Nu-Vybes Wins 5th Road March Title and Beat Out Caribbean’s Top Bands For VIP Band Award
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – The Nu- Vybes Band International aka De Sugar Band has again taken the coveted Road March Title for St.Kitts-Nevis Carnival 2005-06.
The winning tune was “Ting Lang” which was penned and sung by talented vocalists Gregory “Mr. Mention” Hobson bandleader and lead vocalists of the regionally renowned band.
This was Nu-Vybes’ 5th title with Hand Signal in 97,Street Style in 98, Sugar in 2001, Step Up in 2002 and now Ting Lang in 2005. Many musical pundits have argued that the band has been snubbed or short changed on at least 3 occasions where the title was awarded to other bands under huge clouds of controversy.
The band is regarded as one of the better and most popular bands in the entire Caribbean region having won numerous Banderoama Titles in the US Virgin Islands, Nevis and Anguilla.
2005 has been a year of many success’ for the band including very successful tours of the US and the Virgin Islands which saw the band being featured very prominently in carnival celebrations in New York, Atlanta, Miami, St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and Tortola.
Having won the 2005/2006 Road March title, the “Sugar Band” will be representing the Federation in New York on the world famous Labor Day West Indian Carnival parade on the eastern parkway as part of a St. Kitts Tourism Authority promotional initiative. This will be the bands third appearance on the parkway the first two being in 1998 and 99.
In addition to the road march title the band crowned an already successful carnival season with the Best Band Award at the VIP Connected/ Cable and Wireless Caribbean Band Clash.
The event featured bands from throughout the region including the Better Band from Anguilla, the Nevis Road March Champions Ultra Sonics, the exciting El-A-Kru out of Antigua, Former Kittitian Road March Champions the Small Axe Band, the Chris Combette Band from Guyana, the Legends Band and 2004 St.Kitts Road March champions the Grand Masters.
The night laso featured Denise “Saucy Wow” Belfon from Trinidad. The Sugar Band outshined them all with an overwhelming performance that brought the large crowd of over 5,000 to there feet. The band played a 45-minute set that included non-stop high-energy hits from the bands most recent albums.
The road march hit Ting Lang as well as the huge 2004 hit Bangalang were definitely crowd favorites as the audience could be heard chanting the lyrics of the hit tunes. The band was officially awarded there VIP Connected Band Award trophy during the carnival last lap when C.E.O of VIP Connected Ms Julie Brookes presented the band with there award along with brand new razor cell phones for each member of the band compliments Cable and Wireless.
In addition to the bands VIP Best Caribbean Band Award it was recently announced that the band has also won the caribbeanmassive.com Peoples Choice Award.
This is the 2nd year in a row that the 7 member group has won the award for the very popular Caribbean website. The band is also leading the socamusic.com Best Band survey, wich feature the top Soca bands from throughout the region.
The band recently performed at and took part in the carnival celebrations in St.Croix US Virgin Islands where they put on another exceptional performance, playing for the islands carnival day parades on January 6th and 7th.
According to officials of the band 2006 is expected to be a very busy and progressive year for the band as plans are being made for highly anticipated performances appearances and performances in Trinidad, Barbados and Dominica.
The bands latest 2005/06 carnival release “Rolling Deep” which was recorded at Abo’s Digital Studio in St.Kitts-Nevis and Mastered and Mixed in Barbados at Andrew Denny’s Drew’s Crib Studios, has been met with rave reviews and many musical pundits have declared the album the best to date by the 20 year old band.
Officials of the 2005/2006 Road March Champ, the Nu-Vybes Band International publicly thanked God Almighty for the recent success as well as their fans who have been supporting them throughout the years.
