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Arnold: Stupidness at
Sunday Pan
By JOAN RAMPERSAD Tuesday, January 22 2008
The chaos at the National Panorama preliminaries at the
Queen’s Park Savannah on Sunday continued unabated and
nightfall found the National Carnival Commission (NCC)
unable to provide electricity for the show which had to
be temporarily halted.
Well before 6 pm, the first
announcement for an NCC official to go to the judges’
booth went unheard. Half an hour later, patrons were
told that an electrician had arrived to get lights on at
the judges’ table. At that same time the announcer also
called for another electrician to go to the ticket booth
at the southern entrance of the Northern Greens as light
was needed there too and one minute later another call
was made for yet another electrician to provide light at
the health and emergency area.
The frustration showed on the face of Patrick Arnold,
president of Pan Trinbago, as the show was temporarily
halted until the lighting issue was sorted out, and this
after a late start and other problems. He told Newsday,
“It’s unbelievable the amount of stupidness that has
taken place today. There were problems with the ticket
booths this morning and now, they knew the show was
going into the night and yet still they couldn’t make
sure that the lights would be working when needed?”
Lights eventually came midway into the medium band
category, sometime after 7.30 pm. But by that time St
Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves who was present,
left the Savannah, the delay too much for him.
Melodians, the first band to come on stage in the medium
band category at 5.30 pm, had the crowd cheering all
through their performance of a Terrence “BJ” Marcelle’s
arrangement of De Fosto’s “Latin On De Court.” It was a
sign of good things to come.
Receiving lusty applause from the crowd were the Sangre
Grande Cordettes that played “Latin On De Court”
arranged by Dennis Noel and Shakeer Mitchell, and
HCL Valley Harps who played a Michelle
Huggins-Watt’s arrangement of “Celebration Time,”
composed by Edwin Pouchet and Mark Loquan.
Before the large band category competition that started
at 10.24 pm, the crowd in the Northern Greens had
already been filing out of the Savannah, including the
rhythm section.
But those who stayed heard Witco Desperadoes led off the
competition with a Robbie Greenidge arrangement of “Ten
Commandments of Pan” composed by Jason Isaac and sung by
Tony Prescott. It was sweet melodious music from the
band from the hill much to the delight of its supporters
who were virtually on the stage.
Calls for supporters to step back from the band also
came when Phase II Pan Groove was on stage. The crowd
didn’t budge. They wanted to hear the band play “Musical
Vengeance” arranged by Len “Boogsie” Sharpe. They
weren’t disappointed. They got added inspiration when
Anslem Douglas joined Boogsie in front of the band.
Silver Stars, playing for the first time in the large
band category completely captivated the audience with
its execution of Edwin Pouchet’s “Thunder Coming.” Their
performance was almost flawless.
Reigning champs Neal & Massy Trinidad All Stars played a
Leon “Smooth” Edwards’ arrangement of “Thunder Coming.”
Sagicor Exodus came in with a Pelham Goddard arrangement
of De Fosto’s “Puncernelly” and bp Renegades also played
“Thunder Coming” arranged by Amrit Samaroo with
direction from Dr Jit Samaroo.
Exodus was a pretty picture on stage with their canopies
raised off, and they didn’t only look good, they also
gave a great performance.
They were followed by another excellent performance by
the Renegades, no doubt looking for their tenth title
this year.
At exactly 2.30 am yesterday the last band Pamberi ended
its performance. They were unfortunate in that by the
time they started the stands were now almost completely
empty but they played Cheo Cato’s “Pressure” arranged by
Brian Villafana, with gusto. |
