I never see L-O-C-A-L-S who are actively involved (DAY TO DAY) in the STEELBAND MOVEMENT in Trinidad crying down the pan and complaining about the sky-is-falling fate of STEELBANDS like I see EXPATS living THOUSANDS of MILES AWAY and who seem to know more about what is happening on the ground than the locals.
Personally, I think that PAN/STEELBAND is at the HIGHEST HEIGHTS that it has ever been. It has never been in better hands because of the GUILT FACTOR and the BANDWAGON EFFECT and the knowledge that it is growing INTERNATIONALLY.
I never see Gerard Clarke or Allima Garcia or Bertel Gittens or Merrytonestothebone or Oswald Alexander or any of the other (in Trinidad) TRINITOTHEBONE posters expressing utter dissatisfaction or despair with the state of PAN and dem people eating and drinking and breathing and dreaming and driving PAN forward NITE AND DAY. Did I leave out WORKING HARD in the HOT SUN to keep STEELBAND alive?
I challenge the EXPATS to go read the three major local papers over the last two years and bring me three articles expressing GLOOM and DOOM like the EXPATS do on this forum. It is hard to find TWO ARTICLES criticizing DIAZ and we here think that he is the DEVIL INCARNATE.
It's hard for me to believe that in the MECCA OF PAN everybody blind and only the WST EXPATS have a clear vision of the demise of the STEELBAND.
Or maybe we just like dem CALYPSONIANS who have NO TOPICS and have to resort to boring PAN SONGS.
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Cecil, a lot of on the ground info does not always reach the forum. Merrytones, ah just move Claude from head of the class to dean of the forum, so now you can go to the head of the class. I welcome all views of everyone but I like the use of the line ill-informed......up to the 70's and 80's.
What happen after the 70 and 80? looks like there is a secret that ain't reach the forum. Regardless of what goes on on the ground the steelband is not visible after panorama, this is the picture that people see, not to many are interested in the "why" what they see is failure to address the problem. all expats are doing is reminding the leaders that the bar has been set back in the day.
The fact that the steelband is no longer visible after carnival is because it been DOWNSIZED to one major event each year and that event has to compete with the Greens. How many are on the road during the carnival?
Pan in the Countryside, Pan on The Avenue and Borough Day is all you have to showcase the bands. Gone are the days for Ramajay, Pan in The Century and Pan soloist competitions. Music Festival dying a slow death due to poor attendance and lack of promotion. No challenge for the bands to come up with new or marketable music for public consumption.
ODW…how "visible" was Pan after Carnival back in the day?… Besides the odd block-o-rama, the exciting Music Festivals of the eighties and Pan Ramajay, what else was there? Maybe the little that has and continues to happen locally is nothing to you and others, but the formation of a National Steel Symphony (which means that at least a few of us are taking Music Education seriously) is evidence of progress. The Pan-In-Schools Program has transformed panists in educators. Numerous panists studying at universities local and abroad. Increase in international marketing of the instrument as evidenced from the exploits of Panland and other individual tuners. All these, to me at least, show that Pan is alive and well here in T&T.
As far as music production is concerned, I believe that it is up to individuals (bands and panists) to do or not to do. Clearly the market for Pan music is presently non-existent, but then again was there really ever a serious market? One thing I know for certain is that by far more than the 70's and 80's Pan has gained acceptance locally. The old stigma of bad-johnism has been replaced by "my son/daughter plays for …whoever…", (according to the calypso) and not just at pan yards but in schools as well. We both know when the situation was quite different and that spells continuing progress for me.
Merrytones: Yuh batting like WEEKS, WORRELL AND WALCOTT combined. With style like Rohan Kanhai. Dem fellahs cyar out yuh at all. But ah month from now they coming right back here and tell yuh that STEELBAND is on LIFE SUPPORT and nobody eh doing nothing to save PAN. So ah cutting out this vigorous defense you just posted and saving it. So when they come back two months from now with the same old argument ah just pasting this passage as a response.
Now, don't sue me for copyright infringement when yuh see me using your words..
lol...Anytime meh brother…you are quite welcome…but am I making any sense?….or maybe they seeing something that I am not…maybe I too don't want to face the reality that the entire Pan movement doomed to fail eventually because we, the guardians, refuse to mind we business…maybe I should continue minding Merrytones business only from now on and let the devil take the hind-most...
Merrytones: In your passage you mentioned PAN IN SCHOOL twice. I think that people have to look twice at the PAN IN SCHOOLS program and the broad effect that it is having on the GREATER MOVEMENT. Not to mention the role of UWI and the contribution they are making to the STEELBAND MOVEMENT -- mostly, silently. When young students look at the PAN now they can see a LIAM TEAGUE pathway. They could envision themselves as accomplished musicians playing with a symphony in Vienna or Germany.
So yuh making sense!!!! To me at least!!!
What we really need is for advocates like Glenroy and Cecil and odw and hundreds of other PAN LOVERS to REPATRIATE (come back home) and set up private organizations to implement their ideas side by side with the current progress. Bring the KNOW HOW HOME. Everybody old and they doh have no child to mind anymore -- so come back home and serve the STEELBAND MOVEMENT -- HANDS ON!!! If their love and concern is so great.
Imagine if you and Gerard and Allima and Bertel and that scamp Oswald sit down together with Glenroy and Cecil and Arturo and odw and Brenda Hosang and Salah and some other EXPAT posters and form an organization to strengthen the growth of STEELBAND IN THE MECCA what a force you can all be.
Ah like Donald Trump -- ah sending everybody home. But, boy, with my last name and living in California with 6 million illegal Mexicans -- I might be the first man Trump send back.
MIND YUH BUSINESS but KEEP POSTING THE TRUE PICTURE!!!!
merrytones, what do you think the role of the STEELBAND [not pan] should be ?
Cecil boy unfortunately yuh cyar really seperate the two yuh know?…Steelbands no longer matter as in days of yore. By that I mean where once upon a time a Steelband was a "community" affair, nowadays it is quite different. There should be no wonder that Steelbands continue to disappear after Carnival, because the average band no longer has identifiable membership. In this day of hustlers and mercenaries, very few panists "have a band" anymore. Therein lies the problem.
Having said that I still believe that the Steelband's most important role in any community is to keep the youth grounded, sane and safe. Panyards are the real Community Centres yuh know? Maybe we don't acknowledge that, but indeed they are. It really pained me to see Despers run from the hill. Imagine that. Ole bad-john band Desperadoes. Probably the powers that be up there didn't realize, as I do at least, that a Panyard is "hallowed ground". Once you enter that domain you do so for a specific purpose. Drugs and violence are not supposed to be on the cards there. Hence the people that frequent a Panyard ought to be safe.
I always wonder how people like Birdie Mannette would have dealt with today's Panorama hustlers. I could see nuff buss face from ah iron taking place. But alas I'm certain t hat even Ivaders has fallen prey to the anyhowness of the Panorama eat-ah-food syndrome, so poor Birdie must be making cartwheels in his grave.
Cecil yuh have may talking too much…ah gone...
merrytones, dialogue about the steelband has to continue even if it means repeating what was said before, this is how we keep hope alive, we stop talking all fall down.
Removing bands from their community was a BIG mistake,this is what happens when politicians make decisions and those affected don't protest. Watch Despers do better now they are back on the hill.
I am in agreement with all you said and glad that there are still people that really like the steelband who are willing to do what they do year after year with little or no financial reward.
Survival of the steelband depend on what value the Government place on it, after all it belongs to the people, it's an important part of our history, so it should be protected and made to prosper. We have our own instruments, we compose our own music, we have a festival, the time has come for making carnival steelband friendly. the sreelband is what makes Trini carnival unique. Had Brazil invented the pan you bet the samba would be playing on pan in their carnival.
The Steelband always had a weak lobby which allowed money people with no interest in culture to take over and run carnival.
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