Trouble in Grenada! Steel Band Association Boycott 2010 Steelband Panorama!

[Pan Times]

Grenada - The Grenada Steel Band Association wishes to inform the general public that due to its ongoing impasse with the Grenada Carnival Committee (G.C.C), a decision has been taken by its membership to abstain from participating in the 2010 National Panorama Championship.

This decision, though regrettable, has become necessary to demonstrate the Association’s displeasure with the handling of matters related to the Steel Band movement, and in particular Carnival 2009.

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[WILLIAM]

The person writing the article talks about running the Panorama Competition as a business. Assuming he can get all the players on board with this idea, has he envisioned what type of business it should be, eg: not for profit, for profit, partnership...Etc. I assume he is talking about a cash business where paper money exchanges hands after each transaction. A successful business has many ways it gets compensated for its products and ideas. One is called Bartering,, it can sell stock which is a share of its ownership. Its easy to say run the Panorama as a business. But think of all the work that is involved. I dont think that pan players have all this in mind when they show up to learn a Panorama tune. Maybe the CDC could issue vouchers or coupons that have some intrinsic value that could be exchanged for goods and services. Panorama is a show for the Masses who enjoy it for what it is. We should not allow politicians and people who think like them to infiltrate the movement. They ruin everything.

[Foy Barnes]

I would like to respectfully repond to the idea that running Panorama or other pan affairs as a business involves too much work. It is this type of thinking that has caused all of the Jonny-Come-Lately to the pan movement to be reaping huge financial benefits from PAN, while the originators in the Caribbean are still struggling to even as much as finance the fitting out of a Panorama Side. Outsiders have quickly realized the money-making potential of Pan when organized, and they have taken full advantage. On the other hand, WE are still viewing pan as this pass-time/hobby that we participate in when we have nothing better to do. It is absolutely imperative that we wake up and smell the coffee. We need to get organized and RUN EVERY ASPECT OF PAN AS A BUSINESS. Playing pan is now center stage. It is a part of Show Business. Sadly the Caribbeanites are more interested in the SHOW and do not understand that we need to take care of the Business.

[CURTIS WILLIAMS]

How sad to see that panorama will not be part of carnival this year.

[Gregory Lindsay]

in 1979,....pan men boycotted the Panorama competition in T&T...Maybe it was for the better in hindsight.
Pan is an integral stakeholder in T&T Carnival......It is a business...not a pastime........Consultation must be the order of the day

[WILLIAM]

Let all the people who feel that pan should be run as a business Stand Up. Notice anything strange? Not one of them know the difference between a C Major chord and an A minor. Never fear guys. We say to all the businessmen - go in peace. Start your own steelband business. Leave real panmen alone to play their music for the masses to enjoy.

[GospelPan]

William,

I respect your views, but I don't agree with them.

I believe the Panorama should be run as a business as I have been saying it for years now, and there are others like Sidd who has been saying it as well. I am a Panman, but I understand that the Panorama must be run as a business; I am sick and tired of seeing steel bands and players being taken advantage of because we don't understand the need to run this thing as a business. I have seen bands lose their Panyards, struggle to raise funds, pay arrangers, pay tuners, pay for uniforms, pay rent for Panyards and sometimes pay for transportation to the museum, all for the love of the art-form, while WIADCA rakes in huge profits. Let me make this clear, I am not blaming WIADCA, they simply put on a show where the bands are participants; it is up to them how bands are compensated and it is up to the bands (steel band association) to agree or disagree to those terms in the form of a verbal agreement or a written contract, which is business.

What we need to do as Panmen, is think like businessmen and put on our own Panorama show, otherwise we will always be taken advantage of...you don't need to be a politician to know that the Panorama should be run as a business by Pan people.

[Catt]

yes gospelpan i agree - just one small point i have to add......

musicians CANNOT think like businessmen. And businessmen CANNOT think like musicians. One is an art form and the other is bean-counting, and the twain shall never meet. is two completely different kinds of minds -

It is not about business people "infiltrating" the pan community, nor is it about them 'leaving us alone to play we pan' -- it's about understanding we have to work together. it's about hiring some professionals to provide us with a service, which is totally separate from the artform. we panmen and women can hire businesspeople to work FOR US, to handle the business parts of producing the 'show' - which has to be managed correctly in order for it to succeed.

we musicians can't do it, we come to play. And we cannot both play music AND deal with the business - it has to be two separate sets of ppl with two different sets of skills, working together in concert.

i just don't get all this confusion about this - the biggest rock and roll bands, and worldwide classical orchestras, all do this as SOP - they have business managers, schedulers, accountants, etc, to do that stuff FOR them so they can be left alone to play - it's so simple. The bean counters work for the band - they're not part of the band, nor control anything about the band, nor make any decisions for the band. They take orders FROM the band as their employer - they are there to do their business stuff and stay outta the music.

We as pan people could certainly control the process the same way - from we own point of view.

[GospelPan]

Wonderful Catt,

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this one, but only where you say,

"musicians CANNOT think like businessmen. And businessmen CANNOT think like
musicians. One is an art form and the other is bean-counting, and the twain
shall never meet. is two completely different kinds of minds -"

There are musicians on this very board who think like businessmen and there are businessman on this board who think like musicians...basically, these folks know when to wear the musician hat and when to wear the business hat...JAMMA is an example of this, who is a musican and a businessman.

Don't get me wrong I understand where you're coming from, but I see no reason why we can't bring in a business (consulting company) to run the Panorama for a year, learn the ropes and then run it ourselves. The steel band associations already have the hands on experience of running the Panorama twice in the past, all we need to do is fine tune the business side it.

[Catt]

"...basically, these folks know when to wear the musician hat and when to wear the business hat...JAMMA is an example of this, who is a musican and a businessman."

seen GP. and actually I do agree with that in part, when it comes to individuals. The only distinction i would like to make is that a single musician running their own performance business, or say, small 10-piece gig band, is WAY different from organizing and running the logistics of business for a 100-pan orchestra, and extrapolating that out further, to handling the business of 20 of those 100-pan orchestras in a Panorama-sized event... that's a mammoth humungus logistical, accounting, scheduling, and business undertaking. IMHO having to give attention to it would make it near impossible for the musicians to fully focus on playin we music -

but overall i do take your point -

[Branches Steel Orchestra]

A light at the end of the tunnel.....but still in a distance. There are several well known young Talented Pan musicians that are going to Music Colleges across the US - NIU and Berklee specifically - and THEY are taking a leaf out of history's book by taking and sometimes majoring in Music Business specifically to try and put a dent in this issue. For them, performance is not the issue - in most cases they have been performing for years since childhood - its the business aspects that they are learning. I feel very confident that these young people will take Steel pan and Panorama and the business of Steel Pan to a new level.

[WILLIAM]

Some people can't pass up the opportunity to blow their own horn. But to make sense yuh have to stay with the discussion - which is - The people in Grenada will be deprived of the opportunity to see their favorite bands perform this year because the man in charge said that the GDC have not reimbursed the association some $150,000 for last years performance. How is the people at NIU and Berkeley going to help the folks in Grenada? How on earth did WIADCA get into the discussion. Stay on the Topic fellas. We want suggestions to help the folks in Grenada.

[the pan cafe]

WIADCA and others are known as reference points for a discussion about Grenada not being able to run a panorama... that is the reason they were brought into the conversation.
Truth is unless there is a worldwide body for pan, Grenadian folks cannot be helped..
I dont think this will be the last country this year who are struggling to run a panorama..

how about this for thinking out the box. If you do put on a show like panorama don't pocket the money, give it to the bands..... just a thought