I'm al­ways filled with a sense of loss as the cur­tain ris­es to­mor­row on the fi­nals of the 2011 Na­tion­al Panora­ma. Did some­one say it's show­time for $2 mil­lion smackeroos? This sense of loss over­whelms me be­cause the ex­cite­ment and build-up to the grand day have ar­rived, and I have got to wait un­til next year to en­joy it once more. As I said, no pre­dic­tions this year. And I won't delve in­to what town say. What town say...they say. I cool. The big bands are too close to call.

Leon Ed­wards (Smooth) and Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars have thrown down the chal­lenge to Ed­win Pouchet's PCS Sil­ver Stars. Both bands will be play­ing Show­time, com­posed by Pouchet. Len Sharpe (Boogsie) will be hop­ing his Do Some­thing for Pan vin­di­cate his be­lief that Pan Trin­ba­go is do­ing noth­ing for pan. Sagi­cor Ex­o­dus has put last year's dis­ap­point­ment be­hind its back, and is well po­si­tioned to land a se­ri­ous blow with Call­ing Meh. Now I ex­pect bet­ter be­hav­iour from vet­er­an arranger Pel­ham God­dard (PG) if the re­sult does not go his way this time.

All eyes will be on Wit­co Des­per­a­does as the ten-time cham­pi­on tries to climb out a deep hole. There's a sim­i­lar­i­ty with Des­pers cup­board and Moth­er Hub­bard's as both have been bare the last ten years. Can Ben­jai's Tri­ni do the trick for Des­pers? We won't have to wait long. What can I say about the South chal­lenge led by NL­CB Fon­claire and Siparia Del­tones? The less said the bet­ter, as this 35-year-old itch be­comes in­tol­er­a­ble. It will be in­ter­est­ing to see what Ken Philmore (Pro­fes­sor) and Carl­ton Alexan­der (Zan­da) will pull from their hats.

Two youth­ful arrangers-Liam Teague (Star­lift) and Ard­din Her­bert (CAL In­vaders)-are still learn­ing the tricks of the ar­rang­ing trade, and should find the go­ing tough against their se­nior coun­ter­parts. RBTT Re­demp­tion Sound­set­ters is the lone To­ba­go rep­re­sen­ta­tive. Con­sis­tent­ly good like a cup of good To­ba­go co­coa tea, I'm con­vinced they'll serve up a de­light­ful per­for­mance. I know ad­ju­di­ca­tors will do their jobs fear­less­ly, and who vex...lorse!

Bar­bar­ians at the gate

Don't doubt me when I lam­baste pan hyp­ocrites. I do hope that they stay on their is­land, and leave pan events alone. How else can I speak to these bar­bar­ians who con­tin­ue to take "fet­ing" to a new lev­el, and bold­faced too. They have now bro­ken down the gate of tol­er­ance, and I've wait­ed a whole bloody week for Pan Trin­ba­go's re­sponse; but like pres­i­dent Kei­th Di­az (Bald Head) afraid to talk. Es­pe­cial­ly since he take out an ad in the news­pa­pers sug­gest­ing that the press am­bush him at the semis, and mis­quote him. Panora­ma's Sa­van­nah Par­ty must, and I re­peat must, not be al­lowed to de­te­ri­o­rate in­to chaos. Re­mem­ber on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day where do these pan hyp­ocrites go.

Two Des­pers diehards

Two of my favourite Des­pers diehards are Di­ane Dupre and Jean Reid. Any­time I see these two women, I feel to buss a kiss on them. Now don't get me wrong, The Buzz is not an in­cur­able ro­man­tic, it's on­ly that they look nice like cooked food. How­ev­er, I take the op­por­tu­ni­ty to wish these two beau­ti­ful women Hap­py Car­ni­val, as well as the loy­al read­ers of this col­umn, in­clud­ing my good friend, and friend of the me­dia Kei­th Di­az (Bald Head). Now, watch your al­co­hol in­take, and as the Buzz al­ways says: do things in mod­er­a­tion. Bless.

Big up to Rudy Wells

To­day Pan Buzz pays trib­ute to one of the for­got­ten sons of Na­tion­al Panora­ma. I'm talk­ing about Rudy Wells. Through my ex­pan­sive net­work of spies, I have or­dered them to track down Rudy. The lat­est I have heard is that he lives a qui­et life in the USA. How­ev­er, Rudy brought glo­ry to the Neal and Massy Trinidad All Star with a stu­pen­dous arrange­ment in 1973 with Kitchie's Rain­o­ra­ma. Holy Moses! Noth­ing has been heard from this fine pan song com­pos­er. In 1995, with the mer­cu­r­ial Alvin Daniell, he co-wrote Hur­ri­cane. Then fol­lowed it up in 1996 with Jumbie and Panora­ma Food. Talk­ing about food, right now I could eat a cur­ry pelau with some hog fea­tures. Can any­one help?

All Stars front-line gets the nod

Peo­ple ask­ing me who has the best front­line in steel­bands at Na­tion­al Panora­ma. It's a toss-up be­tween Rene­gades, All Stars, Sil­ver Stars and Phase II Pan Groove. I scratched my grey head once twice and three times and will set­tle for the All Stars vi­su­al ap­peal. Watch to­mor­row's com­pe­ti­tion and you tell me if I'm wrong.

Take a bow, NACC

It's great when we ho­n­our those who con­tributed while they are alive. Con­grat­u­la­tions go out to Na­tion­al Ac­tion Cul­tur­al Com­mit­tee (NACC) for ho­n­our­ing pan stal­wart Cur­tis Pierre of the famed Dix­ieland Steel Or­ches­tra, pan arranger and com­pos­er Ray Hol­man, and the T&T Steel­band As­so­ci­a­tion. Thanks Guy!

Al­so my thanks go out to Singing Francine for im­mor­tal­is­ing walk­ing steel­band en­cy­clo­pe­dia Nor­man Dar­way in song. Way to go! Un­til next week, keep lov­ing up the pan!

How they ran in 2010

Large Cat­e­go­ry:

1 PCS Sil­ver Stars

2 Petrotrin Phase Two Pan Grove

3 Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars

4 Bptt Rene­gades

4 Caribbean Air­line In­vaders

6 TCL Group Skif­fle Bunch

7 So­lo Har­monites

7 Wit­co Des­per­a­does

9 RBTT Re­demp­tion Sound­set­ter

10 NL­CB Fon­claire.