Trinidad Newsday
Tonight single pan bands in Pan Trinbago’s Eastern Region will face preliminary judging at the Arima Velodrome from 6.30 pm.
While 20 bands are scheduled to perform, getting to the competition has been a challenging project for some of them.
Last Thursday, a visit to some of the panyards in Arima revealed that three out of the four bands interviewed faced the same struggles for players, funding and inadequate development of facilities.
The corner of the Eastern Main Road and Olton Road has long been home for Arima Angel Harps Steel Orchestra but a home without people may just be a house. Captain of the band, Noel “Rat” Edwards lamented, “With just ten days to Panorama to go, and only 13 players in the yard.”
Replies
Hmm..Yes all spoken here and uttered is correct thus far.All of WST points are well taken and..........the reality is as it is printed that is how the chips falling...What Noel Edwards of Arima Angel Harps talking about is the reality of the vacancy for pan players...from single pan to large...sponsored and unsponsored......core or seasonal. ..Now According to the Rules of Panorama,...Arrangers are allowed to arrange for one (1) band in each category for the duration of the competition.....that is to say at max....one arranger may be allowed to legally arrange up to a maximum of four (4) bands in different categories............during the competition....Players are only allowed to play for one (1) steel orchestra
My question for comment is should an amendment be put forward to allow players legally to play in up to a maximum of four (4) bands in different categories as well....thereby collecting a total per player of $4000.00 Government remittance after the Preliminaries round?.... Will this ease the vacancy for pan players?....Remember Pan players are people too......without them....the instrument does not play......and they have to eat ah food and look for their yearly bread all in this time during the season.because come ash Wednesday morning ..the Carnival is over........Looking forward to the feedback.
Seriously, is Pan Trinbago with its present management format able/willing to manage one Player playing for four different Steelbands? Maybe this is why it is still and will remain a one Player per band arrangement.
I have said before the problem for lack of pan men in the conventional Band. is to much single pan band
they need to move single pan band composition to another
time of the year and free up all those players for the the real panorama
pan trinbago need to take a good look at this
If a crack shot player plays for 7 bands we cannot be angry because this is when panmen make some money. Maybe the problem of not enough players comes from having too many steelbands.
Cecil this shows how Pan Trinbago lacks any type of business sense. If you don't have enough of the critical ingredients to support your product, you must contract and consolidate. There is simply no need for three categories. There are far to many bands. Pan Trinbago needs to overall the system and grow from strength, not their weakness as they have been doing for years now. It is amazing that they have lasted as long. Without the artificial support of the government this could not work.
bugs
Bugs, I agree, these are areas that need to be addressed but PT is too busy fighting the $$$$$ to realize that their core product is being neglected.