Standard Shippers, and persons may purchase their t-shirts at these and other locations.

“Big people party, small people party…,” William further stressed.

Touch’s band members are Julius Williams, Gideon James, Brian Alexander, Godfrey Dublin, Willis Williams and Ifill Shortte.

Touch took home Road March titles with the songs “Jam Dem”, “Move yo Front”, “Kangaroo”, “Puss man”, “Maco”, “Take Away” and “Butt”. The band had five consecutive (1991 to 1995) Road March titles in SVG, a feat not attained by any other band or individual.

“And the only other band in the Caribbean that has done that is Burning Flames which we are very happy to be associated with…” band member Brian Alexander told the gathering.

This year mark’s 34 years since Touch won its first Road March title.

Also present at Thursday’s launch was Knetik’s band leader and bass player Arby James who said the band was formed in 2011.

He said that since 2011, they have performed at every major festival on mainland St Vincent and in the Grenadines with stints in Grenada, Dominica (Creole Festival) and Toronto, Canada among other places.

“Within that short period of time because of our exposure we have done a lot of performances for the CDC, private promoters and so on. As a matter of fact we have gained a lot of experience having been so exposed in that period of time,” James said.

He stressed that his band has grown beyond being a band and has embarked into the sound reinforcement industry, while in Vincy Mas 2019, they were able to have their own t-shirt band which was sponsored by Log Enterprises.

“Knetik is delighted to be a part of this joint venture with Touch…,” James said while noting that they have given Touch’s Jules Williams the lead on the project with Knetik providing the sound system on the road.

“And so we are more than grateful and more than happy that this event will bear fruit and it takes a lot of the strain away from us giving the limited resources that we may have,” James said.

He added that the band is made up of six members and they have been working assiduously to deliver the best package they can.

“Knetik is more than ready and in the process of making sure that everything goes as planned and so I myself want to assure the patrons that this is an event that you must get involved in.

“While we are catering for a more mature audience, everyone is welcomed. It is an event that specifically was put together because we want to target a certain group of people…,”James said.

He added, “the product that we are going to put on the road on Carnival Monday cannot be rivalled. There is no competition, there is no challenge, there is nothing like it, there is a Touch Band and there is a Knetik Band, that is a match made in heaven, so I am advising persons if you want to have an experience that will last for a lifetime get your t-shirt ASAP.”

Knetik is made up of “Wacky” Thomas, Shamos Whyte, Keon Homer, Arby James, Arton McCree, “Tequila” Latchman and Icon John.

Thursday’s launch was attended by among others, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC) Ashford Wood, Marketing and Development Officer at the CDC Esworth Roberts, and former Minister of Culture Rene Baptiste.