The Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra will not be com­pet­ing in this year's Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, in large part due to a used-car deal­er from the John John area al­leged­ly re­fus­ing to re­move dozens of ve­hi­cles from their pan yard.

This is the first time since the in­cep­tion of the Panora­ma in 1963 that Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra will not be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the com­pe­ti­tion.

Ear­li­er this week, Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra's chair­man Os­wald God­dard wrote Pan Trin­ba­go in­form­ing them of the band's de­ci­sion not to par­tic­i­pate in this year's Panora­ma cit­ing "fi­nan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties" as the rea­son for the pull-out.

Judges were orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled to vis­it Tokyo's pan yard next Sun­day as part of the Panora­ma pre­lim­i­nar­ies.

The own­er of the car deal­er­ship An­thon "Boom­bay" Boney has, how­ev­er, de­nied those ac­cu­sa­tions. Boney had pre­vi­ous­ly been held dur­ing the 2011 State of Emer­gency in con­nec­tion with an al­leged as­sas­si­na­tion plot against then prime min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

He was even­tu­al­ly re­leased with­out charge and was award­ed $70,000 in dam­ages for un­law­ful de­ten­tion.

In 2014 he was al­so faced with five charges un­der the An­ti-Gang Act, in­clud­ing one for be­ing a gang leader.

'The state of the pan yard haunts me'

The Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra's pan yard is lo­cat­ed at 2 Plai­sance Road in John John, and is one of the last places peo­ple see be­fore they leave Port-of-Spain via the Beetham fly­over.

Paint­ed on the wall of the pan yard fac­ing the fly­over is an ad­ver­tise­ment for the car deal­er­ship which proud­ly states "we are lo­cat­ed at Tokyo Pan yard".

An­oth­er ad­ver­tise­ment for the deal­er­ship has al­so been paint­ed over the Mark Guer­ra Wall of Peace mur­al.

When the Sun­day Guardian vis­it­ed the pan yard on Thurs­day, in­side was lit­tered with ve­hi­cles with "for sale" on their wind­shields.

Pan stands were tossed in­to a cor­ner of the com­pound among over­grown grass.

The "Tokyo bar" lo­cat­ed at the pan yard was now stor­age space for car parts.

The pan yard is now a shad­ow of its for­mer glo­ry.

God­dard, who lives di­rect­ly across the road from the pan yard, sees its de­te­ri­o­ra­tion on a dai­ly ba­sis.

"When I watch through my win­dow that does haunt me. It does haunt me," God­dard said.

God­dard knows the work that went in­to the con­struc­tion of the pan yard and its main­te­nance.

"We (the pan play­ers) built our own pan yard and Carib paid us to do it," God­dard said.

The was about 20 years ago when Carib Brew­ery was still the band's spon­sor.

"I did over the toi­lets, the whole roof of Tokyo, I did over the tiling, the fix­tures, if you see the state of the toi­let now," he lament­ed.

Around five years ago the used ve­hi­cles were parked in a premis­es high­er up in John John.

How­ev­er, the Gov­ern­ment threat­ened to have the cars re­moved and there­fore the own­er need­ed a new spot to house them.

The ve­hi­cles were moved to Tokyo's pan yard.

It was sup­posed to be a tem­po­rary arrange­ment.

The de­ci­sion to al­low the car deal­er to use the pan yard to park his cars tem­porar­i­ly caused a rift with­in Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra and its ex­ec­u­tive.

A vote by the ex­ec­u­tive to de­cide whether the cars could be tem­porar­i­ly housed in the pan yard end­ed with three in favour and two against.

God­dard who was the chair­man at the time re­signed from his po­si­tion fol­low­ing the vote.

Since then the ve­hi­cles have be­come some­what of a fix­ture at the pan yard.

'This year is the most dif­fi­cult year'

For the last two years, Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra had to re­sort to rent­ing a car park in South Quay to prac­tice for Panora­ma.

A new ex­ec­u­tive which was re­cent­ly vot­ed in­to of­fice de­cid­ed they would not foot that bill again this year and would in­stead re­turn to their own pan yard.

The prob­lem is they have no space to do so as the cars are still there.

"I am not go­ing to pay no car park at City Gate and we have a mil­lion-dol­lar pan yard. I am sor­ry, we are not do­ing that," God­dard said.

With the cur­rent stand-off, God­dard said the band de­cid­ed to stay away from this year's Panora­ma.

"This year is the most dif­fi­cult year. What we are do­ing now is we have to re­or­gan­ise, we have to work from to­day and try to pre­pare the band for next year," God­dard said.

"Def­i­nite­ly...hope­ful­ly if God gives me the health and strength next year for sure (we will be back), but we have to put things in place."

God­dard said he in­tends to have a meet­ing with the car deal­er to again ex­plain the band's plight.

"I am try­ing to struc­ture it (what I want to say) prop­er­ly and very diplo­mat­ic so that we sit down talk to him and get a so­lu­tion to get these things," he said.

God­dard said he has seen the band grow and hopes to see it grow even fur­ther in the fu­ture.

"Tokyo was good to me, Tokyo is an in­sti­tu­tion, Tokyo is one of the old­est steel bands in the world so we have to make sure that the flag keeps on fly­ing. As I tell the youth, I am just struc­tur­ing the thing for them to take over," he said.

"Right now we in a state and we have to try to re­build again."

His hope is to re­turn the pan yard to its glo­ry days and have peo­ple com­ing there to en­joy events.

"I have to re­build the pub­lic con­fi­dence in­to com­ing back in­to Tokyo, in­to John John, it is one of the main fac­tors, we have to re­struc­ture the build­ing, re­open the bar, have some steel bands every Fri­day night," God­dard said.

"When it starts peo­ple might hes­i­tate be­cause even some play­ers who want to come can't come but we will have to work to change that."

God­dard said one of his great­est mem­o­ries with Tokyo is when Clive Bradley came to arrange Pan in Dan­ger for the 1985 Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion.

Pan in Dan­ger was sung by Ca­lyp­son­ian Den­nis Williams Franklyn bet­ter known as the Mer­chant.

A rich his­to­ry

Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra was formed in 1942 and was orig­i­nal­ly known as the "John John Boys".

The group then went through sev­er­al name changes from "Marabun­tas" to "Des­ti­na­tion Tokyo".

Win­ston "Spree" Si­mon was a cap­tain of the band.

Si­mon, a res­i­dent of John John, is fa­mous for his role in the de­vel­op­ment of the 'ping pong' which be­came the tenor pan of to­day.

It is be­lieved by some that he was the in­ven­tor of the steel­pan.

The Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra has nev­er won a Panora­ma but they placed sec­ond in the com­pe­ti­tion in both 1972 and 1973 with the tunes "Mrs Har­ri­man"and "My Con­nie" re­spec­tive­ly.

I'm be­ing used as a scape­goat—busi­ness­man

Mean­while, Boney, de­fend­ing him­self, said, "It is not no bul­ly thing". Boney said claims that he was ob­struct­ing Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra were sim­ply un­true.

"Who­ev­er claims that I am at fault is sim­ply try­ing to cre­ate a bac­cha­nal and make mis­chief," Boney said.

Boney said for the past five years he has been us­ing the pan yard and has been pay­ing rent to do so.

"When­ev­er Car­ni­val comes around and they say they want to use the space I move out the cars," Boney said.

"All that is go­ing on in the band has noth­ing to do with me it is an in­ter­nal is­sue."

Boney said he has been pay­ing rent for the space and has al­ways sig­nalled his in­ten­tion to help the band in any way he could fi­nan­cial­ly.

He said apart from the out­side area where the cars are parked there are rooms in­side the pan yard that can be utilised if the band want­ed to.

Boney said the in­ter­nal con­flict among the Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra was hurt­ing the band and he was sim­ply be­ing used as a scape­goat.

Joel Julien

The Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra will not be com­pet­ing in this year's Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, in large part due to a used-car deal­er­from the John John area re­fus­ing to re­move dozens of ve­hi­cles from their pan yard where a used-car deal­er­ship is be­ing op­er­at­ed.

This is the first time since the in­cep­tion of the Panora­ma in 1963 that Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra will not be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the com­pe­ti­tion.

Ear­li­er this week, Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra's chair­man Os­wald God­dard wrote Pan Trin­ba­go in­form­ing them of the band's de­ci­sion not to par­tic­i­pate in this year's Panora­ma cit­ing "fi­nan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties" as the rea­son for the pull-out.

Judges were orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled to vis­it Tokyo's pan yard next Sun­day as part of the Panora­ma pre­lim­i­nar­ies.

'The state of the pan yard haunts me'

The Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra's pan yard is lo­cat­ed at 2 Plai­sance Road in John John, and is one of the last places peo­ple see be­fore they leave Port-of-Spain via the Beetham fly­over.

Paint­ed on the wall of the pan yard fac­ing the fly­over is an ad­ver­tise­ment for the car deal­er­ship which proud­ly states "we are lo­cat­ed at Tokyo Pan yard".

An­oth­er ad­ver­tise­ment for the deal­er­ship has al­so been paint­ed over the Mark Guer­ra Wall of Peace mur­al.

When the Sun­day Guardian vis­it­ed the pan yard on Thurs­day, in­side was lit­tered with ve­hi­cles with "for sale" on their wind­shields.

Pan stands were tossed in­to a cor­ner of the com­pound among over­grown grass.

The "Tokyo bar" lo­cat­ed at the pan yard was now stor­age space for car parts.

The pan yard is now a shad­ow of its for­mer glo­ry.

God­dard, who lives di­rect­ly across the road from the pan yard, sees its de­te­ri­o­ra­tion on a dai­ly ba­sis.

"When I watch through my win­dow that does haunt me. It does haunt me," God­dard said.

God­dard knows the work that went in­to the con­struc­tion of the pan yard and its main­te­nance.

"We (the pan play­ers) built our own pan yard and Carib paid us to do it," God­dard said.

The was about 20 years ago when Carib Brew­ery was still the band's spon­sor.

"I did over the toi­lets, the whole roof of Tokyo, I did over the tiling, the fix­tures, if you see the state of the toi­let now," he lament­ed.

Around five years ago the used ve­hi­cles were parked in a premis­es high­er up in John John.

How­ev­er, the Gov­ern­ment threat­ened to have the cars re­moved and there­fore the own­er need­ed a new spot to house them.

The ve­hi­cles were moved to Tokyo's pan yard.

It was sup­posed to be a tem­po­rary arrange­ment.

The de­ci­sion to al­low the car deal­er to use the pan yard to park his cars tem­porar­i­ly caused a rift with­in Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra and its ex­ec­u­tive.

A vote by the ex­ec­u­tive to de­cide whether the cars could be tem­porar­i­ly housed in the pan yard end­ed with three in favour and two against.

God­dard who was the chair­man at the time re­signed from his po­si­tion fol­low­ing the vote.

Since then the ve­hi­cles have be­come some­what of a fix­ture at the pan yard.

'This year is the most dif­fi­cult year'

For the last two years, Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra had to re­sort to rent­ing a car park in South Quay to prac­tice for Panora­ma.

A new ex­ec­u­tive which was re­cent­ly vot­ed in­to of­fice de­cid­ed they would not foot that bill again this year and would in­stead re­turn to their own pan yard.

The prob­lem is they have no space to do so as the cars are still there.

"I am not go­ing to pay no car park at City Gate and we have a mil­lion-dol­lar pa­n­yard. I am sor­ry, we are not do­ing that," God­dard said.

With the cur­rent stand-off, God­dard said the band de­cid­ed to stay away from this year's Panora­ma.

"This year is the most dif­fi­cult year. What we are do­ing now is we have to re­or­gan­ise, we have to work from to­day and try to pre­pare the band for next year," God­dard said.

"Def­i­nite­ly...hope­ful­ly if God gives me the health and strength next year for sure (we will be back), but we have to put things in place."

God­dard said he in­tends to have a meet­ing with the al­leged gang leader to again ex­plain the band's plight.

"I am try­ing to struc­ture it (what I want to say) prop­er­ly and very diplo­mat­ic so that we sit down talk to him and get a so­lu­tion to get these things," he said.

God­dard said he has seen the band grow and hopes to see it grow even fur­ther in the fu­ture.

"Tokyo was good to me, Tokyo is an in­sti­tu­tion, Tokyo is one of the old­est steel bands in the world so we have to make sure that the flag keeps on fly­ing. As I tell the youth, I am just struc­tur­ing the thing for them to take over," he said.

"Right now we in a state and we have to try to re­build again."

His hope is to re­turn the pan yard to its glo­ry days and have peo­ple com­ing there to en­joy events.

"I have to re­build the pub­lic con­fi­dence in­to com­ing back in­to Tokyo, in­to John John, it is one of the main fac­tors, we have to re­struc­ture the build­ing, re­open the bar, have some steel bands every Fri­day night," God­dard said.

"When it starts peo­ple might hes­i­tate be­cause even some play­ers who want to come can't come but we will have to work to change that."

God­dard said one of his great­est mem­o­ries with Tokyo is when Clive Bradley came to arrange Pan in Dan­ger for the 1985 Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion.

Pan in Dan­ger was sung by Ca­lyp­son­ian Den­nis Williams Franklyn bet­ter known as the Mer­chant.

A rich his­to­ry

Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra was formed in 1942 and was orig­i­nal­ly known as the "John John Boys".

The group then went through sev­er­al name changes from "Marabun­tas" to "Des­ti­na­tion Tokyo".

Win­ston "Spree" Si­mon was a cap­tain of the band.

Si­mon, a res­i­dent of John John, is fa­mous for his role in the de­vel­op­ment of the 'ping pong' which be­came the tenor pan of to­day.

It is be­lieved by some that he was the in­ven­tor of the steel­pan.

The Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra has nev­er won a Panora­ma but they placed sec­ond in the com­pe­ti­tion in both 1972 and 1973 with the tunes "Mrs Har­ri­man"and "My Con­nie" re­spec­tive­ly.

I'm be­ing used as a scape­goat—busi­ness­man

"It is not no bul­ly thing". So said busi­ness­man An­thon "Boom­bay" Boney yes­ter­day in re­sponse to claims that Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra was not com­pet­ing in the up­com­ing Panora­ma in large part due to a re­fusal by a used car deal­er­ship to re­move dozens of ve­hi­cles from the pan yard.

Boney, who op­er­ates the used-car deal­er­ship, said claims that he was ob­struct­ing Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra were sim­ply un­true.

"Who­ev­er claims that I am at fault is sim­ply try­ing to cre­ate a bac­cha­nal and make mis­chief," Boney said.

Boney said for the past five years he has been us­ing the pan yard and has been pay­ing rent to do so.

"When­ev­er Car­ni­val comes around and they say they want to use the space I move out the cars," Boney said.

"All that is go­ing on in the band has noth­ing to do with me it is an in­ter­nal is­sue."

Boney said he has been pay­ing rent for the space and has al­ways sig­nalled his in­ten­tion to help the band in any way he could fi­nan­cial­ly.

He said apart from the out­side area where the cars are parked there are rooms in­side the pan yard that can be utilised if the band want­ed to.

Boney said the in­ter­nal con­flict among the Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra was hurt­ing the band and he was sim­ply be­ing used as a scape­goat.