Rhaburn’s show combines best of past and present
It’s one of Belize’s most entertaining events of the year and this time, the Lord Rhaburn Lord Music Awards Show promises to leave you nothing less than satisfied. The line-up on Friday night features sixties stars The Violets, American Idol’s Lisa Tucker, veterans Sam Hamilton and Zoila Clark, vocalist Tanya Carter, K.T.V. Champion Reecie Pollard, along with competitors Angelo Fabro and Jazel Pascascio, and Golden Oldies Singer Harry Shaw. The Violets, along with Lisa Tucker, her parents, and the Lord himself stopped by our studios before heading to the rehearsal hall.
Arlene Usher August
“I was the one who used to arrange how the parts were being sung because I have a musical background and we go from there.”
Janet Bennet Longsworth, The Violets
“Actually, it was four of us. We were students at St. Hilda’s high at the time and this used to be a break pastime. We were inspired most of all at that time by Yvonne Pilgrim, she was our teacher and she used to give us voice lessons, had us in the St. Hilda’s choir and had us singing solos and stuff like that. But at lunch time we found under a mango tree in the school yard and we start harmonising these songs from the 50s and 60s and we sounded good and Lord Rhaburn, Gerald Rhaburn he heard about us and he actually put us together.”
Marion Ali
“That was back in the?”
Janet Bennet Longsworth
“1960’s, 1962.”
Marion Ali
“So what kind of songs you used to sing?”
Rhoda Bailey Garbutt, The Violets
“The Shirelles, The Marvelettes, Supremes, Diana Ross and the Supremes. Maybe you don’t know about those songs from way back, oldies but goodies.”
Arlene Usher August
“Those were the 60s when rock and roll and rhythm and blues were the songs and you had groups like the Commodores with Lionel Richie, you had the temptations and those groups were emulated by us in our singing. So we took those songs and try to replicate them here on the stage with Gerald and we had the Messengers, we had Los Belicenos, I used to play the organ in Los Belicenos one time. So we go way, way back with that type of music.”
[Women singing]
Lisa Tucker, Appeared on American Idol
“I’m gonna do some of my favourites and I know the audience is gonna know a lot of the songs, so it’s just gonna be a night of fun, of music and just having a good time.”
Marion Ali
“So you are representing the younger folks?”
Lisa Tucker
“I hope to represent them very well. … Some Alicia Keys and some Christmas songs because it’s so close to the season. It’s gonna be some good stuff. I’m gonna play some piano and some guitar and get some audience involvement, it’s gonna be great.”
Marion Ali
“You know Belize was rooting behind you when you appeared in American Idol. What was the experience like, what was the feeling like?”
Lisa Tucker
“The experience was crazy. I had been watching since I was twelve years old and when I turned sixteen I went and audition and I got through and every step I was making I was like, wow, this was even closer and closer and I know that Belize was rooting for me the whole way.”
Gerald “Lord” Rhaburn
“We have good musicians coming out of Belize all the time and we have old and young. Some went to the states to live, went abroad to live, but they are doing the same thing. For instance The Violets, the leader of The Violets in Canada, she has a big choir there and she has her own steel band. The thing is that people have forgotten and a lot of people do good things in music and they just forget them. So I decided to do this show and make it an annual thing to honour old, young, people from abroad and people at home. It’s a Belizean thing; it’s something that will inspire other musicians to do better.”
The Violets have not appeared together since 1966 when the group split up. The concert will take place at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday night beginning at eight-thirty.
