Found­ed in 1971, St James Tripo­lians Steel Or­ches­tra is in se­ri­ous re­hearsals for the 2013 Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion.

The band's tune of choice is Say Say, com­posed by Wins­ford Devine and sung by the Baron. The se­lec­tion is be­ing arranged by young Dar­ryl Reid who start­ed his ca­reer with the band and has arranged Panora­ma tunes for the band from 2003 to 2010 mak­ing the fi­nals on many oc­ca­sions; he al­so as­sist­ed the then arranger on pre­vi­ous Panora­ma arrange­ments.

Tripo­lians cel­e­brat­ed its 41st year of ex­is­tence in No­vem­ber 2012, and was in the Panora­ma fi­nals on ten oc­ca­sions over the past 17 years. Man­ag­er Kei­th Simp­son said this week: "We, like many oth­er bands par­tic­i­pat­ing in this year's Panora­ma, will be con­tract­ing play­ers for the sea­son, as the band's sta­ge­side is less than the max­i­mum al­lowed. The band is al­so still avail­able for en­gage­ments."

De­spite be­ing in ex­is­tence for four decades, St James Tripo­lians Steel Or­ches­tra re­mains un­spon­sored.

The band won the first Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion staged for Sin­gle Pan bands in 1975 with a ren­di­tion of Ca­lyp­so Rose's Do Dem Back.

Prac­tice con­tin­ues at the band's pa­n­yard Fort George Road, St James week­ly, and all in­ter­est­ed pan­nists are in­vit­ed to join the band for C2K13. "We are con­fi­dent of our chances in this year's Panora­ma," said Simp­son.

Come Car­ni­val Mon­day (Feb­ru­ary 11), Tripo­lians will be ac­com­pa­ny­ing the Har­vard sec­tion in the Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars pre­sen­ta­tion, for the sec­ond year. On a sad note though, the band lost its im­me­di­ate past leader George Richard­son, who al­so served as the band's Trustee and vice cap­tain on No­vem­ber

Pan Trin­ba­go North Re­gion Sin­gle Pan pre­lim­i­nary–Or­der of Ap­pear­ance:

1. BRIM­BLERS

2. D'ORIG­I­NAL WOOD­BROOK MOD­ER­NAIRES

3. SEA LOTS ONE LOVE

4. STAR­DUST

5. LA FAMILLE

6. FREE LANCERS

7. NUT­TIN BIG PAN GROOVE

8. LA CRE­OLE PAN GROOVE

9. SCRUN­TERS PAN GROOVE

10. D'IN­TOUCH­ABLES PAN GROOVE

11. GON­ZA­LES SHEIK­ERS

12. HARLEM SYN­CO­PA­TORS

13. HI LARKS

14. WORLD WIDE STEEL OR­CHES­TRA

15. NAYAN HILL STEEL OR­CHES­TRA

16. SPREE SI­MON

17. BEL­MONT CITY KIDS

18. ST JAMES TRIPO­LIANS

19. CITY SUN VAL­LEY

20. NOS­TRAND SYM­PHO­NY

21. UNI STARS

22. CARIB WOOD­BROOK PLAY­BOYS

23. MU­SIC MAK­ERS

24. BAR 22

25. T AND T DE­FENCE FORCE

26. T&T FIRE SER­VICES

27. ALL ACES

28. BLAN­CA 47

29. ICE WA­TER

For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion on St James Tripo­lians Steel Or­ches­tra con­tact man­ag­er Kei­th Simp­son Man­ag­er (313 5078, 488 5801); cap­tain Ramesh Ar­ma­day (761 6526); or, sec­re­tary Gale Franklyn (765 9191)