MONTEGO BAY, St James — THE Montego Bay Boys Club concert band is celebrating its new official status as the island’s best young popular music outfit following last week’s first-place victory over a field of 16 competitors in the finals of the Jamaica Cultural Development Committee (JCDC) 2009.

“ I am happy for them. It is really a good feeling for them because now they can know that they can have a future in music. We are always here trying to show them that music can be a way out because it has been a way for us,” band director Mark Gooden told the

Observer West.

The 11-member band comprising Montego Bay-based boys between the ages of 10 and 17 won with a 10-minute performance which included the Wailers’ Hurting Inside; Dirty Dancing’s signature salsa-hit, Johnny’s Mambo; Don Drummond’s Schooling the Duke and the Abyssinian’s 1976 hit Satta Massagana.

“It was a different feeling from the semi-finals (in Montego Bay).There was a lot of nerves especially among the younger ones. So even after tuning the instruments, some of them were playing out of tune. To be frank when they were playing I was listening but I wasn’t hearing. But when they finished everyone was applauding and the MC had good comments so that kind of calmed me down a bit,” Gooden recalled.

Boys Club, a voluntary organisation formed in 1942, offers training in sports, music and ethics to poor innercity youths around the second city.

Despite their long, rich tradition, the institution is, however, dogged by a shortage of government and corporate support and struggles to buy equipment to rehearse for the band.

In the meantime Gooden, who praised the Sandals Group for employing the marching band on a weekly basis, is appealing to the public and private sector for financial assistance to support programmes at the institution.

“ This place has been around for around 70 years and never ever gets any support from the Government of Jamaica. It is only the performances of the marching band that keep this place going. So a lot of thanks must go to the Sandals Group...We have to thank them as we appeal for financial aid. Because with more finance we can do a lot more,” he said.

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