Zahra Gor­don

In his 2013 hit song Bub­ble, Neil Iw­er George talks about the side­line work many lo­cal so­ca artistes do to sup­port their fam­i­lies out­side of the Car­ni­val sea­son. Some may in­ter­pret that mes­sage as so­cial com­men­tary on the lo­cal mu­sic in­dus­try, but ac­cord­ing to George, Bub­ble is sim­ply a "groovy so­ca."

Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian briefly at Wood­ford Square on Thurs­day, George said: "Yes, the song is car­ry­ing a mes­sage but that is dance tune. It's for peo­ple to just have a good time."

This year, George is cel­e­brat­ing 27 years in the so­ca busi­ness and to high­light that achieve­ment George is hav­ing his first full-length con­cert, Iw­er Wednes­day on Feb­ru­ary 6.

For the show, George, a three-time win­ner of the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch (2002, 2003, 2007), will be singing his mas­sive hits like Bot­tom in the Road, Ease De Ten­sion, Fete af­ter Fete, Boom Boom Time and Leh Meh See Yuh Han.

He will al­so be joined on stage by Swap­pi, Roy Cape All Stars, TC and Shal, Ravi B, Ben­jai, Lyrikal, Prophet Ben­jamin and three very im­por­tant peo­ple –Leroy Black Stal­in Cal­liste, Austin "Su­perBlue Lyons" and his son, Mar­lon Dun­can.

Black Stal­in and Su­perBlue have been in­stru­men­tal to the shap­ing of George's ca­reer. Cal­liste was the first per­son to give George a break in­to the mu­sic busi­ness. Cal­liste is "the fa­ther and my fa­ther" said George.

Lyons, on the oth­er hand, taught George every­thing he need­ed to know about pow­er so­ca–most­ly by beat­ing him thor­ough­ly at nu­mer­ous So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tions.

"What peo­ple have to re­mem­ber is that when Su­per was in pow­er, I was de op­po­si­tion. I came sec­ond place in so many So­ca Mon­archs he won. So I was re­al­ly taught by him." Su­perBlue's seg­ment of the con­cert is be­ing called the "mi­ni con­cert."

George has tak­en every­thing he learned from Lyons and in turn has taught his son who now leads the new band Nos. Dun­can is be­ing called Mar­lon De Man­ag­er and Son of de Boss.

George said he is ex­treme­ly proud of the work Dun­can has ac­com­plished thus far and sees him as car­ry­ing on the George mu­si­cal lega­cy.

If all goes ac­cord­ing to plan, that mu­si­cal lega­cy will in­clude the 2013 Groovy So­ca Monarch ti­tle which George is con­fi­dent about win­ning.

George point­ed out that his 2007 song Fete Af­ter Fete was not fast-paced and still man­aged to win him the So­ca Monarch crown. This year, he is look­ing for­ward to a re­peat.

"For So­ca Monarch this year peo­ple can ex­pect a per­for­mance that the judges can­not say no to."

ABOUT IW­ER

Name: Neil Iw­er George aka De Boss,

De Big Man in de Busi­ness

Date of Birth: Ju­ly 11, 1964

Home­town: Point Fortin

Ed­u­ca­tion: Point Fortin RC Pri­ma­ry School, Fyz­abad Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School

Hit Songs: Jab Jab, Come to Meh,

Boom Boom Time, Fete Af­ter Fete

Ti­tles: In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch 2002,

2003 and 2007?

For more in­for­ma­tion, find George's Face­book page un­der "Neil Iw­er George."

To vote for him in Groovy So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tion, text IW­ER to GROV(4768).