LOCAL T&T STEELBAND NEWS

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21st May 1999
eEd - tobagojo@gmail.com

Panning the great Impostors

© EXPRESS - Friday 21st May, 1999 - [Section 2] Page 25
SPOTLIGHT

   RETURN: [opinion column from Pan Lovers cherish the music] - [journalist from Who's who and boos in pan]

Commentary
By TERRY JOSEPH

MILLI VANILLI, this century's greatest musical impostors, will now have to jostle with several of the steelbands participating in this Saturday's Champions of the 20th Century concert, if they wish to retain their dubious title.

The two great impostors that comprised Milli Vanilli actually took their charade to the top, winning a 1991 Grammy Award for fooling the world into thinking they were really singing the hit song Girl, You Know it's True, when all they were doing was a lip-sync. Saturday's pan concert may be accused of quite another type of deception.

This is not nit-picking argument. The issue here is one of artistic integrity. So when the still fragile steelband movement does not recognise the inherent danger in paying pannists superior fees to fake nostalgia, the final cost of the Champions of the 20th Century concert could be far higher than anticipated. Ironically, it is the one event that Pan Trinbago is bent on recording "for posterity". But what is the treasure here?

Certainly not the genuine article. When Pan Am North Stars won the inaugural Panorama competition in 1963, the band had a distinctive sound. The same was true for Guinness Cavaliers in 1965, the Gay Desperadoes in the year following, Solo Harmonites in 1968, Starlift in 1969 and Catelli Trinidad All Stars in 1973.

In that era, it was relatively easy to stay at the bottom of Cipriani Boulevard and identify the band playing onstage, a quarter of a mile away at the Queen's Park Savannah, because each orchestra enjoyed near exclusivity on its tuners and arrangers.

Today, the top ten tuners do almost all the instruments used locally and arrangers move freely between opportunities; even if all the original players appeared under those celebrated banners this Saturday, the resulting sound would be significantly different.

But we won't even be that lucky. For openers, some of the eligible bands are simply defunct, and among those still operational, a few are having extraordinary difficulty mustering the 85-player minimum [This figure is actually 75 - eEd]. In the case of the AmoCo Renegades, the best of the band is away on tour, so it is renting some players from Solo Pan Knights. For quite different reasons, Harmonites is seeking to borrow pans and players from InnCogen Pamberi and Potential Symphony, and the once formidable Guinness Cavaliers is hoping for instruments and performers from Panosonic Connection. This time around, what was the mighty Pan Am North Stars, will really be Hummingbirds Pan Groove for the most part, with a little bit of T&TEC Power Stars thrown in.

Even Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove, the band that argued for a removal of the upper limit of 120 players at Carnival time, is leaning on BWIA [BWEE] Invaders and Silver Stars, to meet the minimum requirement for the TT$100,000 payoff publicly promised to each participant.

But for a few of the 11 participating bands, therefore, what the public is being asked to pay for, is a show that may have been better titled: Champion Impostors of the 20th Century.

When Tony Williams led the highly-disciplined and innovative Pan Am North Stars to victory at the inaugural competition in 1963, there was a particular mood prevailing. The band won TT$300, beating Sundowners and the Gay Desperadoes into second and third places, respectivly, but against a backdrop of protest from the Invaders Steel Orchestra, members of which complained that one of the judges did not hear their work. No offence to today's pannists, but scrambling together a make-up side in 1999, in the attempt to recreate that moment, is just another re make of Milli Vanilli.

Nor are the bands happy. Sales of advance tickets for the show have been predictably pitiful, forcing Pan Trinbago to spring a surprise responsibility on participants as late as last Monday night, by demanding that they each sell 50 tickets, or lose five per cent of their appearance fees in lieu.

The bands, one imagines, will have prepared budgets for the concert, exclusive of that proviso. They have also recently been told that the general competition rule will apply, in that an additional ten per cent of their TT$100,000 will be deducted by Pan Trinbago as fees. So if a struggling band saw itself as ending up with TT$15,000 after paying rent for players, instruments and equipment and it fails to sell its tickets allocation; the orchestra may now end up playing for nothing and worse, to nobody.

   RETURN: [opinion column from Pan Lovers cherish the music] - [journalist from Who's who and boos in pan]

Champs concert will honour pan Pioneers

© EXPRESS - Friday 21st May, 1999 - [Section 2] Page 4
SPOTLIGHT

THOUGH panmen are upset about having to sell tickets for tomorrow's Champions of the 20th Century concert or face having money deducted from their TT$100,000 appearance fee, the show is likely to go on.

Eleven top steelbands are to be featured in the concert at the Grand Stand, Queen's Park Savannah.

The show, which has been on the drawing board for the past year, is the last major pan concert for the decade, according to Patrick Arnold, president of Pan Trinbago.

Arnold said: "The other shows you can see any time but the next time you will have another Panorama champions is in the year 2099." Performing their winning Panorama tunes before pan lovers and the Miss Universe delegates will be Cavaliers, Hatters, Harmonites, Exodus, North Stars, Renegades, Phase II, Nu Tones, Desperadoes, All Stars and Starlift.

The term Panorama was coined in 1963 by then chairman of the Carnival Development Committee (CDC), Ronald Williams. It was previously called Carnival Bacchanal.

Since then a champion has been crowned every year, except for 1979 when there was no competition because of a protest by pan men.

For the concert bands will play two tunes a winning Panorama piece and a non-calypso done with a calypso tempo. The winning band will take home TT$25,000 and a trophy.

Pan Trinbago will also be honouring 12 persons who have contributed to the development of the art-form, including Bertie Marshall, Ellie Mannette, Alan Gervais, Jit Samaroo, Lennox "Bobby" Mohammed, Neville Jules, Anthony Williams, Rudolph Charles, Kitchener, Ray Holman, George Goddard and Arnim Smith.

Showtime is 08:00 pm. [Saturday, 22nd May]

PM asks pannists to finish early

© EXPRESS - Friday 21st May, 1999, Page 5

By TERRY JOSEPH

PRODUCERS of Wednesday night's [19th May] The Three Tenors concert may have run afoul of Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, by completing the show some 20 minutes later than he had "politely requested".

What was described by MC Errol Fabien as "a polite request" from the Prime Minister, that the show (sub-titled Men of Steel), held Under the Trees at the Normandie Hotel, be finished by 11:00 pm, simply could not be entertained, even with an on-time start and shortened intermission.

The Prime Minister's official residence at La Fantasie Road in St Ann's lies just over the fence from the Under the Trees venue.

Last February, while a Carnival-related show was in progress, Panday sent security officials to demand that the music be turned down. Ironically, his request came during a performance by calypsonian De Fosto, who was at the time singing a piece critical of the Government. In that example, the information came at 11:30 pm.

Wednesday night's show, which featured virtuoso pannists Andy Narrel, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe and Ken "Professor" Philmore, was tightly packaged, but still could not satisfy Panday's requirement that the noise stop at 11:00 pm, so he could get enough rest, as he had an important meeting early yesterday morning.

Fabien's announcement, which came immediately after the playing of the national anthem, caused more than a murmur among the audience. One patron wondered aloud whether the Prime Minister's view would have been the same, were it a classical concert being staged Under the Trees.

"This is about the best demonstration of the national musical instrument that you can hope for," he said, adding that Panday was "getting superb music at no cost to himself."

Panday is not, as is widely believed, the first Prime Minister to ask the neighbouring hotel to lower the volume of public address systems or curtail the actual concerts being held there. Hotel sources told the Express that during the stewardship of every incumbent at the La Fantasie Road residence, beginning with Dr Eric Williams, messages have been received by The Normandie, requesting adjustments to the volume or length of certain events being held there.

Wednesday night's well-attended concert, which began promptly at 08:30 pm, was staged in three segments. At the end of each performance, the crowd called for more, but producers stuck to the schedule. Narrel opened and played until 09:15 pm, Sharpe started six minutes later and performed for one full hour. The intermission ended at 10:30 pm and Philmore entertained until 11.20 pm.

Atlantik - Traffik - Exodus join the jam

© EXPRESS - Friday 21st May, 1999 - [Section 2] Page 10

By TERRY JOSEPH

MASQUERADE, the organisation that interprets Wayne Berkeley's Carnival designs, is the latest band to confirm its participation in this Sunday's People's Parade, which is suddenly becoming a second Carnival.

Masquerade's chairman, Karl Patterson, called the Express to confirm that the band will be coming on the road, assembling out-side their Cipriani Boulevard mas camp, with intent to leave at 01:00 pm and join the jam en route.

Members of the band who have kept their costumes from last Carnival's Trapeze, may run into a thousand, other band sources said. It must be enough for, the Masquerade committee to bring in music from the soca band Atlantik, to power Sunday's jump-up.

Patterson said he was moved to come on the road with a brass band, particularly after hearing Atlantik play last Thursday at the Upper Level Club.

Sunday's parade is being organised by the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA). NCBA general manager, Michael Heath, told the Express the jump-up was designed primarily for the people, a lot of whom were unable to participate in the main events being staged for next week's Miss Universe Pageant.

But Atlantik will not be alone in the jam. Traffik, who last Sunday put real spark into the Miss Universe Parade of the Nations around the Queen's Park Savannah, will also be in the fray, hacking masqueraders from the Legends mas band.

In addition, there will be the ubiquitous St James Tripolians, DJ trucks from Power 102 FM and 98.9 Yes FM and the Exodus Steel Orchestra.

The parade will follow the normal route that bands take on Carnival days, using as its extremities, Adam Smith Square, Downtown Port of Spain and the Queen's Park Savannah.

For the most part, masqueraders will assemble at Queen's Park Savannah (opposite Casuals corner) and parade west to Carlos Street in Woodbrook, then east along Ariapita Avenue and through the city, ending again at the Savannah.

Heath described the response from member bands as "nothing short of overwhelming".

The action begins at 10:00 am. [Sunday, 23rd May]

© 1999 tobagojo@gmail.com - 19990526 - 1m20071228 - 2m20151016 Historic Update: 26 May 1999; Last Update: 16 October 2015 24:00:00 TT Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry

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