Despers make noise with new captain

The way Kirt Gordon saw it, Morvant may be home but it’s  just around the corner from Laventille, and he had every right to be the leader WITCO Desperadoes sought. Rephrasing American rap group the Beastie Boys’ 1986 hit, “You gotta fight for your right [to fight],” Gordon muscled his point of view for years before his peers hammered it home that he had what it took to walk the land the way the late Rudolph Charles did. Gordon joined the band in 1985 as a bass player, making a circuitous course to get to the top of the Hill.

Ebonites, Jewel 22, Casablanca and Renegades didn’t really feel like home, though Jewel operated like Desperadoes, the pans being of similar design and all. “Despers is a special band,” he notes. “You don’t feel at home right away. I had to break into the greatest steel orchestra in the world by being straight up, calling a spade what it is, not condoning wrongdoing.” Gordon’s in-your-face attitude won over players who thought his brash opinions made plenty sense. “I’m not a stage side player,” he says. “Never in the history of Despers has a road player been elected captain. Others may have been selected.”

But Gordon was elected because in his nomination speech he promised significant change to guide the band’s destiny following a “ridiculous” 2011 Panorama season. And to whom did he turn for advice? None other than John F Kennedy Gordon concluded his speech with a memorable commandment to get the band moving again, by paraphrasing US President John F Kennedy’s injunction in his 1961 inaugural address: Ask not what Desperadoes can do for you - ask what you can do for Desperadoes. Gordon pinned his hopes on a committed arranger and came up with Andre White, the 21-year-old wunderkind from Freeport, New York.

“The sponsors are totally behind the executive committee’s choice,” Gordon says. So we’re ready for the challenge. We have our man, the players to execute the music and the tonal quality pans to push us to victory. “I’ve received a mandate (Gordon won by 28 votes) but I would listen to players and won’t abuse my power. I ran on change to correct the ills of the band. Discipline and success go hand in hand. “My slogan resonated with a lot of members, and Desperadoes won’t disappoint those who love and appreciate the band, he said”