Michelle Loubon

Montser­rat, home of the Soufriere Hills vol­cano, mar­kets it­self as the Emer­ald Isle of the Caribbean. A cherub with a sham­rock etched on her cheek, of­fers a guide to Montser­rat.

The is­land has a rich his­to­ry, with a new page be­ing writ­ten on Oc­to­ber 4, and with the bur­ial of a so­ca leg­end Alphon­sus Cas­sell (Ar­row).

In 1982, Cas­sell, a beloved son of the Montser­rat soil, re­leased his first pan-Caribbean hit Hot! Hot! Hot! which be­came the biggest so­ca hit to this date. On Sep­tem­ber 15, the is­land lost its beloved so­ca am­bas­sador to brain can­cer at his Lime Kiln home, where he was laid to rest al­most three weeks lat­er.

Pri­or to the farewell, Montser­rat was plunged in­to a pe­ri­od of mourn­ing for its beloved so­ca icon. Among the high­lights was a mil­i­tary mo­tor­cade, which be­gan at Salem Cen­tre and end­ed at Ryan's Court (The Ly­me).

His body was laid in State on Oc­to­ber 1, and mourn­ers poured in from around the world to pay their fi­nal re­spects. Min­ster of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism, Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters, and Cas­sell's Hot! Hot! Hot! arranger, Sir Le­ston Paul, were among the T&T con­tin­gent at­tend­ing the fu­ner­al. An­tigua and Bar­bu­da Prime Min­is­ter Bald­win Spencer was al­so present.

Joy­ous cel­e­bra­tion, re­union

Paul de­scribed the re­union as "nos­tal­gic," es­pe­cial­ly since band mem­bers had gath­ered in Montser­rat to pay their fi­nal re­spects to Cas­sell. He said the re­union, which be­gan at 2 am and went on un­til one the next morn­ing, was etched in his mind.

"I was on stage with base play­er Onguku, key­boardist Roland Richards, and drum­mer Reiko. Bian­ca Hull and Lum Kam (two of Ar­row's four wives) joined us. In fact, all four of them were there.

"We were jam­ming all of Ar­row's songs like Hot! Hot! Hot! and Rhum­ba To The So­ca. Justin (Cas­sell's broth­er) came on stage at the last part of the fu­ner­al. He told us the on­ly rea­son he didn't break down was be­cause we were there."

Paul said he joined Swal­low, Red Plas­tic Bag and Min­is­ter Pe­ters in the singing of Frank Sina­tra's Ever­green and My Way.

"When he left and the mo­men­tum died, I don't know what hap­pened. He (Justin) and Ar­row were so close," Paul's voice trailed off.

Solemn, but joy­ous oc­ca­sion

De­scrib­ing Cas­sell as his friend, Min­is­ter Pe­ters said, "It was a solemn oc­ca­sion." He re­called read­ing the signs as he passed through An­tigua–"Thank you Ar­row for the mu­sic."

But Pe­ters added, "It was al­so a joy­ous oc­ca­sion. Don't think peo­ple were bawl­ing and crawl­ing when he was buried in his yard. It was a solemn but joy­ous oc­ca­sion."

Dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, Pe­ters said, Cas­sell told him not to re­turn home with mon­ey. "Boy, take your mon­ey and buy mer­chan­dise," Pe­ters said was the mes­sage he got from his friend.

He said he had fond mem­o­ries of tour­ing with Cas­sell through­out Africa, Eu­rope, Brazil, and North Amer­i­can cities.

"Ar­row and I had a won­der­ful re­la­tion­ship. Hot! Hot! Hot! was al­ways a hit." Pe­ters ex­tend­ed ku­dos to Paul for hav­ing the vi­sion to cre­ate such de­light­ful mu­sic.

"It speaks vol­umes about the ge­nius of T&T's peo­ple," he said.

Pe­ters said he heard that there were plans to con­vert Cas­sell's pala­tial man­sion in­to a mu­se­um and tourist at­trac­tion.

"I would be more than will­ing to give any as­sis­tance I can to Montser­rat on be­half of this gem which the Caribbean pro­duced."