page 3 of 5

Okay so it's a big night in London.. coming close to Christmas and it's a busy time on the birthday front too so we are all out. By the way, we wonder what's the stats on percentage of November and December birthdays amongst Trini's? TJJ UK is rolling three strong tonight and I'm looking for a protégé too, but we will talk about that later. Too much to talk about tonight ... too much!

We heading down to Abacus (well you know what I tink and how the venue look already ... posh, sexy, gorgeous) for the "Trini Christmas/Parang In London" party hosted by the ever popular Busspepper Promotions. Their last party however - Skool Daze - was quite small by their standards, but good nonetheless. I am hoping for a bigger crowd this time, and Cuchi La La is normally a big one!

Arriving at 11pm (local time), the both queues for the party was not that full, but it had a few people. Does that mean it is empty? Man never! At eleven the entire upstairs of Abacus and the first section of the basement was packed with people! Hot Damn! Thanks to those birthdays we mentioned (some very good friends of TJJ), lots of people actually arrived early to help celebrate. Happy Birthday again Wayne, Hutch, Katherine and Liz!!

Hasan and his band wagon of chefs and food people were there serving up their Caribbean delicacies - Curry Chicken, Bake and Shark, Bake And Saltfish, Black Cake and Sweet Bread (photo), Ham and Hops (photo), different spices of rice... man, the works! He was loaded tonight... Boop Boop! On the list of Disc Jockeys for the night we listening to the big bad All Mighty Sound, the untouchable and experienced DJ Markee, and last but not least, the more than ever ready and willing Kern of Hi-Fidelity/Less Then Zero. The usual suspects played the Parang, the R&B and Hip-Hop, the Dancehall, and of course the Soca & Calypso. Righto so time to start to talk about the dance!

Crowd was nice and sexy! My Jamaican posse from Skool Daze was in the boogie again .... the dancers from Jam Down! I love them! They were quite passive tonight though ... mus be due to the fact that they did not have space to dance ... dance crowded I say! Moving along. At about midnight, there was a random visit by six, yes six... one, two, three, four, five, six Police officers walking around the Busspepper dance. We were confused, especially since we couldn't take any photos for fear of being reprimanded! Nobody ent bother to wine on the police like dey is do at Notting Hill Carnival neither! I don't think there was any specific reason for them to pass through, apparently just checking numbers etc. - yuh know, busy time of the year, new smoking laws... nothing to do with West Indians in the area - haha!

Anyhoo, after the po po leave, dance ah get nice and sticky, music was lovely! Lovely! Lovely! From Soca to Dancehall to Rap and of course Soca Parang. The old the new the unreleased ... it was really lovely! I ent bashing the music this rounds ... yes, Machel Montano "Jumbie" didn't more than twice. LOL!!! People were enjoying themselves, I saw a woman break dancing to Spragga Benz "Pum Pum Conquerer", yes!
I so wanted to put down the camera and jam on somebody!! Man the music was real vybzing. Anyhoo ... me and my hungry belly self went upstairs and had to take in a Hasan food. Enjoying a plate of food sitting down opposite one of the bouncers for the night, I immediately noticed him holding his earpiece and his face was not in enjoyment anymore, he immediately dropped his fork and ran downstairs. Next thing, music stop and ting... anyway it was nuttin' big. Somebody touch somebody gyal and yada, yada, yada. Being a top London establishment, the bouncers moved in quite fast and broke tings up quickly. We have no pictures of the incident nor do we have any video footage ... so sorry, but TJJ TV aka Caribbean TMZ wasn't on scene. But anyway, the friendly neighbourhood police were right on hand, as they were still patrolling outside. In true Trini fashion the crowd began started to sing "No No ... We Ain't Going Home" I don't blame them ... it was only about half past one!!!!!! No music for 5 minutes seemed longer than it was, but incident over and party started back.

On a lighter note, I must commend the man they call Markee on the one's on two's .... him play some best bang-o-rang for the night! Bounty Killer "Suspense", Wickerman "What Is The Meaning", and Isasha "Don't You Know". I have not heard this kind of quality in awhile ... DJ Markee ... come in!!!!!! Don't forget your lil' blunder ... Mr. Slaughter mix with Junior Kelly ... hahahah .... most amusing, but big respect king! You play reeeeal good ... Boop Boop Boop!!!

Righto, so that was the end of the night and on a good note. People, we partied til four in the morning!!!! A BIG exciting bram with a BIG exciting finish ... GOTS TO LOVE IT!!!! Busspepper... Big Up and respect!

ps. Now I have been looking for a protégé and I think I have found one. Small, cute and ready for the action, so look out for the new UK TJJ smallie (photo) with the SLR ... she deadly!! Trusssss.

Amiel, Damian, Dre (UK) for the TJJ fam
Always Forward, Never Backward

====================================
Related Galleries
Skool Daze (2007)
Back to Abacus ... Time to Jam
Carnival Collision ... Jouvert Business 4.0 (2007)
Chic (2007)
Resurrection of JamRock (2007)
Roots, Rock, Reggae IV (2007)
Bushfire (2007)
Carnival Tabanca (2007)
De Warm-Up Session (2007)
Cuchi La La (2006)