Rose Heights, Royal Rangers win at band clash

Labour Day found residents of many communities within St James as well as Trelawny filling the stands at the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Catherine Hall in anticipation of seeing nine marching bands face off for prizes and bragging rights. The competition, dubbed Clash of the Bands, is a project of the Lay Magistrates Association and Sweetwater Blossom Foundation, owned by Michelle Tinglin.

According to Vinton Haughton, band director at the Sam Sharpe Teachers' College, Clash of the Bands aims to bring communities together.

The competition began two hours later than the expected 2 p.m. start time, with inspection of the uniforms and instruments carried out by Albert Hird, acting director of music for the Jamaica Military Band. Where most patrons sat in silence as the members of each band lined up and stood at attention. Members of the Faith, Royal Rangers, Trelawny All-Stars, Sam Sharpe, Norwood Wesleyan Holiness Church, Montego Bay Boys & Girls Club, Cambridge, Green Pond, and Rose Heights marching bands took on the challenge and succeeded.

Each band was given 10 to 15 minutes to showcase its routines, which included the sounds of dancehall, reggae, pop, and R&B musical genres. The modified rhythms played on drums, cymbals, trumpets, and saxophones by the boys, girls, men, and women of each marching band jolted the stadium from stillness as it rumbled through the speakers.

Marching bands like Montego Bay Boys & Girls Club and Green Pond showed impressive use of space and formations, but it was Rose Heights that shook the stadium with its performance effect of shutting the tower lights off and clicking on the neon-lit drum sticks that made the routine all the more exciting to watch.

Rose Heights came out on top as the Best Advanced Band, receiving the grand prize $100,000 and three new instruments. Royal Rangers received the top prize as the Best Developing Band. Prizes were donated by the corporate community in St James, justices of the peace, Music Mart in Kingston, as well as recording artistes like Jesse Royal. An entire band of instruments was also split between the Norwood and Farm Heights communities and its environs as the consolation prize for selling the most tickets that will hopefully go to creating a new band.