Island People Band Launching Review

Since the majority of my time was spent backstage during the actual presentation at the band launching, I have a guest reviewer today who was unencumbered by such things as uploading pics! I did get to "hear" the action though and remember a loud cheer went up for Black Widow Spider when the section came on stage. I also got to see all the action backstage with the models posing for one photographer after the other, the designers admiring their creations and the whole upbeat energy which added to the excitement.

I also have to say that the Island People staff who I encountered and met were quite professional, especially the young lady at the door who was VERY pleasant even before I identified myself. After she knew who I was she was even more accommodating, but I like to remain "incognito", just observing and doing my own thing so I am still trying to figure out a way to "sneak" into the mas camp and view the costumes without being recognized.

That being said, here is the review by "mystique" aka "mummylicious":

Saucy’s taking a break so I am stepping in to do the IP report today, I am sure she won’t be able to resist though and will definitely give you her take on the launch. Mind you I not all official like Saucy so you all will have to excuse the personal touches and OPINIONS that are sometimes not welcomed around here. So…plan to reach there around 11 because we weren’t too sure about the parking situation or the traffic or anything. Got there around 11:20 instead and traffic was flowing freely. I show the guard the little VIP invitation thing and he say you good to go, park in Jean Pierre. I say Yesssssssssss. So I reach in there and to my horror I forgot the most important thing…no not the tickets… cream. Duh! So me and my ashy legs panicking because I have about 8 tubes of cream meant for the car but somehow not one does ever make it in there. While waiting for my partner to show up with her cream I got to take in the crowd trickling into the venue. I find I wasn’t seeing too many people so I start to get worried that maybe I waste an outfit but I said ‘Nahhhh is IP people, dem reaching here round 3am, celebrity time nuh’.

Anyway, so the cream reach, we make it to the entrance of the Jean Pierre complex, NOT the stadium as advertised, so people who parked way out on the foreshore and ting (exaggeration) had a nice little walk in their stilettos. I found the crowd was a little sparse at first and the entrance people a little slack because my invitation had an extremely male name on it and no way, no how all this jelly is a man. But I didn’t mind, I felt like I coulda walk in with about 5 more people free though but small ting. So from the time you reach you start to sweat. It was hottttttt, whey. Right so I figure out ‘Aye like it have a special bar in the back? But wait the special bar in the back is backstage? So hold on, I could just walk in dey? By the costumes? Eh heh. So I put on my ‘I am in charge face’ and waltz into the people backstage, again the police/security was slack, I think anybody coulda walk in dey. Bounce up de Sauce. She was excited! Prince Namor wasn’t any better, hard at work on his birthday but like he know the scene. Follow wifey instructions, better birthday for him. So Sauce start talking about how the costumes so "gawwgeous" and if yuh see pics she take already and she need to blog and come and see girl! So we keep waltzing and waltz right into a Black Widow Spider. Beautiful. BAM a next Black Widow, different version, turn so, another one. Buhayeaye, how much black widow it have? And all ah dem nice, nice. Detailed too bad. I was trying to ask the girl in the spider body suit about where she get it because I was thinking I might need one for that private session with Wyatt…let me stop…lol but the body suit was hot eh.

So Saucy and the Prince run off to get the laptop because she excited too bad and she MUST post her pics because she MUST show them to the people who online now, they will be so excited, she can’t wait. I got a few quick looks at the costumes waiting to go on stage, Polar bear, Lioness, Portuguese Man O War. Backstage was a bit tiny though and in all the excitement it was more ‘awwww pretty’ next ‘wowwwww, yuh see that bra?’ next. We were quite enthralled with the Black Widow Spiders though, they were playing their ‘marse’ from all in the back. Jumbie-ing and having a time, the costumes seemed pretty weightless which is great. All that excitement and show now about to start. Hmmm I think I missed the first first thing, There was a group performance of about 20 folks doing some abstract interpretive dance then there was something with a scarlet Ibis and some Giraffes. The animals portrayed by performers on stilts (aka moko jumbie giraffes) to some jungle themed music. The backdrop to the stage was spray painted sky scrapers and if only I listened to the story I’m sure it would have said something about us human beings being caught up in the hustle and bustle of life yet its still a jungle out there and we need to listen to our animal instincts heh heh heh. I make up a whole story for the people yes. A friend of mine who recently saw The Lion King in London said the entrance was quite reminiscent of parts of the show and she wondered if that is where the idea for the band came from.

After the entrance, the costumed masqueraders began to make their way unto the stage to a high paced drumming track. Black Widow came first and I wish I could remember the order of the others. The masqueraders were all in character; the lionesses growled and stalked, female polar and brown bears circled each other, egrets flew, cheetahs sprinted, zebras marched in time. Wonderful presentation. The makeup and contact lenses added a lot in my opinion, made it all seem even more animalistic. I thought all the drama might have made the show last longer than it needed to but it was all done in 30-45 minutes time. I ran backstage a couple times to check on Saucy and she was busy blogging. Ms. Lady miss the whole presentation for allyuh. She’s accepting presents via priority mail, ok ok she did it all humbly and happily but I will take the presents for her and store them by me okay? Prince Namor was most busy too, running back and forth trying to get he best pics possible and bring them back for Sauce to tell him to hold the damn camera in one direction so she wouldn’t have to keep flipping the ting and them…Real serious business here. And he had lots of running to do too because the stage was long! I heard rumours about the fancy stage, unfortunately I don’t think they were all true because I’m sure no one could see it from Movietowne. But no matter where you were you got a great view of the presentation.

Oh and the finale…some fine IP men came on stage in jeans, bareback (!) and start dismantling the people spray painted back drop piece by piece, nice and slow so we could get a good view of their backsides, I mean the back side of the back drop nah. They eventually revealed Kes’ band hidden in the scaffolding, introducing a Kes The Band performance. He gave a pretty solid performance but I think people were either too cute to dance right then or were still absorbing the presentation. A lot of people left in the next hour or so but I think they were quickly replaced by the true posers who came after the show to…yuh know. Pose. I had fun overall. The DJs later on kept the crowd going and many of the posers were actually *gasp* dancing the night away when I left there around 3:30 am.