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  • As I watch the video of Rising Stars Steelband in St Thomas I could not help but feel angry about how they took "we ting" and doing it like ah boss, as a matter of fact they doing it better than we.

    This reaffirm  a comment I made before BEFORE YOU GLOBALIZE, LOCALIZE.

    Not too much you could tell people in foreign anymore, as you slept, they were studying you, now the are doing your ting better than you.

  • Don't worry yuhself Gregory, Oswald and Aquil read what being said here. To your comment about how many bands registered for panorama 2018, out of the 175 bands how many will learn more than one tune for the year? this speaks to the heart of the problem steelbands faces. There is no love for steelband music, which radio station station will play a 9 min. panorama tune every day, and if that's all they did you see why we have nothing. They promote panorama as the only option for the steelband which is not true.  

    • Maybe you have a SEASONAL PANORAMA PRODUCT. And that's what you have. YOUR GENERATION could not get enough of the STEELBAND (but half of your generation either died or migrated). These NEW GENERATIONS have their own right to choose the music that they want to listen too -- and, clearly, it is not STEELBAND MUSIC.

      All that REGGAE and DANCEHALL and RAP and R&B and the LOCAL HYBRIDS -- too much competition for STEELBAND.

      • In the real world they would have built the carnival around the national instrument but we are dealing with ah people who don't appreciate what they have.

  • We have a serious problem with not wanting to fix things, we just leave them alone and hope for the best.

    • Cecil: Yuh does take this PAN TING much too seriously!!! Look how far PAN REACH -- even in the FAR CORNERS of ASIA PAN WORKSHOPS and PERFORMANCES taking place. Man down in Australia playing PAN! Doh Talk about EUROPE and AFRICA. England and North America.

      The only continent we cannot conquer is SOUTH AMERICA. Other than that one can say that PAN made a miraculous journey around the world. But you know that in fields like SPORTS and ENTERTAINMENT -- you must have STARS if you want to BUILD FANDOMS. And that is what we are MISSING RIGHT NOW.

      We don't have a STEELBAND or PAN PLAYER or QUARTET that could win COMMERCIAL SUCCESS with LIVE or RECORDED MUSIC. We still have to sit down and wait for some Foreign Government or Arts Organization to invite us to their STAGE and pick up the ENTIRE BILL for the TRIP.

      So that is the current challenge. But I think that SALMON CUPID could put a 7-PIECE band together with 4 E-PANS and three REAL PANS and a good MUSIC DIRECTOR and one MARKETING MANAGER -- and they could TAKE THE WORLD BY STORM.

      Outside of that: Don't expect NO WALL on the BORDER or no ACT from Trinidad breaking any International barriers IN THE NEXT DECADE!!!

      • You seldom hear me talk about PAN, my concern is the Steelband in the Mecca, who is going to do something about the Steelband?

        • Cecil: STEELBAND IN THE MECCA doing JUST FINE. The deadline for registering for PANORAMA 2018 just passed and I am sure that over 175 STEELBANDS have registered for the event. That is PLENTY STEELBANDS. And to add to that, don't forget all the SCHOOL STEELBANDS -- remember they have their OWN PANORAMA. So we are WELL OVER 200 STEELBANDS. I would use the word "THRIVING " to describe the STEELBAND MOVEMENT in the MECCA.

          We have a LEADERSHP PROBLEM (but it have LEADERSHIP problem in big big government in big big countries all over the world -- not to mention this over-borrowing government we have right now in Trinidad) and the CIP is currently running a political campaign to bring good governance to PAN TRINBAGO.

          So I don't know what your complaint is about STEELBAND IN TRINIDAD. However, if you write down your complaints on a piece of paper for me -- I will try to get it into the hands of THE BIG THREE: Oswald, Aquil and Gregory!!!

  • Registering all Panists should be a good starting point. Having only 50 steelbands would be excellent, then we won't have to languish in the Savannah for endless hours listening to mediocre music.

    We could then have 8 bands as finalist in Large bands and maybe less in the Small and Medium categories.

    This could bring back real competition and boost the credibility of Panorama.

    But this probably would not fly with the mainstream because like everything else in T&T is 'ah eat ah food atmosphere' wanting to maintain the status quo. 

    By the way, this also applies to the arrangers. Stick to a single band, leaving room for up and coming arrangers to get a chance to compete.

  • What's the vision for steelbands in the Mecca beyond Panorama and the few other gigs they do in the year, or should we be satisfied with things as they are?

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