SAN­DRA L BLOOD

One of T&T’s old­est steel or­ches­tras is re­build­ing its sound and its team ahead of Panora­ma 2026. Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra – orig­i­nal­ly known as Des­ti­na­tion Tokyo – was formed in the ear­ly 1940s and made its de­but un­der leader Dud­ley Rouff in 1945.

Sec­re­tary and co-man­ag­er Michelle Sal­cei­do said the band’s for­tunes shift­ed af­ter its long-stand­ing spon­sor­ship end­ed.

“Carib Brew­ery af­ford­ed ease of op­er­a­tions and a sense of pride and joy while we proud­ly sport­ed corn-bird yel­low and elec­tric blue,” she said. “But fol­low­ing the sep­a­ra­tion, op­er­a­tions be­came chal­leng­ing. Our mem­ber­ship, in­clud­ing our stage side, has felt the blow to this day.”

Tokyo, which has nev­er won Panora­ma but has been a fre­quent fi­nal­ist, is now re­cruit­ing “re­silient and com­mit­ted play­ers” to build a new stage side for the 2026 sea­son. Their com­pe­ti­tion tune will be Jam­town by Coutain and Tano, arranged by Carl­ton “Zan­da” Alexan­der and tuned by Desmond “Mapel” Richard­son.

The band has a sto­ried per­for­mance his­to­ry. It reached the Panora­ma fi­nals in 1971, placed sec­ond in 1972 and 1973, per­formed at Cana­da’s Grape and Wine Fes­ti­val, and took third place in the 1975 Trib­ute to Spree Si­mon. Tokyo al­so cap­tured the 1968 Bomb 4 Com­pe­ti­tion, was run­ner-up in the 1970 Bomb Com­pe­ti­tion, and earned recog­ni­tion for its Car­ni­val “beat­ing band” prowess. It per­formed at the Los An­ge­les Folk Fes­ti­val in 1981, toured Cara­cas in 1983 and ap­peared at events in Wash­ing­ton, New York and the Los An­ge­les Olympics be­tween 1979 and 1984.

Suc­cess­ful Panora­ma arrangers such as Ray Hol­man and Clive Bradley have served Tokyo. This year Clive “Zan­da” Alexan­der’s arrange­ment of Cheers to Life re­turned the band to the Panora­ma fi­nals, where it placed fifth.

Sal­cei­do said the or­ches­tra is adopt­ing a “big­ger, bet­ter pos­ture” in every area – from main­tain­ing a re­spect­ful, safe pa­n­yard and play­er com­fort to fi­nal­ly se­cur­ing a Panora­ma vic­to­ry. Pa­n­yard ren­o­va­tions have been com­plet­ed and a dig­i­tal in­ter­face is planned.

To fi­nance its 2026 cam­paign, Tokyo needs $200,000 to pur­chase and up­grade in­stru­ments, ac­quire uni­forms and cov­er con­tin­gency costs. Two fundrais­ers were held in Ju­ly, but more sup­port is need­ed.

“We are at­tempt­ing to present an ex­treme­ly suc­cess­ful Team Tokyo,” Sal­cei­do said. “Cur­rent­ly, some US-based com­mit­tee mem­bers fund oth­er needs, and we are re­build­ing from the ground up. We do not have a core group of home-grown play­ers and would love for pan play­ers look­ing for a home to come out and join our team.”

The band now wears turquoise – a colour cho­sen to sym­bol­ise heal­ing, tran­quil­i­ty, pro­tec­tion, cre­ativ­i­ty and emo­tion­al bal­ance. Along­side Sal­cei­do, the man­age­ment team in­cludes US-based man­ag­er Fran­cis Her­cules, cap­tain Jeulious Fred­er­ick, li­ai­son of­fi­cer Lat­i­fah Gon­za­les and trustee Dave Chance.

To kick off its Panora­ma 2025–2026 and re­cruit­ment dri­ve, Tokyo will host a “Week­end of Fun and Fes­tiv­i­ties” from Oc­to­ber 17–19 at its pa­n­yard.

Oc­to­ber 17 (4 pm–mid­night): Af­ter Work and All Fours Lime with cock­tail spe­cials, cut­ters and All Fours.

Oc­to­ber 18 (8 am on­wards): Break­fast and Brunch with food, mu­sic, friends and fam­i­ly.

Oc­to­ber 19 (mid­day on­wards): Sip & Paint and Karaoke. Chil­dren’s Sip & Paint in­cludes prizes; evening karaoke of­fers a fun wind-down.

Tick­ets: (868) 738-2236 | (443) 522-4057.