Singing Sandra slams music pirates

Sandra, who shared the guest artistes spotlight with Shadow and Johnny King, became angry when she caught a patron filming her performance with his camcorder, seconds after she decided to come off the stage and get closer to the crowd.

The visibly upset “mother of calypso” immediately stopped singing and gave the patron a sound tongue-lashing.

“He just kill my vibes right there. I can’t come in your house and film you just so,” she said. “Artistes are tired of being exploited and other people are making money off us, while we not getting anything, it is just not fair. Promoters you need to pay more attention to people who are coming into your shows with camcorders and cameras. What they are doing is illegal!” Sandra advised.

She however put the incident aside and rendered hits such as “Dignity” and “Voices From The Ghetto” much to the delight of the patrons.

Tobago boys Shadow and Johnny King were not to be outshone and delivered performances that brought back fond memories and had the audience out of their seats and partying.

Commenting on the incident, Chairman of the Tobago Heritage Festivals Committee, Garnette Peters told Newsday yesterday that the Committee will be increasing its vigilance to detect any forms of piracy during the productions. Peters said that there were information booths at each show warning patrons that videotaping was illegal and that prior consent had to be obtained. He admitted that it could have been advertised more and promised that it would be rectified to avoid any future embarrassment.

Although there was only a handful of supporters at the show, which Committee members attributed to the inclement weather, the night was otherwise perfect with the nine contestants paying well received tributes to the island’s heritage.

Kelvin “Jango” George eventually emerged winner of the $10,000 first prize with his original Heritage rendition “Dear Mr Elder” in which he sought the approval of Heritage Festival founder, Dr J D Elder, to marry his now 20-years- old and more beautiful daughter. Leslie-Ann Ellis won $8,000 and copped second place while Joe “Tempo” Caesar placed third and won $4,000.