On No­vem­ber 21, Wit­co Des­per­a­does paid homage to the con­tri­bu­tion of for­mer band mem­bers and in­di­vid­u­als who have un­de­ni­ably penned their names in­to the his­to­ry of this leg­endary steel or­ches­tra.

Re­ceiv­ing awards were for­mer Wit­co PRO Jean Reid, vet­er­an crack­shot tenor pan­nist Ur­su­la Tu­dor, Vil­ma Vin­cent, George Saul, John Chris­t­ian, George Cous­saint, Jef­fer­son Wal­dron, Sony Bernard, Ralph Gil­ford and Charles Ban­field. Award­ed posthu­mous­ly were Rudolph Charles, Clive Bradley, Stan­ley "Levi" Goodridge and Kelvin Rol­lock.

Dis­tin­guished speak­ers for the evening in­clud­ed Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Kei­th Di­az, MP for the Laven­tille area Ni Le­ung Hy­lo­p­ite, ac­claimed mu­si­cian Roy Cape, Wit­co Des­per­a­does man­ag­er Dr Fin­bar Fletch­er, and Muhammed Shabazz, PRO for Des­per­a­does El­ders. Guests in­clud­ed Fa­ther Clive Har­vey, Se­nior Po­lice Supt Frank Ed­wards and var­i­ous steel­band well wish­ers. Reid, who ex­pound­ed on the gen­e­sis and growth of the band, high­light­ing its im­pact on her life and the Laven­tille com­mu­ni­ty by ex­ten­sion, said: "Un­der the dy­nam­ic lead­er­ship of the late Rudolph Charles, this steel or­ches­tra de­vel­oped a dis­tinc­tive sound and tonal qual­i­ty, which re­mains un­matched even to the cur­rent time.

"I re­signed from the com­pa­ny (Wit­co) in 1976 but I did not re­sign from Des­per­a­does. I con­tin­ued to be a part of the band's ac­tiv­i­ties and, in fact, I took them on tour to the UK in 1981, un­der the spon­sor­ship of Wit­co's par­ent com­pa­ny, British-Amer­i­can To­bac­co. "Every­where the band per­formed, in­clud­ing the Roy­al Al­bert Hall, there were stand­ing ova­tions from sold-out au­di­ences." The af­fa­ble PR ge­nius urged the many young mem­bers of Des­per­a­does to ac­cess guid­ance and ad­vice from the old­er play­ers who have en­joyed tremen­dous suc­cess over the years. She added that their un­equalled ex­pe­ri­ence would stand the youth in good stead.

In ac­cept­ing her award, Reid said: "I am not at all sure I should be award­ed for be­ing in­volved in some­thing which has brought me such joy, such im­mense pride. How­ev­er, I re­it­er­ate my thanks to the El­ders' Or­gan­i­sa­tion and it is with plea­sure that I ac­cept the award."