Super Blue bounces out front

Austin “SuperBlue” Lyons has bounced ahead of his main competitor, Machel Montano, in the battle for Road March 2013. Yesterday, the voices chanting “Super! Super! Super!” vibrated throughout the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain and the euphoria on the faces of thousands of masqueraders was unmistakable as they gyrated, jumped and swayed to his hit Fantastic Friday.

As the members of over 45 large, medium, small and mini bands crossed the big stage, “everyone [had] a flag and smile on their face.” Up to press time yesterday, Lyons led the way at the Queen’s Park Savannah, downtown and at Adam Smith Square. Lyons’ Fantastic Friday and Montano’s Float were played by various bands, large or small and often continuously, as the bands wafted across the big stage. The popular Leh Go by Dexter “Blaxx” Stewart and Differentology by Ian “Bunji Garlin” Alvarez were nowhere to be heard. Even popular contender in the Groovy Monarch competition, Neil “Iwer” George’s Bubble, was not heard once as bands crossed the stage. 

There was no doubt, even in the minds of the sparse crowd gathered at the Savannah, that Lyons was vastly ahead of Montano, the defending Road March champion, in the race for the road.  After the mini-band Is Chinese Minstrels, led by Claudette Sinnette, first crossed the stage at 11.30 am, large band Bliss led the Blue charge, repeating the song several times, to the delight of its masqueraders. Continues on No other song was heard as bands juggled between Montano’s Float and Lyons’s Fantastic Friday. 

Whether it was Tribe’s Butterflies, Beasts and Bacchanal or small band Leviticus, many of the bands opted for “water and powder.” Even small band Tribal Connection Cultural Promotions, whose presentation Visions of Crazy Horse began with calypso, ended with Lyons’ song. Even as the sun began to retreat it appeared there was no quelling the raging desire for Fantastic Friday. However, today’s festivities will eventually tell whether Lyons will cop his ninth road march title. SuperBlue tied with Montano in Friday’s Power Soca Monarch competition. He last won the coveted road march title in 2000, when he tied with Iwer. Brian MacFarlane’s Sanctification won band of the year last year. He is going for the title this year with Joy—The Finale this year, but plans to bow out of competition after this season.