ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

It was a stiff bat­tle by ten steel­bands on Sun­day night at the Na­tion­al Panora­ma 2024 Medi­um Con­ven­tion­al Bands fi­nals in To­ba­go.

But it was last year’s champs, Katzen­jam­mers, that re­tained the ti­tle and walked away with the tro­phy, scor­ing 283 points with their se­lec­tion—1985 So­ca Ca­lyp­so Clas­sic Rock it by Mer­chant.

How­ev­er, hours af­ter their win, Katzen­jam­mers band leader, who is al­so Pan Trin­ba­go’s pres­i­dent, Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore took to so­cial me­dia to de­fend her af­fil­i­a­tion with the band.

“I can­not be Pres­i­dent of Pan Trin­ba­go un­less I am a mem­ber of a steel­band. Just as (Kei­th) Di­az was pres­i­dent and per­form­ing in Des­per­a­does and that’s okay. Not a sound was heard—not a fu­ner­al note.

“Our con­sti­tu­tion al­lows for that to hap­pen,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore said she will not apol­o­gise for be­ing “a great leader to a great band” adding that this is not the first time a Pan Trin­ba­go’s pres­i­dent or its mem­bers have led the win­ning band and it will not be the last.

But de­spite the griev­ances, the high en­er­gy of play­ers kept the au­di­ence on their feet dur­ing the show as pan lovers danced to the ren­di­tions as each band gave their best per­for­mances.

Pan El­ders Steel Or­ches­tra trailed be­hind com­ing in sec­ond with on­ly three points less but de­liv­ered a stun­ning arrange­ment by To­ba­go arranger Ojay Richards.

For Katzen­jam­mer’s arranger, Kersh Ram­sey said the win meant that the band com­plet­ed its mis­sion for yet an­oth­er year.

He told the me­dia, “All the bands that played be­fore us, I know they were go­ing to bring their A game. I brought my A plus game tonight. I need­ed to bring the cur­tain down, give a grand fi­nale and there was no doubt I had the sup­port from To­ba­go.”

Ram­sey said he will not waste any time and will be­gin prepa­ra­tions to de­fend the ti­tle in 2025.

“So, its sleep­less nights, ear­ly morn­ings, late nights, no sleep what­so­ev­er so the band could get the mu­sic they are look­ing for to win and de­fend their ti­tle,” he said.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine an­nounced To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) has moved to in­tro­duce pan con­struc­tion and tun­ing in schools on the is­land.

Dur­ing his fea­ture ad­dress at the pan fi­nals, Au­gus­tine said the THA has de­cid­ed to con­tin­ue the work of one of the is­land’s most renowned pan play­ers and band lead­ers Iran An­tho­ny al­so known as Duce who died in Jan­u­ary.

He was a co-founder of Buc­coneers Steel Or­ches­tra, New Edi­tion and in 2022 he launched NGC Steel Xplo­sion.

Au­gus­tine said com­ing out of COVID-19, To­ba­go must re­build the pres­ence of pans in its schools and the best way to do this is by con­tin­u­ing the con­tri­bu­tion made by Duce, who worked to make pan a sig­nif­i­cant part of To­ba­go’s school’s cur­ricu­lum.

Au­gus­tine said this move is a ma­jor part of pre­serv­ing the art form on the is­land.

“By next sea­son we hope to have our ju­nior com­pe­ti­tions on the is­land again and we ex­pect our ju­nior bands to fea­ture na­tion­al­ly.

“Too many of our young­sters are not get­ting to learn the art form in all its forms…With Duce in mind we have to un­der­stand the work we have to do for the cul­ture for the de­vel­op­ment of the pan fra­ter­ni­ty on the is­land,” The Chief Sec­re­tary added.

To­ba­go is ex­pect­ed to host the THA Pan Champs lat­er tonight where over 13 To­ba­go bands will com­pete for this year’s ti­tle.

PANORA­MA 2024 MEDI­UM CON­VEN­TION­AL FI­NALS

1.Katzen­jam­mers Rock It 283

2.Pan El­ders Steel Or­ches­tra Come Out To Play 280

3.NGC Cou­va Joy­lan­ders So­ca Tatie 279

4.Curepe Scherzan­do Steel Or­ches­tra Dar­ling 275

5.Courts Sound Spe­cial­ists of Laven­tille Mov­ing 273

6.Pam­beri Steel Or­ches­tra Car­ni­val Jumbie 271

7.Dix­ieland Steel Or­ches­tra This Melody Sweet 270.5

8.San­gre Grande Cordettes So­ca Bap­tist 267

8.Ari­ma An­gel Harps Is Thun­der 267

10.NGC Steel Xplo­sion Both Ah Them 264