Montserrat

Alphonsus Celestine Edmund Cassell MBE (born 16 November 1954) was a calypso & soca musician who performed under the stage name Arrow. He is regarded as the first true superstar of the soca genre.

Cassell first performed at the age of 10 in a concert at the Montserrat Secondary School. He began singing calypso in 1967. He won the Montserrat Junior Monarch title that year. He took up singing professionally in 1969 after becoming runner up in the Montserrat Calypso King competition. He followed up the family legacy of his brothers Justin (aka Hero) & Lorenzo (aka Young Challenger) by being crowned Montserrat Calypso King the following year. He would go on to win the title a total of four times.

He released his first single, "Dance with Me, Woman" in 1972. He set up his own Arrow label in 1973. 1974 saw the release of debut album The Mighty Arrow on Target, followed in 1975 with Arrow Strikes Again. He won the Road March competition at the 1975 St. Kitts festival with "Rummy Song".

Arrow began to fuse calypso with other genres such as R&B & salsa, resulting in some criticism, with accusations that he was destroying Montserrat's calypso traditions. In fact, his updating of the genre brought it to a new audience.

In 1982, Arrow began working with arranger Leston Paul & with Paul’s Multi National Force band, recorded the album Hot Hot Hot whose title track became his first pan-Caribbean hit. It has gone on to become the biggest selling soca hit of all time. It was adopted as the theme song of the 1986 Fifa World Cup in Mexico. It was later covered by David Johansen (in his Buster Poindexter alter ego), Menudo, & Babla & Kanchan, among others.

He capitalized on this success with 1983s Heat & 1984s Soca Savage, from which the international hit "Long Time" was taken. 

Cassell died peacefully at his home in Montserrat with his family at his side, on September 15, 2010, after battling cerebral cancer for two years.

Here is the raging Soca Savage.

 Arrow - Soca Savage, London Records LON 113, 1984.

decryption code in comments

Side 1 -

Party Mix                   

Long Time                  

Let's Do It        

Side 2 -
          

Colombia Rock                      

Prum-Prum                 

Beating Round De Bush                    

Hot Hot Hot 

Enjoy,
NØ