WINNING THE 2008 Cable & Wireless First Caribbean Pic-O-De Crop Finals on Friday, August 01 is still a dream for Adrian Clarke, such a good dream that he overslept and nearly missed a breakfast meeting with local, regional and international journalists at the Hilton Hotel the next morning.
AC, as he is more familiarly known apologised and thanked all those who supported him at the capacity filled event at Kensington Oval. "It still hasn't hit me that I have won. I know I have won but it still doesn't feel real." Neither does the overwhelming support he got from the audience whose applause was deafening, drowning MC Mac Fingall's voice as he introduced the final competitor John King. "I could hear the audience singing along, even as we were leaving the stage and high-fiving each other, and I could see their support...it was unreal." The audience were impressed with Clarke's scathing attack on his calypso colleagues, some of whom are his friends. "I called John and let him know I will be giving him some licks and Bag is like a mentor to me. Every year he calls me to find out what I'm doing for the season. I've been to Bag's house to get help with lyrics and melody, so the song is not personal. It is just competition."
Calypso pundits are saying that Clarke's performance of Put That In Yuh Song is the best they have in seen in more than two decades of competition. They commented on his delivery and the quality of the lyrics which were written by himself and Tony Waldron who has also written for Red Plastic Bag and John King. "We made some changes to the song to strengthen it and it worked." What also worked was Clarke's simple presentation of strolling minstrels. "I wanted to keep it simple so as not to distract from the song. There was more we wanted to do but time was against us."
Friday's win is Clarke's second, having won in 2001, but this time he is keeping the car - a 2008 Toyota Corolla valued at $70 000 from the official Toyota distributor NASSCO, complete with a rust arrestor package from Motormac Car Care Centre, free insurance for a year from CGI and up to $1 000 in free gas from ESSO Tweedside Road. He also won a trophy and $10 500 in cash.