Tension Invasion Band

Band Bio

It was in November 2007 when Mark ‘Ferly’ Gooden and David ‘Sleepy’ Cunningham decided that the club must have a stage band. So they both got together and bought two new keyboards and some new guitar strings. One night at the club during roll call, Ferly announced that he wanted to start a stage band but it’s not possible with the band members so all who are interested must come to class on the following Saturday. On that Saturday only 3 members turned up which was Collin Farquharson, Jo-Dayne Andre Virgo and Shevard Frazer. We started out on theory for a few weeks where we got to understand a little about music. So we decided to learn our first few easy reggae songs. On December 19th, 2007 at our annual Christmas Dinner on the club compound, we got to play a few songs including some carols which went well and everyone was surprised and were even saying that we must take it serious.

Year 2007 band members; Shevard Frazer – Drummer

Collin Farquharson – keyboard

Jo-Dayne Virgo – Bass Guitar

Kejay Topping – Saxaphone

In the year 2008, we started to practice more theory and songs from January to October. In November one of the club football player, Shots, brought a newspaper to our practice saying that there is a band competition that is going to start that month. So Ferly and Sleepy decided to send us to register. The competition was JCDC Band Competition 2008. The first round went well, but unfortunately we got eliminate in the semi-finals. This did not stop us. We even started to make new plans for the next competition saying that we have to win.

Once again at the club annual Christmas dinner that year, we played even more songs, and better.

In year 2009, practice went well until the drummer and bass player decided to leave for another band. So we got new replacement. Which was;

Aljarome Green - keyboard

Danoi Fray - Trombone

Yhenda Lewis - Alto Sax

Hashley Patterson - Tenor Sax

Norman Boswell - Trumpet

Shavanne James - Percussion

Obrian Adams - Percussion

Miguel Davis - Drums

Brandon Daley - Congos

Omeesh James - Bass Guitar

Owen Cox - Sax

Some of them had difficulties for awhile, but everyone started getting to understand more about the music and it even got better than the previous set of members.

We even got more interesting teachers like Keron ‘Squeeze I’ McLaughlin, Delroy ‘Cava’ Reid, Tony ‘Ruption’ Williams, who made us even more intereted in playing music. Reaching the month November, we were already prepared for the JCDC Annual Competition.

(by C. Farquharson)

JCDC Band Competition 2009 Report

(by H. Patterson)

In the early part of November our band instructor Ferly told us that we were going to be entering into a band competition and we were so excited. He then came about selecting persons for the competition and chose eleven of us. We had some old boys like Squeeze I for the trombone, Cava and Westgate for the drums, and Sleepy for the saxophone, who all came to assist us and helped us to get the parts right.

On our first week of practice, we had a quite number of difficulties with the band members. No one could get along with each other, but we managed to overcome the conflicts between each other and made the band sounded very good. But then after that we hardly would practice. We would only practice about once a week and that was two weeks before the semi-finals.

Sem-finals was held on November 24, at St. John Methodist Church. We all were a little nervous first. When we arrived, there were not a lot of bands there. We were the 5th band to perform. After the Herbert Morrison Technical High, and the Montego Bay High School band performed, we were starting to get worried. But when it was our time we said our club prayers and went on stage and started to perform. After we did our first song, the judge stopped us and said that we needed to tune our instruments and we felt so embarrassed. We tuned our instruments then continued. We got serious and pulled through our selection, and at the end of the day we got the highest score, so we knew that we were on our way to the finals. The judge said we need to work on our dance moves, so we did just that and work on our moves, and it was great.

So the day came on December 20, we all got ready for the finals but before we left we had a quick practice to finalize everything, and it was great so we headed out for the Ranny Williams Entertainment Center in Kingston.

On our arrival we saw a lot of bands there. In all, there were 18 bands in the competition, and when the finals got started, some of the other bands sounded great, but they didn’t scare us because we prayed to god for strength and for perseverance to carry through.

When it was time for us to perform we said our club prayers, and then went up on stage, took up our positions and started. It was very wonderful and well organized and everybody liked it. After everybody performed the judges took a break to tally the scores and after it was finished the MC started to give out trophies for the various aspects of the competition.

First we got a trophy for Most Outstanding Junior Band, and then we got another for Most Outstanding Community Band, then another for being the Best Band in St. James and last trophy for 1st place in the competition. So in all we got four trophies and we were so happy and was rejoicing.

From this experience it has made us become better musicians and it has given us the exposure. Right now we are practicing for the Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival. We are so happy to be a part of the Tension Invasion Band and now we are the number 1 band in Jamaica!

Band Members


*Aljarome Green* - Keyboard -	Brandon Daley - Congos -	Danoi Fray - Trombone -	Hashley 'Bone' Patterson - Tenor Sax -


Kejay 'Bojay' Topping - Tenor Sax -	Norman 'Ladabag' Boswell - Trumpet -	Omeesh James - Bass Guitar -	Obrian 'Passa' Adams - Percussion -


Owen Cox - Sax -	Shavanne 'Piglet' James - Percussion -	Teddy-ann Samuels	Yhenda 'Soljaman' Lewis - Alto Sax -


Collin 'Blakka' Farquharson - Keyboard -	Miguel 'Fish' Davis - Drums -