Pan Buzz

Leader of the cham­pi­on steel­band in the land, Ed­win Pouchet, of the Sil­ver Stars, is call­ing for "more re­spect for the pan­man." With Ed­win, there's no com­pro­mise. The vet­er­an pan­man al­so calls for more pro­fes­sion­al­ism and punc­tu­al­i­ty from pan­men them­selves. The Buzz agrees. In a fight­ing mood, Pouchet lashed out at Gov­ern­ment bod­ies who fail to as­sist pan. He is con­vinced, like the Buzz, some peo­ple re­al­ly do not like pan, ex­cept for at Car­ni­val time, "to wine and jam."

"But, pan is se­ri­ous busi­ness," he told The Buzz, point­ing to some 35 play­ers prac­tis­ing in the Tra­garete Road pa­n­yard for an up­com­ing tour to Carib­ana, Cana­da. Ed­win, a pan vet­er­an of 41 years, is pas­sion­ate about re­spect for the pan­man. He men­tioned one oc­ca­sion, when, af­ter a they were dis­re­spect­ed, Sil­ver Stars packed up and left the en­gage­ment. "We de­mand re­spect!" he em­pha­sised. Since the land­mark vic­to­ry of the Sil­ver Stars in this year's Na­tion­al Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, he said the band has been busy every week­end.

The vic­to­ry has been the cul­mi­na­tion of years of hard work, and the taste still lingers some four months lat­er. Pouchet cred­its the work of ear­ly "broth­ers"–Son­ny Ot­t­ley, Miguel Figuera, Lloyd Payne and his fa­mous broth­er Ju­nior–for set­ting the stage for the Sil­ver Stars' suc­cess. He is al­so thank­ful for the in­put of spon­sor Ex­cel­lent Stores. Re­spect for the pan­man has been a sore point, as many per­sons, in­clud­ing dee­jays, have been treat­ing the pan and the pan­man with ut­ter con­tempt through the years.

'Bald Head' Di­az pound­ing the pave­ment

My spies tell me that with three months be­fore the elec­tion of of­fi­cers for ex­ec­u­tive posts in Pan Trin­ba­go, cam­paign­ing has kicked in. Pres­i­den­tial can­di­date Kei­th "Bald Head" Di­az has been sight­ed as far as Point Fortin and La Brea can­vass­ing for votes. Kei­th, the Buzz un­der­stands, is as se­ri­ous about the pres­i­den­cy as a heart at­tack and has brought a new pair of shoes for the pur­pose of pound­ing the pave­ment.

The re­sponse so far has been en­cour­ag­ing. I am ex­pect­ing, in the run-up to the elec­tions, both in­cum­bent Pres­i­dent Patrick Arnold and the as­pir­ing Kei­th "Bald Head" Di­az will send me their man­i­festo and vi­sion for Pan Trin­ba­go in the fu­ture. Gen­tle­men, re­mem­ber please, no mud sling­ing.

So­lo Har­monites is back!

Look out for a big an­nounce­ment com­ing from a pa­n­yard in Mor­vant Junc­tion near­est you. My spies tell me that big bands in the North are shiv­er­ing in their boots as a force will rise from the East for Panora­ma 2010. Word is that So­lo Har­monites is back. What a great de­ci­sion. The Buzz has been urg­ing mem­bers of the Har­monites and Pan Knights to merge be­cause it made good mu­si­cal sense. The pre­vail­ing eco­nom­ic winds which bat­ter the pan move­ment de­mand that steel or­ches­tras, when­ev­er pos­si­ble, com­bine their ef­forts. I guess my pal, Hugh Loy, must be ex­treme­ly hap­py with this de­vel­op­ment. All that re­mains is for both bands se­lect a steer­ing com­mit­tee to run things.

North/South pan clash

To­mor­row, all roads lead to the TCL Group Skif­fle Bunch Pan The­atre on Cof­fee Street, San Fer­nan­do, for a North/South pan clash. Rep­re­sent­ing the North will be Caribbean Air­lines In­vaders and Wit­co Des­per­a­does. South's finest–Skif­fle Bunch and NL­CB Fon­claire–will fly the flag of the South. Ac­tion starts at 7pm. Is mu­si­cal fire­works, I tell you. Un­til next week, keep lov­ing up and hug­ging up the pan.