Ship Band: Onyx

[I Love NC]

We cruised aboard the Summit on October 12-22, 2001 and just LOVED the pool side band, Onyx. Luckily I purchased their CD onboard and have just about worn it out. :cool: !!

 

Does anyone have any info about this group, ie, are they still performing, if so, where; or do they have a web site (I googled and didn't find much) AND if they have any more CD's. Are they still performing!

 

Most importantly, will they be on the Solstice this coming November 30th!!

 

PS: Jovel was our EXCELLENT Waiter that trip and I just read that he is a Matre D on Millie~!! YEAH.

[chessbriar]

Unlikely they will be on the Solstice. A couple years back X changed who was doing the bands booking. They had a lot of change over and some issues with improper behavior by the new bands. They've got things under control and everything is much smoother. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

If I'm wrong, you might have a nice surprise. But I wouldn't hold my breathe

[Andy]

Hi I Love NC !

 

I am pretty certain I read that they are now (or were recently) with Cunard, perhaps on Queen Mary 2. Hopefully, others will be able to confirm this.

 

I agree, they were a wonderful band. I wish Celebrity would hire them back !

[2dogcarol]

Onyx was on our Panama Canal cruise on the Infinity, Jan 2003. They were a great poolside band for those warm, balmy dance parties. I have never heard a band on any cruise since that was as talented or more fun than they were.

[hajekfam]

Onyx band members keep changing. The Onyx that was on one of our later Celebrity cruises was not as good as the one that was on our Celebrity cruises in 92, 93 and 95.

[Napi's Mom]

On our first cruise on the Meridian...we saw an excellent poolside band (trio I think) that was from St Lucia called Ex-Ta-Sea...anyone ever hear of them or see them:confused: had a steel band sound but not the drum...excellent lead singer. bought their tape(at that time no CD's). still love to listen in the few places one can play audio tapes!:)

[hajekfam]

We were on one Celebrity cruise in the past couple of years that had Ex-Ta-Sea as the band - but once again I am sure that it was not the same members as the ones you heard on the Meridian.

[tbelian]

First band I saw on my first Celebrity cruise (Honeymoon on board Century). I also picked up their CD. I don't think they are with Celebrity cruises anymore.

 

We have also seen Ex-Ta-Sea (but I thought they actually went byt 'X'-ta-sea.. ie; 'X' = Celebrity).

[Lsimon]

While I love Celebrity overall - my biggest complaint over the past two or three years has been the poor lounge entertainment. With a few exceptions many of the acts have not been up to par with what we experienced when we first started cruising with Celebrity in 2004 and 2005.

 

Overall we've seen a lot entertainment geared towards the older cruiser (and this is coming from a man in his 50's!) and not much in the way of bands that can "rock". Now we're not heavy metal fans, we just want some good rock/party style music common from the 70's forward - music from nice acoustical guitar rock songs (like on the aft deck or by the pool in the afternoon) to a good quality Caribbean party band that has a good sound, can play decently and can rock. A band like Onyx or Voltz. Now lots of people rave about lounge entertainment like Perry Grant or the acapella groups, and maybe even some of the jazz or ballroom dancing groups, but those aren't the type of music that we want to party to and hang out at a lounge and listen to all night.

 

There have been some exceptions - most notably on our past couple of cruises on the Galaxy that had OK Caribbean party bands and, in 2007, a really good guitar player on the aft deck. But for the most part we've been disappointed that Celebrity hasn't been rocking the past few years - especially on our Connie and Millennium cruises in 2007. Hopefully things will improve.

[ISABELLA]

I think that X ta Sea are on Princess ships, we had them on our Baltic cruise two years ago, after we absolutely loved them on our Panama cruise on the Summit.

[hcat]

Our favorite band was OPUS--a genuine reggae band that was a long time ago & I heard they went to Cunard. Onyx was also very good--lately the bands are not very good at all--they have gotten away from reggae pool bands in favor or "party bands" whose talents vary widely...

[hajekfam]

While I love Celebrity overall - my biggest complaint over the past two or three years has been the poor lounge entertainment. With a few exceptions many of the acts have not been up to par with what we experienced when we first started cruising with Celebrity in 2004 and 2005.

 

Overall we've seen a lot entertainment geared towards the older cruiser (and this is coming from a man in his 50's!) and not much in the way of bands that can "rock". Now we're not heavy metal fans, we just want some good rock/party style music common from the 70's forward - music from nice acoustical guitar rock songs (like on the aft deck or by the pool in the afternoon) to a good quality Caribbean party band that has a good sound, can play decently and can rock. A band like Onyx or Voltz. Now lots of people rave about lounge entertainment like Perry Grant or the acapella groups, and maybe even some of the jazz or ballroom dancing groups, but those aren't the type of music that we want to party to and hang out at a lounge and listen to all night.

 

There have been some exceptions - most notably on our past couple of cruises on the Galaxy that had OK Caribbean party bands and, in 2007, a really good guitar player on the aft deck. But for the most part we've been disappointed that Celebrity hasn't been rocking the past few years - especially on our Connie and Millennium cruises in 2007. Hopefully things will improve.

 

We have been disappointed lately with the bands (or duos) in the Rendez-vous. Usually the Rendez-vous was where there was dance music (like in ballroom style) while one of the other lounges had a band (the party band) more like what you are referring to.

However on our past couple of transatlantics, the band or duo in that lounge has been terrible. On one there were two women who sang/played to computer music - and did audience participation songs. Not very good dancing. An on the last transatlantic, the band that played there to start actually played music with poor tempo and played the same songs each night in the same order. Celebrity ended up putting the party band in the Rendez-vous and while they were good, they played medleys - 10-15 minutes of cha chas, break, 10-15 minutes of fox trots, etc. 10 or 15 minutes is a long time to dance the same dance.

[Napi's Mom]

First band I saw on my first Celebrity cruise (Honeymoon on board Century). I also picked up their CD. I don't think they are with Celebrity cruises anymore.

 

We have also seen Ex-Ta-Sea (but I thought they actually went byt 'X'-ta-sea.. ie; 'X' = Celebrity).

Maybe they do now but we bought their tape and it was with a EX at that time (weren't owned by X then I guess) Their lead singer was wonderful...did all the Jamaica style songs plus "Up On the Roof" and similar songs with the most charming Carib. accent! The Drummer was very tall once when he stood up on the "stage", a raised platform in the low ceiling lounge, he whacked his head on a light fixture....:) Ah aren't old memories great?? Nice that they might still be around!

[Lois R]

Not sure if I missed it or if they haven't been mentioned

but Mercury had a great band quite a few times called

"Headliners". I saw them 2 or 3 times and they were wonderful:)

The singers and some of the band are from the Philippines.

Wonder where they are now?

 

And I remember Onyx and Extasea too..both were great:)

[usha]

Yup, our all-time favorite party band on Celebrity was Onyx. Clairemont Charles, the keyboard player in the band, was also the booking agent for Celebrity's bands. He always booked Onyx on the best Celebrity gigs, and some Cunard gigs. Celebrity has since gone with a cheaper agency that books cheaper (and less talented) bands. You get what you pay for.:o Anyway, I wish like CRAZY that Celebrity would find somehow else to save a buck! Princess picked up some of the bands that Celebrity threw under the bus, and kudos to Princess for THAT! There were some really terrific musicians that Celebrity just dumped. DH & I are musicians ourselves, and I can't tell you how much that makes our opinion of Celebrity plunge.:(

To be fair, though, the band that was playing in the Rendezvous Lounge on our Summit cruise last Feb was really fantastic! They were called "Elk Island Quartet", from C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?, and they were soooooo polished and talented! They were picking up a few weeks' gigs on Summit while they were in a lul for home gigs up in the frozen north. The young woman in that band had the best voice I've heard out of a female on any cruise.:) they played cha-chas, fox trots, rhumbas, tangos, salsas, you name it. Wish we'd gone to Arthur Murray!:cool:

 

HI, LOIS!!!!!

[tbelian]

One of the things, to me, that made Onyx stand out over other bands is that they had an actual brass player, rather than relying on 'synth brass'. To me, that was high class. I can't remember any other party band on an X ship that had a brass player.

[crazybus]

On our last cruise we had the party band Phoenix. (From St. Lucia) We really enjoyed them at the pool every day. We became friends with one the of the band members and he told us that when their contract is up they can basically go on any other cruise line. They don't just stick with one cruise line. After our last cruise the lead singer was getting married and leaving the band. The last we heard from him they were playing at different resorts in the Caribbean.

[usha]

One of the things, to me, that made Onyx stand out over other bands is that they had an actual brass player, rather than relying on 'synth brass'. To me, that was high class. I can't remember any other party band on an X ship that had a brass player.

Yup, Clarence was an awesome talent! I was also impressed by the fact that most of the bandmembers in Onyx were very good singers. Even if they weren't doing lead vocals, they were singing some terrific harmonies.

[tbelian]

Yup, Clarence was an awesome talent! I was also impressed by the fact that most of the bandmembers in Onyx were very good singers.

 

In addition to this, and some may disagree about the choice, but I thought their rendition of 'Conquest of Paradise' was outstanding!.

[usha]

I'm not nuts about that song, but I agree that Onyx did a bang-up job on it.:)

[Lois R]

Hi Back Usha:)

[LYNNF]

I agree 100% with Tbelian. It send shivers everytime I heard it. We have been on many cruises with Onyx and we really miss them.

[mrsmagnolia]

onyx was great ! loved them!!!!

i agree the night music in the lounges could use more excitement to draw people in, what can we do to recommend this to celebrity? or do they not care? anyway looking toward my panama canal cruise this coming march on infinity, do u know if they have cd players in suites? do we need to bring our own cd's???? thanks for any info available!:) :o