Ken "Pro­fes­sor" Philmore is fight­ing hard to bring a na­tion­al Panora­ma ti­tle to South­ern­ers as it has been 36 years that south­ern­ers have not en­joyed a vic­to­ry at the world's biggest steel­band com­pe­ti­tion. Philmore said the South­ern pride is de­clin­ing and he hopes to re­store it. "It's tough, but I'm try­ing hard," the pop­u­lar arranger told Pan Buzz in an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view. "I don't know why," he said, "South bands are fac­ing so much dif­fi­cul­ty. "I am con­sis­tent for the last decade as an arranger, but the top ti­tle keeps elud­ing me." The Pan by Storm de­bate is well doc­u­ment­ed, but Pro­fes­sor does not like to dwell on the past. He thanks the many bands that played the Mark Lo­quan/ Pro­fes­sor com­po­si­tion Vibes, sung by De­stra. "They have made me feel great," the bub­bly Pro­fes­sor said. Six­teen bands played Vibes at the pre­lims and 14 at the se­mi-fi­nals in both Medi­um and Large cat­e­gories. Af­ter Car­ni­val Pro­fes­sor is off to dis­tant lands, spread­ing the gospel of pan with­out his diplo­mat­ic pass­port. I don't know what to say or do. I am like a man with a se­ri­ous ta­ban­ca, as I come to terms with Wit­co Des­per­a­does be­ing out of the fi­nals of Panora­ma 2012, for the first time in 37 years. This is like the Pope be­ing thrown out the Vat­i­can. For 11 years Des­pers has been hun­gry for a vic­to­ry-the last win be­ing in 2000. They have tried every­thing in the book, the lat­est be­ing Amer­i­can mu­si­cian An­dre White. Spon­sor Wit­co has thrown every avail­able re­source be­hind the Lavetille Hill steel­band but to no avail. This one re­al­ly hard to take.

I feel it for die hard Des­pers fans, like Di­ane Dupres and Jean Reid. I am not go­ing to say "noth­ing" about Des­pers to hurt the feel­ing of its clan. I love them "too bad," like cooked food. Rob­bie Greenidge has shown he's a man of class and bears no grudges. Since the Pan MagΩnum 2010 de­ba­cle, Des­pers' pan­nists have cussed Rob­bie up­side down and across. He took it in stride, show­ing hu­mil­i­ty and class. With cap turned back­wards, Rob­bie was there on Sun­day, fac­ing the crowd in the Grand Stand, on the tenor pan sup­port­ing his young, 21-year-old re­place­ment. It takes a very big man to do this. With its com­mu­ni­ty wracked by crime, and mu­sic be­ing the heal­ing balm for the Hill, the Des­per­a­does' re­ju­ve­na­tion con­tin­ues and this evening, from 7 pm, spon­sor and sup­port­ers are hav­ing an open house at the band's prac­tice site on Cadiz Road, Queen's Park East, Bel­mont. Big bands have suf­fered through the years at the hands of the Panora­ma judges; this year it's Des­pers' turn to lan­guish for 12 months. Last year it was Rene­gades; in 2010, Ex­o­dus. It will be a dif­fi­cult climb for the band as it pro­ceeds to as­cend out a deep hole.