JJJ: I have been reading the bits and pieces of YOUR PAN HISTORY that you have been dropping on the forum and I think that if you get together with a GOOD WRITER you could have a BEST SELLING book on your hands. I would throw out all the antagonism (the Copeland thing and the rights to the invention) and just tell the story from the perspective of a STAGE PERFORMER. You seem to have a brilliant memory of things but you have to document before the images start to get blurred in your mind. If I were you and I would get back in contact with whoever is alive from the tours and have a DRINK UP and journey down memory lane. All the recollections from that get together should be documented and used to jog your memory of the live events.
Right now you have American Writers selling the most popular books on STEELBAND and they never even see or hear a PAN until they decided to become ethnomusicologists. The same rules I apply to the MIGHTY POWER'S "Respect your culture" I apply it in reverse to CALYPSO and STEELBAND: Yuh think they could come to LAX and tell you bout pan .. yuh mad or meh Lard Oh! You get the picture.
Except for Glenroy Joseph and Bob Diaz -- none of the posters on this forum really have any STORY TO TELL about PAN. So you are a living encyclopedia of PAN KNOWLEDGE which should be shared with the world. If I had your story to tell, I would tell it from a first person narrative as a performer standing on stage and being amazed at the magical effect this humble instrument was having on International Audiences. But I will also integrate my experiences in the Mecca with the birth and emergence of the instrument.
Man, you have a POWERFUL PAN STORY to tell. And I would sure like to hear it!!!
At the age of fourteen, I left the shores of Trinidad for the very first time as a member of the NORTH STARS STEEL ORCHESTRA ....
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This is a genuinely good idea. Encouragement is a rare commodity ..... Sounds like the real deal...a best seller about your pan experience !