Nigel Teles­ford

Three-time Chut­ney So­ca Monarch GI (Im­ran Be­har­ry) has of­fi­cial­ly joined T&T’s most en­er­getic live so­ca out­fit, The A Team Band, ahead of Car­ni­val 2026. The Bun­ga­low Restau­rant and Lounge in St Clair came alive last week as the band un­veiled its new front­line singers and de­liv­ered a dy­nam­ic, genre-blend­ing per­for­mance for pro­mot­ers, spon­sors and spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed guests.

Lead­ing the reimag­ined en­sem­ble is GI, joined by pow­er­house vo­cal­ist and ris­ing tal­ent Kristi­na James, and sea­soned singer/song­writer Joel “Zan” Feveck.

This re­freshed line-up promis­es to pro­pel the band to new heights with in­fec­tious en­er­gy, com­mand­ing stage pres­ence and un­de­ni­able chem­istry. Al­ready recog­nised as one of the best-sound­ing and fastest-ris­ing bands on the cir­cuit, The A Team has long served as the pre­ferred back­ing band for so­ca su­per­star Patrice Roberts, ac­com­pa­ny­ing her at full sets and con­cert per­for­mances.

At last week’s launch, pa­trons at The Bun­ga­low were among the first to ex­pe­ri­ence the band’s ex­pand­ed look and el­e­vat­ed sound, now an­chored by GI and com­ple­ment­ed by the voic­es of Kristi­na and Zan.

Band man­ag­er Zarin More­an not­ed that re­cent cul­tur­al and eco­nom­ic shifts helped shape the band’s new di­rec­tion.

“Get ready to ex­pe­ri­ence the ul­ti­mate A Team!” he said. “We’ve al­ways been search­ing for the per­fect front­line mix, and GI came with fresh ideas, an en­gaged fan base and a pro­pos­al we sim­ply couldn’t refuse. He al­so re­mind­ed us that so­ca—as Ras Shorty I in­tend­ed—was meant to unite the East In­di­an and African com­mu­ni­ties. Our new sound re­flects that ide­al as we head in­to 2026.”

James and Feveck al­so ex­pressed en­thu­si­asm about join­ing forces with the chut­ney so­ca star. For GI, the move rep­re­sents a long-await­ed mile­stone.

“This has al­ways been a dream of mine—to lead a great band and rep­re­sent our mu­sic and cul­ture in its full­ness,” he said. “That’s the edge The A Team brings now. From Chut­ney hits to Afrobeats, R&B, Pop, So­ca, Ca­lyp­so and more, we’re poised to be­come the must-have band for every fete, Christ­mas par­ty, con­cert and show­case across the Di­as­po­ra. Long live The A Team—salute!”

As part of its evolv­ing brand and of­fer­ings, GI and The A Team Band fea­tur­ing Kristi­na and Zan will take the stage at the sec­ond an­nu­al VIP Cool­er Fete on Jan­u­ary 25, at the Cipri­ani Col­lege of Labour Grounds in Val­sayn from 5 pm to mid­night.

Fans and po­ten­tial pa­trons are en­cour­aged to se­cure ear­ly-bird tick­ets now—avail­able on is­landet­ick­ets and through com­mit­tee mem­bers—and con­sid­er gift­ing tick­ets as the per­fect Christ­mas present for fete-lovers.

The band is al­so ex­pand­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for emerg­ing per­form­ers through its week­ly “A Team Fridaze” Live Show­case. The event streams every Fri­day from 7.30 pm on the band’s so­cial me­dia plat­forms: YouTube @Trinida­dATeam­Band, Face­book at A Team Band TT, Tik­Tok at @ateam­band, and on their web­site, ateam­bandtt.com.