Vincent Chang And The Tastee Experience - Lois Grant

L - R: Vincent Chang, Annette Chang and Lois Grant

GRATITUDE IS A MUST..in the living years! I'm sharing with you Vernon Derby because you also were there with us on this journey... 

THANKS TO VINCENT CHANG.. Vincent Chang.. of Tastee Limited is the person to whom I pay gratitude in the birth month celebrations. Having just started my own “promotions and PR agency, Innercity Promotions, one day I just happened to be driving by the Tastee concert. I was shocked to see the sparse crowd at its Cross Roads venue. In previous years, I had worked with the agency that developed the concept and was accustomed to seeing the place ‘cork’. Being the fearless person I am.. I walked into Tastee, and got the attention of Mr. Chang .I told him how disappointed I was to see the contest about to die.. Right there I offered my services. His response “..Do you think you could revive it?” “Absolutely, if you give me the chance”, I said , and he did. 

Armed with a new approach to promoting and marketing the contest, I took over its organization and staging and successfully turned the contest into a road blocking event every other month. In no time it outgrew its location and was later moved to property acquired next door the company’s Headquarters. I learnt a lot about business from that humble, quiet giant businessman ..a man who wasn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and to work alongside his employees churning out daily, thousands of what was the #1 patty at the time. 

My almost 30 year association with Tastee saw the company staging the Caribbean’s leading talent contest and unearthing some of Jamaica’s entertainers who to this day are the big names in the industry. We took the contest to almost every parish as fore- runner to the opening of Tastee outlets island wide. Vincent Chang understood the role that culture and education played. He knew where his support came from…the masses of the Jamaican people. When other businesses (black owned) turned the backs on our requests for sponsorship, Vincent Chang never hesitated. 

Other major events like the Festival Song Contests, Schools Challenge Quiz, many Scholarships to the UWI and Utech, the Black Heroes in the Hall of Fame theatrical production from London, were just a few of the many other productions he supported . He gave me free reign to do what I did best. My vision to take the Contest to television and more were thwarted by other culture vultures….but that’s a story for another time and place lol. In the living years I say..Thank you Vincent Chang !

Note: The Tastee Talent competition allowed persons with various talents to enter such as Singers, dancers, poets, dramatists and other talented persons. An interesting feature of the competition was how the audience felt about the show. They felt that they owned the competition and therefore their behaviour at these shows was impeccable.

Hopefully the competition will be restarted one of these days!