In twenty-six short years, Colin George Lyndersay Lucas, the man who in 1991 gave us the soca hit Dollar Wine, has achieved his childhood dream at age forty-three, that of being General Manager of the Port of Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.
"It could be a genetic thing, but this was always my career as my father, Bertie, held several senior positions. Singing has always been a passionate hobby but it never occurred to me that I should earn my living doing that. My fear always was if I started singing or performing to earn my keep and make my daily bread, that I would lose the passion for it."
On leaving St Mary's College, when most young men want to be doctors or lawyers, Lucas' mother was "not exactly ecstatic about my choice when I said Mom, I really want to be in the port you know. She accused my father of putting that in my head." Lucas senior had spent forty-one years at the port and retired as Manager Port Operations. Colin, who has never worked anywhere else, completed a first degree in Management Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus on a scholarship for children of port employees, came back to the port, and then did his Masters degree in Accounting at the St Augustine Campus. Among the many courses in port training, he has had professional training in Antwerp, Germany and Baltimore.
What makes a young man who could also have had a much more lucrative career in music, choose what we all know is the most difficult task of managing the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.
"People are always in utter amazement about the port" Colin explained "but it is a beehive of activity and I have always found it exciting. Once my father had to cut my tail as instead of going home straight from primary school at Newtown Boys, I brought my friends down to the port to see where my Daddy was working."
A most disciplined individual, Lucas has combined a successful marriage to Sharon and parenting of four children ages four to seventeen, with being a top-class entertainer for many years, and his meteoric rise at the Port Authority. He has also played lawn tennis at national level, and table tennis, football, cricket and basketball at College.
It was at the end of his St Mary's College days that Lucas really became involved in music with Louis Nurse, Pablo Sabella, Richard Anthony Yorke and Anthony Lewis. It was the era of combos. " Then I went to Jamaica and met a guy called Charlie Roberts, the most talented musician I ever, ever met in my life. He had a campus band called Charlie and the Corporation. He could play every instrument better than the instrumentalists and had a most amazing voice, and now has the effrontery to be a successful doctor too." Lucas became drummer/vocalist in the Corporation and was also keyboard/vocalist in the Generation Gap, whose leader Freddie Mc Gregor became an international star.
Returning to Trinidad, Lucas started the well-known Sound Revolution in 1976, an offshoot of the band ARAC, named for the friends who formed the band, Andre (Day), Richard (Ramsubag), Arturo (Marcano) and Charles (Assam).
Sound Rev's practising at his parents home in Delhi Street did not present a problem. "We were disciplined to softer practice music since you cannot discern your mistakes with loud music nor hear the quality of music. Sometimes we would get a little out of hand and my mother, Joyce, would just take a broomstick and tap the floor."
For someone this young, Colin's ability to combine a demanding career at the port and a successful career in the entertainment industry, is unique. "It was a routine of coming home from work, getting a little something to eat and be ready for practice. That was my recreation, instead of drinking and liming, I focused my energy into rehearsals which were basically from 7 to 10 or 11 p.m. Our tours were summer tours, Labour Day, Caribana, Boston Carnival and I would take my vacation leave and go on tour, so it worked out quite nicely." In the later years with the opening of Soca Village on Wrightson Road, where a lot of the major fetes were held, this extremely unusual individual would play, come to his office do some work, and return to play the second session. "I used to do that regularly."
Although Lucas has annually produced a list of soca hits which he has sang in the tents, at fetes and on the Caribbean circuit, he found himself stepping away from the tent and also from the party scene at one and the same time for two reasons: "one of which was lack of time was becoming an unbearable burden."
"The other is the soca mafia which is alive and well. In the earlier days of the mafia, they would never kick in until the last two weeks before Carnival when you would start hearing X's song all the time. Prior to that other songs would get a chance to be played and appreciated." "But within the last few years, the Mafia kicks in from day one so that you will only hear certain songs from certain entertainers with nauseating frequency. Other songs are either completely ignored or just given token play" says a very concerned Colin, who quickly added "I must say not all radio deejays are participants, at least not actively, but some passively as they just automatically play what other deejays and radio stations play. Of course they can always excuse it by that is what the people want to hear. What happens here is called power play or power rotation as they play the song into people's psyche. It is on rotation every hour while others will play once every three days."
"I do not have a problem if you earn that rotation but when the rotation is used to generate popularity, I have a problem with that." He has tried getting around this "power rotation by doing videos but with the proliferation of cable, most of Trinidad and Tobago will not see it, you spend $30,000 and you really do not get any returns on it, except that you have a good video."
"People who know they going to get to the youth anyway do not need to write anything of substance, a beat, a riddum as they call it, and once the hype of the season goes down, there is no resideual value." "This is very dangerous for an emerging culture" says this talented performer "imagine music you want to sell to the world, they cannot remember two weeks after Carnival. It is distressing."
While the soca thing appeals to Lucas, he is aware that if you write a song you are accused of writing an essay. "Everything now is four hook lines repeated thirty times each one with a rhythm. I cannot do that. When I write a song you must be able to remember the song years down the road."
Since he realises that the only three areas which appeal to audiences in song are social and political commentaries and pan, Colin has written a pan song "Pan is Mine" for release in the year 2000. And speaks excitedly of plans to redo and release internationally his 1998 hit Soca Conga Line. While a German producer patiently waits in the wings for Colin Lucas to come back to Germany to release a new version of the Dollar Wine. "He sent the ticket, itinerary, everything, and was willing to be tolerant about my job commitments, until eventually he became a bit exasperated and said okay Mr Lucas when you ready, you call me and tell me."
As we sat in the beautiful Port Authority boardroom overlooking Colin's world of the docks and berthed vessels, I asked what other dreams were his, as retirement in17 years was still a long way off. "You wouldn't believe" he said in his very cool manner "I always felt that I would like to try my hand at lecturing or tutoring, or both, at university. There are other aspects of corporate life, perhaps, sitting on boards etc., but that comes with networking oneself and I have had no time to focus on networking myself. Basically I am focused on getting the port's work done."