It’s a Family Affair….

South Connections Crew representing “Souf”, South London (“brap brap”) are known for their reveled behaviour at fetes held citywide and have taught us a thing or two, when it comes to the art form of bacchanalia. It is thus in knowing and with bated breath, we ventured down to their Mas Band 2012 showcase and unwittingly we were treated to a lesson in economics and a collection of creatively thought of, beautiful costumes.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES FROM SOUTH CONNECTIONS BAND LAUNCH

School: Club Excelsior, Balham

Class: Signs of The Times- 16^th June 2012

Teacher: Shaun Carrington, the mas camp Designer who visually taught us the lessons outlined below:

Extra Curricular Activities provided by: Triniboi Jooci and guest DJ QT 2 Hype

Lesson 101: entailed an intro into World Currencies. The four big players running the world right now were introduced through an adornment of feathers and jewels- Pound, Yen, Dollar and Euro.

Lesson 102: Front line Stockmarket

Lesson 103: Greed, Cruella Deville came and showed us why she earned that well known nickname, through her relentless pursuit in shopping and constantly “tiefing” people’s things.

Lesson 104: Tax Increases, depicted the new budget introduced in January and its effects on the middle, working and poor class.

Lesson 105: You know in the Thriller video where all the “duppies” are wearing rags and looking dishevelled? Well Recession, taught us that you have to do, what you can do, with what you have, even it means improvising cleverly with foil.

Lesson 106: Through Hope for Recovery, we were reminded that when it stops raining and the dark clouds of economic misery fade away, at the end of the rainbow lies a leprechaun with a pot of gold just waiting for us.

The Vibe/Crowd: Since this was a family atmosphere, the crowd was varied and included members of all ages. Rather subdued and quiet it did take a while for the crowd to warm up. Big Up to Triniboi Jooci, the energy and crowd alarm clock who held his own and performed a collection of his past and current hits.

All-in-all: To the unknowing eye, South Connections represents a group of young people with the sole intention of getting on bad through their love of Soca. However it takes a curious mind to realise that beneath the surface and two decades on, there lies a wealth of history and a band steeped in keeping the family tradition alive, educating and passing on the concept of what carnival used to be to the younger generation.

From South Trinidad to South London, the band members of South Connection have strived to teach the youth about current life conditions, what Carnival is about, what Mas really is and the importance of wearing costume. With strong matriarchal grounding and direction this is a band to watch and this is a band to learn from.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES FROM SOUTH CONNECTIONS BAND LAUNCH