The Calibro Band’s musical equipment which disappeared in a taxi after an injured band member was dropped off at the Mahaicony Cottage Hospital following an accident, was successfully recovered yesterday, according to Band member Leon ‘Supercat’ Dundas.
Dundas informed the Stabroek News that around 2:30 pm he received a call from the police, requesting that he visit a home, which turned out to be the home of the driver’s mother, situated in the Mahaicony area. Dundas explained that when he got to the home, he was shown an incomplete set of musical and band instruments which he was able to identify positively as that of the band’s. The taxi driver was then contacted, via telephone, and in the presence of the police he gave his mother specific directions on the whereabouts of the remaining equipment, all of which were located in another home in the said area. The driver, according to Dundas, claimed that he is in the interior. Dundas then informed this newspaper that he further advised the police not to proceed with investigating the matter as all of the equipment was recovered.
The equipment, valued at approximately $1 million, went missing after another band member, Valdero Calistro known as Valdo, 40-year-old, of Best Road Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, sustained multiple injuries, including a broken arm, in an accident that occurred between 0330 to 0400 hrs last Sunday. The band was returning from playing at a birthday party at Number 51 Village, Berbice, when the car they were in hit a culvert. Calistro had told the Stabroek News that following the accident, a taxi driver stopped and rendered assistance to the members of the band by transporting them and the equipment to the hospital. When they arrived, Calistro disembarked the taxi, while the driver left a phone number with a nurse along with a promise to return. The taxi left the hospital but was never heard of nor seen again. Unfortunately for the driver, a security officer at the hospital recorded the car’s license plate number when it entered and exited the hospital’s compound.
The Calibro Band originated in the Pomeroon, Region Two, and comprises five brothers and one sister. Founded by Neville Calistro, known as the ‘Mighty Chief’, the first Amerindian Calypsonian in Guyana, it is Guyana’s first Indigenous band. The band usually performs at Amerindian Heritage Month celebrations, weddings, birthdays among others.
The Calibro Band thanked the public for their help in the recovering their equipment. Among the recovered instruments were a Yamaha PSR s970 keyboard, Behringer mixer, 15-inch EV speaker, a case with 3 microphones and multiple cables, and a keyboard stand among other items.
