Richard Forteau said that there were about 210 STEELBANDS in THE MECCA. BEVERLEY RAMSEY-MOORE came in at 180 STEELBANDS. And then you have all the SCHOOL STEELBANDS followed by the EXPORT MARKET for STEELPANS.
BIG DEMAND FOR PANS!!! But do we have ENOUGH GOOD PAN TUNERS to keep up THE QUALITY?
Now EVERYTHING PAN has always been a HUSTLE both in LOCAL and FOREIGN. (Which reminds me that I saw one INTERNET POSTER say yesterday that he saw ONE CRACK SHOT play for 6 DIFFERENT BANDS in the RECENT SINGLE PAN QUALIFIERS -- HUSTLE times SIX!!!)
Anyway, the story that I heard is that INTEGRITY in SUPPLYING PANS to STEELBANDS has hit the bottom because SUPPLY cannot match DEMAND. We all know about the KEITH DIAZ & FORTEAU RACKET selling GARBAGE PANS to the SCHOOLS for TOP DOLLAR. Well it seems that with the SHORTAGE OF PANS -- even the BIG STEELBANDS are being sold GARBAGE PANS under FALSE LABELS. So I could well speculate why the SINGLE PAN BANDS are sounding SO HORRIBLE -- more GARBAGE PANS (maybe?).
The way it works is that the BIG NAME PAN TUNERS cannot keep up with the DEMAND for their work. But they are not going to be GIVING UP THEIR LIVING. So they are HIRING amateur and inexperienced TUNERS and buying the sub-standard PANS from them. They then do a little TOUCH UP on the SUB-STANDARD PAN and SELL IT TO THE BIG BANDS (is the SPONSORS who paying and dem have money) UNDER THEIR BRAND NAME.
LIKE HANDBAG KNOCKOFFS!!! MAN MUST LIVE -- RIGHT!!!
Maybe this story is TRUE!!! Maybe this story is NOT TRUE. But a WHITE BOY tuner (MANNETTE GRADUATE) came out here one time from TEXAS to tune some PANS and the first thing the fellah do is HOLD UP THE PAN and HIT one of the NOTES a little hard!!! The note CRACK OPEN like a DRY COCONUT and the WHITE BOY TUNER say: If the PAN cyar take LASH -- it eh no good. And that PAN was NO GOOD.
Of course he did not use those exact words -- but the meaning was the same.
So maybe the SINGLE PAN PLAYERS are not really beating the PANS TOO HARD. Maybe is THE PANS and NOT THE PLAYERS.
More PRESSURE for PRESIDENT BEVERLEY-MOORE. Maybe she have to set up some QUALITY CONTROL in all the 180 STEELBANDS that THE TREASURER say BELONG TO HER!!!
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