I wonder if any of you Guys or Gals can give me a bit of advice please. I have taken a booking for one of the guys who works for us and on their request sheet the organiser has asked for 10-15 minutes of Soca.

Now I think I've got it covered with this album SOCA ANTHEMS but apart from the more commercial adaptations of some of these tracks - can anyone suggest any others we may need to look at?

Also, I hate 'tagging' music but could the recent Kevin Lyttle hit have been classed Soca (it's on the request list anyway)

Cheers now

Can't help on this one!. Its a new one to me as well.

It's funny this should come up, I've got to sit down and do some reseach in to this, Soca & Jive are becomeing BIG TIME.

Moog, probably best to check that he only wants Soca and not calypso?

Soca originates from Trinidad & Tobago and is much faster than traditional Calypso and is pure party music. Soca is basically a mix of Calypso speeded up and mixed with Indian rhythms.
The first huge Soca hit was by a guy called Lord Kitchener and was called 'Sugar Boom Boom'. It is a fantastic tune and one that I often use at my gigs as it goes down well with all types of audiences not only west-Indians.
If you have any elderly west-Indians at the gig then you definitely need to play this tune.
Lord Kitchener was king of Calypso from the 30's to the 70's but then started getting more into Soca.

Most of you will also know the tune by Harry Belafonte 'Banana Boat Song (Day-O)'. This was the first ever international calypso hit, back in the 50's.

The biggest Soca tune was probably Arrow-'Hot, Hot, Hot' in the early 80's

The rise of Soca in the 70's saw a real decline in Calypso.
Some of the better known Soca artists are: Byron Lee, David Rudder, Super P, Arrow, Better Band, Square One and the biggest hits apart from the one's mentioned above have been Anslem Douglas-'Who Let The Dogs Out' (which was the original of the pop version by the Baha Men), Nigel & Marvinn-'Follow The Leader' (many people in the UK know this as a house track cos of a house mix released some time back!) & Kevin Little & Alison Hinds-'Turn Me On'.
Kevin Little is basically Soca but he also blends reggae and R&B into his Soca.

Moog, the CD you've linked to is OK but for people who are really into Soca; they may be a bit pi$$ed off at the lack of original artists on some of these tunes, for example the tracks on there: Hot Hot Hot, Dollar, Sugar Bum Bum, (apart from being spelt wrong) were originally done and better known by Arrow, Pete Collins & Lord Kitchener respectively.

You might be better of with a cd called 'D'Soca Zone: 4th Jump'
which you can get at Dub Vendor
which is one of the best reggae shops around.
If you really wanna splash out then get 'Soca Gold 2003' as well.

Without meaning to sound racist, if it's mainly white people then the one you linked will be fine, if not get the other one or if you're really flush get all of 'em

Hey Eskie
You are the top man
Very informative
I have been asked for this sort of stuff on one or two weddings and I did'nt have a clue what they were on about!
thank you

It is a mainly white crowd but since the genre is one I am not familiar with (to my shame really) I will call the organiser for further details. Looking down the rest of the list, there are some unusual requests and it suggests the people making the booking are really into their 'specialist' music. I think it is one gig I should do myself, rather than give solely it to the DJ I was going to assign to it. He can come along and let me do all the work, while he gets all the pay Learn DJing and get paid too... with The Moog

There's a lot of really good late 80's / early 90's house on the list (Ten City, Paul Simpson, Inner City, Joe Smooth).... Looks like the vinyl may come out to play


Many thanks for your help here Eskie.

silly me ! there I was thinking it had something to do with chasing a ball around a field, and there’s my son been playing Hot, Hot, Hot on steel pans for the last 5 years.
Oh well learn something new every day I suppose.

Jetstar

During converting my CD's over to laptop recently, I admit to struggling to know what Genre to file "Arrow" under. In the end, not knowing any better, I shrugged and simply put it under "Party".

If what Mike says is correct, and this genre is becoming more popular and eventually spreads North, then i'll be adding a new category and soon. Like Moog this is all new and a learning curve to me.

- I want a website layout like Dub Vendors , that front page of the record shop is great!.

Dub Vendor! Nice helpfull people in there and situated right next door to a cheapo cd warehouse, spent an absolute fortune in the 2 shops last time I went & I mean a fortune

There are tons of soca albums at cdnow.com... you can listen to the track too. I often play soca twist - which goes down pretty well. Soca means soulful calypso if thats any help.

Thanks again for all your help

I had heard of Soca before - just never had occasion to play any (apart from Arrow!). I'll get a couple of good complations and I should be covered