I wonder how many times in its history Westminster Abbey has hosted live calypso?!
As part of this year’s celebrations leading up to Commonwealth Day Alexander D’Great did a session at the Abbey. He sang two really powerful songs: one about remembering our heroes, the troops from the Caribbean, who fought in World War One; and the second which started off as Lord Kitchener’s famous ‘London is the Place For Me’ but segued into Alexander’s own, undeniably less optimistic, song about the Windrush generation and their experiences following their arrival in the ‘Mother Country’.
After his songs he invited the audience to join him in writing a calypso on the spot. It was remarkable how many timid souls got up and left at this point. Those who stayed, mostly families with young children came up with a call and response song with the refrain ‘here we are in Westminster Abbey’. The result was creditable given the very limited time available and it just shows what a versatile medium calypso is.
I would have included a recording of Alex’ performance but unfortunately there was building work going on in another part of the Abbey and the noise of hammering and drilling was a bit intrusive. A pity, but it was obvious that the children (and their grown ups) who participated really enjoyed the experience.
Alex really is tireless in his efforts to promote calypso. You can find examples of his work on YouTube but also in the post just below this one (on the ‘News’ page) where you can see him singing ‘Heroes’.