Xtaushun Band @ J'ouvert Mawnin' 2007
Xtaushun was formed by Angel "A.J. Ventura and his cousin Alvin in 2003 when Ventura was only 15 years old. "We used to play around on my grandmother's porch," he said. "I always had keyboards and he had a guitar." One day they looked at each other and said, "You know, we need a band!"
They lured lead vocalist Dennis "Pumpa" Liburd, a friend at Central High School, away from plans to form his own band. "I said, 'you need to come with us because we're doing something serious,'" Ventura recalled.
With the addition of classmate Ana Nelson as female vocalist, another Ventura cousin Roland Horsford on bass and Wanson Harris, a longtime friend from summer camp, on drums, the band was born.
They pulled the name, Xtaushun, from a movie called "Shottas," except they "put a little Crucian twist and dialect to it and spelled it how we wanted," Ventura said.
Their first live performance was at Ventura's 16th birthday party in a local club, and it went much better than expected although "we were kinda nervous." On that night, Ventura also met Mapleton "Tarco" Lawrence Jr., who was there accompanying the sound engineer. Tarco, who is the son of the original Tarco and the Playboys, was a keyboard player and, Ventura thought, the perfect person to take over much of the keyboard duties for the band.
Only a month later, they were crowned Road March Champions for the first time with their breakout hit, "Energy." A year later, they hit gold again with the song "Gasoline."
Cousin Alvin left the band to pursue his education and was replaced by Mark Sexius. Drummer Harris, who was in the National Guard, recieved orders to report to Iraq with his unit and was replaced by Vio International bassist Peter Willock.
In May 2006, Nelson and the band parted ways and a month later, the band added Melushua "Lady Spice" Parker as their new female singer. In July 2006, Lawrence "Skittles" Walcott entered the band to replace Sexius.
For bookings, call 340-713-1098 or 340-773-9149
