Sean Nero

Act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er James Philbert has is­sued an apol­o­gy to the na­tion's pan­men for the pains they had to en­dure at the hands of law­men in the ear­ly days of the na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment of T&T. At Mon­day's an­nu­al po­lice con­cert ti­tled The Many Moods of Christ­mas held at Queen's Hall in St Ann's, Port-of-Spain, Philbert moved to re­pair the dam­age caused by his pre­de­ces­sors on ex­po­nents of this art form dur­ing the by­gone days. Philbert's ac­tion came while in the spot­light to make a pre­sen­ta­tion to cel­e­brat­ed pan­nist/com­pos­er Len "Boogsie" Sharpe as part of the Po­lice Ser­vice's on­go­ing pro­gramme of recog­ni­tion to cul­tur­al ex­po­nents, as well as peo­ple in oth­er spheres.

It came mere mo­ments be­fore Sharpe wowed a ca­pac­i­ty crowd with his in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Yule­tide melodies on steel. Prais­ing Sharpe for his pro­mo­tion of the steel­pan to the ben­e­fit of the peo­ple of T&T, Philbert, look­ing at Sharpe said: "There was a time when you would see me com­ing and you would pick up your pan and run. "You can­not sep­a­rate the pan and the pan­man al­though a ca­lyp­son­ian sang about pan gone and the pan­man still here," he said. "Pan­men en­dured beat­ing and in­sults.

"We want to re­move all the cashew stains we have put on all those who went be­fore you; those who took their neigh­bour wash­tubs to make pan." Mon­day's show­case was an­oth­er ex­cit­ing ex­hi­bi­tion of tal­ent, res­i­dent with­in the Po­lice Ser­vice. From Christ­mas car­ols to gospel, these en­ter­tain­ers–ac­com­pa­nied by the world fa­mous T&T Po­lice Band un­der the mu­sic di­rec­tion of Su­per­in­ten­dent En­rique Moore–took the stage and de­light­ed the au­di­ence.