Phase II Pan Groove's achieve­ments were laud­ed dur­ing its 40th An­niver­sary Awards and Din­ner held at the Hy­att Re­gency Trinidad in Port-of-Spain on Oc­to­ber 23. The six found­ing mem­bers of Phase II Pan Groove can take pride in the fact that the band which was es­tab­lished four decades ago, with the sin­gle aim of be­ing a trend­set­ter with­in its fra­ter­ni­ty, has not lost its way.

Sel­wyn Tara­dath, Bar­ry Howard, Andy Phillip, Noel "Stove" Seon, Rawle Mitchell and Len "Boogsie" Sharpe were the dream­ers be­hind the band which has now be­come an in­sti­tu­tion in the Wood­brook com­mu­ni­ty and a rep­utable sound in world mu­sic.

Their sto­ries were not dis­sim­i­lar to oth­ers from this era of the steel­pan evo­lu­tion. Even with the odds stacked against them, they pre­vailed. But now that their ef­forts have borne fruit, with even more new­com­ers in the sphere of steel­band mu­sic us­ing the band's achieve­ment as the stan­dard for their self-styled mu­sic en­deav­ours, these el­ders can now breathe eas­i­er know­ing that they have made an in­deli­ble mark.