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Notting Hill Carnival -
2004 National Panorama - Champions of Steel
Mangrove Steelband Wins

Web Posted - Wednesday,
London September 1, 2004

This year the UK Pan Fraternity celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Carnival as well as the 26th Anniversary of the Notting Hill Panorama, ‘Champions of Steel’ competition. Panorama has been running since 1978 and has been kept at a number of venues including The Scrubs.

In 1964, Rhaune Laslette the organiser of the inaugural Notting Hill Children’s Neighbourhood Festival invited the Russell Henderson steelband to perform. Steelband music was the first recognised form of music to appear at the Carnival and in this iconic year of Carnival, Sterling Betancourt who appeared at that inaugural Carnival appeared with his steelband, Nostalgia, as a guest orchestra. At 78 he is still carrying his tenor pan around his neck.

On the 29th August 2004, Horniman’s Pleasance, Kensal Road, London was the venue for this annual national steelband musical battle. Seven steel orchestras with over 500 pan musicians who practiced for hundreds of hours played thousands of pan instruments on the night; all vying for the prestigious title of the Notting Hill, ‘Champions of Steel’. Birmingham School of Pan, one of the guest orchestras entertained the crowds in the Park before the start of the competition whilst Nostalgia completed their trek down ‘the drag’ bringing the crowds to the judging point to initiate the start of this hyped up competition.

With five of the seven steelbands choosing to play De Fosto’s, ‘War 2004’, it was certainly a musical war on the night. Stardust, Ebony, Southside Harmonics, Real Steel and Mangrove chose to play ‘War 2004’ whilst Croydon opted for ‘Ah pay meh Dues’ with Glissando playing ‘Jamboree’.

The competition was a closely contested one with Mangrove retaining their title with just one point ahead of Ebony. Their musical arrangement was done by the young and talented Kyron Akal in the absence of Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharpe who is still recuperating from his life threatening operation earlier this year. Ebony’s arranger Anise ’Haffers’ Hadeed who holds the world record as the only arranger to win National Panorama thirteen times with nine consecutive delivered a musical masterpiece as always to enable them to attain second place. Glissando under the musical direction of world recognised veteran arranger Rudy ‘Two Lef’ Smith had the crowds wanting more of his sweet and tastefully arranged, Jamboree. Leroy Clarke, the young and gifted arranger from Plymouth took Real Steel to fourth place with his musical arrangements. This is their third appearance at the National Panorama where they have showed great consistency and musical ability. In fifth was Southside Harmonics with their established musical director, Eustace Benjamin giving them that musical as well as morale boost after their absence from this competition in 2001 and 2002. Paul Dowie, musical director of Croydon Steel Orchestra with his young and talented players has only been in this competition since 2003 and has certainly instilled a great sense of competitiveness in his players who achieved sixth place in this year’s competition. In seventh position was Stardust, over the past twenty years, they have appeared at every panorama competition except in 2001 when an unfortunate accident with their float prevented their participation.

This influx of young UK pan arrangers has brought and will continue to bring new life and enthusiasm into this competition. We now look forward to the wealth of steelband music yet to come in this competition.

WINNING ORDER:

1. Mangrove Steelband – 280 points
2. Ebony Steel Orchestra – 279 points
3. Glissando Steel Orchestra – 265 points
4. Real Steel Orchestra – 240 points
5. Southside Harmonics – 229 points
6. Croydon Steel Orchestra – 216 points
7. Stardust Steel Orchestra – 196 points

By: Pan Podium . London

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