Facts n' Roses team basks in Mash success
- taking Firestorm to Berbice
Stabroek News
March 3, 2007
Following up on the success achieved in 2006, Michelle Cole and Trevor Rose of Facts n' Roses (FnR) created the right balance to capture the prestigious prize of best full large costumed band in this year's Mashramani.
The duo struck gold in two of the categories the full large band as well as the male individual costume, which was represented by the Sun God. FnR also got second prize in four other categories including, king, queen, female individual costumes and commercial float.
The FnR duo said they were quite elated over the wins. After what Michelle says was "some bad press" the prize they were aiming for came home to them. Trevor expressed some regret at not having defended his King of the Road prize captured last year with the Banks DIH float. However he noted, "it could only make me work harder next year."
"I was disappointed with the decision for the mash night King of the Road costume. There were some technical difficulties with the lighting on the night in the National Park and I don't think that should have cost me the prize," Trevor told The Scene.
As the FnR team makes its mark continues to reach for that dominant market position locally, inspiration this year came from the advent of a major telecommunications
provider in Guyana. "The inspiration came from the whole concept of Digicel taking the Guyana market by storm. So we just added a little more flavour to it by calling the band Firestorm," Trevor said.
The fact that Digicel traditionally represents its brand in red also helped Michelle and Trevor to come up with the theme of the band that represented four elements of fire. These elements were dragon fighters that came along with the main float, blazing flames, fire dragons and the sun god and goddesses. "The costumes were inspired by the same theme from the different elements of fire from the burning flames to the fire dragon to the fire goddess," Michelle said.
The dragon fighters' costumes resembled those of the medieval knights; the blazing flames were represented mainly with brilliant red and gold flaming pieces, the fire dragons costume featured dragon wing pieces while the sun god and goddesses were depicted with pieces representing the sun.
Trevor explained that the male costume represented the dragon fighters as the main float was one of a dragon. The king of the band was pulling the costume as dragon fighters brought up the rear. The female aspect was elements of fire burning flames, dragon fire, revellers and the goddess. The float in the band depicted a dragon aggressively straddling a globe. Trevor explained that the globe was intended to represent Digicel as an international
player in communications, while the fire breathing dragon shows the way the company "burns out" the competition wherever it chooses to roll out its service.
In putting everything together FnR had help from their working partner Roger Gary and a workforce of 24 individuals. Initially, The Scene learnt, things started out with 16 people and increased, as it drew closer to Mash, to the final figure. Completion of the costume band cost them sleepless nights, while Digicel shelled out a few million easy to put it all together.
Firestorm for all those interested would be blazing the fire in Berbice for Mashramani celebrations in the ancient county on Monday. It was not part of the Linden event, as the FnR crew needed to recuperate. A slightly smaller contingent will descend on Berbice, but the fire would still be blazing with some 100 mainly Berbicians, who are "very involved" in the four segments.
Mashramani, whether in GT or elsewhere, is however not the end of the road for the duo in 2007 since they are aiming to promote the Guyana Fashion Expo that would be launched on March 31 at the Umana Yana, Kingston. The expo would most likely be a two-day event showcasing designers from Guyana and around the world. It would feature also a number of models from overseas including two of the girls from 'America's Next Top Model', Carla Campbell of Sports Illustrated fame and Bobby Roach who was featured in Beyonce's "Irresistible" video.
Fans should also look out for the reproduction of Storm, which FnR said many Guyanese have been requesting as they were not able to see it the first time around.
FnR took the opportunity to reflect on the response to the last staging of Storm. Trevor said: "the rain played a part in hampering the show. Because of rain it was called off and on the day persons were not aware the show was still on." He noted though that regardless of the response the show was very organized and a lot of Guyanese would like to experience it.