Michelle Loubon

Vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian Hol­lis Liv­er­pool (Chalk­dust) said yes­ter­day his late com­rade Kelvin Pope's beloved clas­sic How Many More Must Die will be sung at his send-off at Coro­na­tion Park, Pt Fortin, on Jan­u­ary 22nd.

Pope died at the Eller­slie Park Pri­vate Hos­pi­tal (for­mer­ly Stan­ley's) at 1.05 pm on Jan­u­ary 13. For some time, he had been bat­tling bone mar­row can­cer.

Liv­er­pool said the dou­ble cel­e­bra­tion on Pope's life would take place at City Hall, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain, on Jan­u­ary 19 and 20 and in Pope's home­town of Point Fortin on Jan­u­ary 22. Duke, 77, was born in St Vin­cent and came to Trinidad at a ten­der age and lived at An­del Road in Point Fortin, be­fore mov­ing to Cap-de-Ville Main Road. Liv­er­pool said: "How Many More Must Die is one of the songs Duke was most fa­mous for. It brought home the mes­sage of the evil of apartheid in South Africa un­der PW Botha's regime.

"It will def­i­nite­ly be sung in his ho­n­our. We will be singing a lot of songs from his reper­toire. I know Teach The Chil­dren, too. It was an­oth­er one of his favourites. But I haven't se­lect­ed them all yet."

Liv­er­pool said he was still in the process of fi­nal­is­ing the pro­gramme for Thurs­day. "There will be a lot of ca­lyp­so and ca­lyp­so­ni­ans. I know (ca­lyp­so­ni­ans) Lu­ta and Gyp­sy will be there for sure. We want to give the grand man of ca­lyp­so a fine send-off."

Cel­e­bra­tion at City Hall, Port-of-Spain

Liv­er­pool said Duke's le­gions of fans in the North and East will al­so get an op­por­tu­ni­ty to pay trib­ute to him in Port-of-Spain. He said: "We are invit­ing the pub­lic to come and pay trib­ute to him in song, dance or lyri­cal verse. We want to ac­com­mo­date peo­ple who can­not make it all the way to South. Peo­ple will want to pay their re­spects to this great icon." Pope, a four-time Ca­lyp­so Monarch, left a lega­cy like his 1987 Road March hit Thun­der, Work It For Me, Black Is Beau­ti­ful and Visi­na.

Re­la­tor pays trib­ute

Mean­while, his col­leagues like Re­la­tor con­tin­ued pay­ing trib­ute to Pope yes­ter­day. Strum­ming on his gui­tar, Re­la­tor sang Black Is Beau­ti­ful at a me­dia lun­cheon host­ed by T&TEC at the Grand Ball­room, Hilton Trinidad, St Ann's, yes­ter­day.