Shadow’s Black Rave performance cut short

Legendary Trinidadian calypso and soca artiste, Winston “Mighty Shadow” Bailey, feels he was disrespected by promoter of the Black Rave show Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle, when his performance was abruptly cut short at the Victoria Park last Saturday night.{{more}}

“He fraid me. He fraid ah would ah steal he (expletive) show…” Bailey shouted as he exited the back stage area in anger.

In response to a question from SEARCHLIGHT as to what had triggered his anger, Bailey said Doyle had disrespected him.

“Who is he?” Bailey asked, referring to Doyle.

“Is fraid, he fraid ah would ah steal the show,” Bailey repeated before walking away.

However, Doyle, in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT yesterday said initially, Bailey was supposed to perform five songs during his performance.

Doyle said he and stage manager Mira Commissiong, however, later informed Bailey that he could not do so, because of time constraints.

Doyle said Bailey ignored the directives and performed more songs than he was instructed to, which resulted in him going beyond the stipulated performance time.

During the approximately 20-minute performance, Bailey’s microphone was disconnected, the band stopped playing and commercials were shown on the side screens.

While this was happening, Bailey stood, looking amazed, at one point saying, “What all yo’ bring me here for?”

According to Doyle, all the other artistes, local and regional, were instructed to keep within the time-frame.

He said this resulted in some artistes, including Fyah Empress, Bunji Garlin and Fay Ann Lyons, having to perform for a shorter period.

“The station sergeant said we had until 2 a.m., so we were forced to trim the performances or we would have gone beyond the time,” Doyle explained.

He further noted that all the other artistes complied with the instructions, except for Bailey.

“I hired Shadow because as a young artiste, I recognize that you have to at least know where the art form that you are involved in is coming from, so you can have a little bit of context in which you are operating as a soca artiste. And the man is a legend.

“I, in keeping with the Black Rave concept, [am] trying to merge the young hype style with a little bit of calypso in there,” Doyle said.

He described Bailey as “very particular and very rigid in terms of when he wants to do something.

“This is what I found out after. But because of the time constraint in the show, the stage manager approached Shadow and told him, as was the case with all other acts, he could not do the five songs he wanted to.

“He had two options. To either sing a piece of each, or two full songs.

“At that point in time, Shadow refused to listen or co-operate and this is before going on the stage,” Doyle added.

The Black Rave promoter stated that Bailey went on stage knowing that he couldn’t do the five songs straight.

“He could have done a medley – a piece of each or choose the two that he wanted to.

“Shadow at that point was like ‘don’t talk to me’.

‘I don’t want to hear that…” Doyle disclosed.

As to who gave the instruction to “pull the plug” on Bailey, Doyle said he did not know, as he was backstage conversing with Bunji Garlin and Fay Ann Lyons.

Doyle, however, stated that there are no hard feelings between him and Bailey, as it was a misunderstanding which led to Bailey’s reaction.

“I have respect for this man. He is a legend and I would not fly him here to dis him in anyway…,” the defending Soca Monarch stated.

The Mighty Shadow won Trinidad’s Road March in 1974 and 2001 with “Bassman” and “Stranger” respectively. He also won the Calypso Monarch in 2000 with “What’s Wrong With Me” and “Scratch Meh Back”.