Poser’s heart heavy over Conqueror’s death

Sitting in the balcony at The  Church of the Nazarene, St James, calypso bard Sylvester Lockhart, also known as Poser, says he attended the late Leroy Paul (Conqueror’s) funeral with a heavy heart. Reason being: apart from being one of the scores of calypsonians who had turned up to bid farewell to the veteran bard, he had dropped off Paul just a few minutes before he heard the devastating news. Paul, 75, had been attempting to cross Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, when he was knocked down by a car on January 27, 2011. 

Lockhart said: “We were just at Power 102 for Norma Clarke CD launch. I sang at number one and he sang at number ten. I told him to be careful how he was crossing the road. “I was planning to go over the Lady Young and come out Morvant. He convinced me I should go the other way to drop him off to get to the tent. He was a good friend.  So I decided that tired as I was, I would make the effort. Shrugging his shoulders, he added: “We were laughing and talking. We were all hugging up with Twiggy. I told him, come boy, Explainer not here, I will drop you. They just joke and say Explainer (Winston Henry) and I are boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Lockhart said he had just reached home when his son Vivian Lockhart (Young Poser) needed some information. He called to speak to Tuco publicist Sherma Orr and she said, “Conkie gone.”   Lockhart said: “I had just dropped him off. I didn’t eat for two days. I did not know if he misjudged the third lane. “He not blind or feeble, he does not have a walking stick. For him to get there, he had to have made some misjudgment. Maybe, that is how the master had it for him to go. If it was a child, it would have bothered me more.” Lockhart extended condolences to Paul’s family.

Fraternity blames Lockhart

Lockhart said he was even more pained since certain members of the fraternity were blaming him for not dropping Paul off at the Revue. “He asked me to drop him.  I decided to drop him at the closest point.  He knew where he wanted to get off. Lockhart said he did not take their accusations lightly.  “I said embarrassing things to them.   They disrespected me. For a big man to take time out and drop my friend and four guys criticising me, it was not nice.” Although he was not Paul’s friend like Lord Valentino, Lockhart said: “We were friends but only when we met. I came in town in 1966.  There I met Conqueror with Lord Melody, Sniper and Nap Hepburn.  They  would take me from Tent in Legion Hall.  “I was the country boy from Sangre Grande,” he said.  Lockhart is due to sing Is Not Dat and Leave Dem at Kaiso House, Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, tomorrow.