Pe­ter Ray Blood

Steel­bands are al­ready in com­pe­ti­tion mode for the 2016 Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion with most bands al­ready se­lect­ing their tune of choice.Some bands are al­so lo­cat­ed at new venues, in­clud­ing Des­per­a­does, West Stars, Wood­brook Play­boyz and the new New­town Play­boys.

Last week­end, Des­per­a­does be­gan its trek from the band's "spir­i­tu­al" home on Laven­tille Hill to Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain, at the old Greyfri­ar's Church site.

Orig­i­nal­ly lo­cat­ed on Tra­garete Road, New­town, Wood­brook Play­boyz is now tem­porar­i­ly housed on Nizam Street, St James, and New­town Play­boys was re­cent­ly launched on Tra­garete Road. West Stars, a band man­aged by for­mer Phase II Pan Groove man­ag­er Pe­ter Ale­ong, has moved from its Ja­maat al Mus­limeen site and is be­ing ac­com­mo­dat­ed next to Star­lift Steel Or­ches­tra on Mu­cu­rapo Road Ex­ten­sion.

There have al­so been changes as far as Panora­ma arrangers go with Des­per­a­does' Rob­bie Greenidge now ar­rang­ing for Star­lift and Clive Zan­da, for­mer­ly of Siparia Del­tones, re­plac­ing him at Des­per­a­does. For­eign-based Earl La Pierre is ar­rang­ing for Har­monites, while young Earl Brooks Jnr will arrange for Sforza­ta.

One oth­er sig­nif­i­cant change re­port­ed this week is that of Petrotrin end­ing its spon­sor­ship of Wood­brook's Phase II Pan Groove. The pop­u­lar Wood­brook band is now spon­sored by Had­co.His­to­ry could be made at next year's Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion with the en­try of the first all-fe­male steel or­ches­tra to com­pete in the 43-year-old com­pe­ti­tion.

Based in Mal­ick, Plat­inum Steel Or­ches­tra, led by Lau­ren Pierre and Jen­na James, will make its de­but play­ing Blue Boy's Un­known Band, al­so arranged by a fe­male mu­si­cian, vet­er­an pan play­er Natasha Joseph.

In the Christ­mas spir­it

Pulse was giv­en the roy­al treat­ment last week when he at­tend­ed two Christ­mas-styled events, though one was ac­tu­al­ly the launch of a 2016 Car­ni­val fete.On Sat­ur­day, I at­tend­ed the all-in­clu­sive fund-rais­er at Wayne John­son's ex­pan­sive Carmel Val­ley Es­tate in the hills of Mo­ka, Mar­aval.

De­spite chal­lenges with pow­er out­ages, once the gen­er­a­tor kicked in, fun was had by all, danc­ing the night away to the strains of Los MDEos parang band and the G Sharp Band.

The fun con­tin­ued on Sun­day when Paragon Sports & Cul­tur­al Club launched its Ul­ti­mate Sea­side So­ca 2016 fete at its Co­corite club­house. Drinks were rea­son­ably priced and a sump­tu­ous Christ­mas lunch was served.

Ca­lyp­son­ian Pos­er, Los Can­tantes Fes­tivos parang group and DJ Car­do en­ter­tained guests.