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St. John’s, Antigua
& Barbuda - No one was happier
last night when it was announced that Halcyon Steel
Orchestra had won the Antigua & Barbuda 2010 National
Panorama competition, than the Prime Minister of
Antigua & Barbuda, the Honorable Baldwin Spencer.
It is well known throughout the Caribbean that
Prime Minister Spencer is an ardent supporter of
the steelpan music genre and steelband performing
arts. Moreover, Halcyon
(pictured below)
is the band that will always be dear to him because
of his close association with the music organization.
 The
Prime Minister had been pleased immediately after
the steel orchestra’s performance, and was confident
that they had put on their best showing. However,
he also acknowledged that “of course, the other
bands had played very well indeed.” “I just
felt - on this performance here tonight, Halcyon
had the edge,” Prime Minister Spencer explained,
“....I think we did enough to pull it off.”
And with his fervor for all pan musicians - having
played pan himself - he spoke about the country’s
steelpan art form and the panists in general.
“It’s a lot of hard work, and I don’t think the
public fully appreciates the extent of the hard
work that’s put in by these guys, long hours....”
He was also pleased with the audience turn out for
the Panorama, pointing out that it was better than
last year. He went further to state
that “Clearly, pan is definitely on the move” in
Antigua & Barbuda, while noting the still-present
need to have bands from the outlying areas as well,
in addition to the well-represented St. John’s [capital]
environs - participate in the competition.
Five steel orchestras participated
in this year’s show - Ebonites, Gemonites, Halcyon,
Harmonites and Hell’s Gate. Halcyon performed
“Rock Me” by calypsonian Short Shirt. The
tune was arranged by veteran arranger Victor “Babu”
Samuel, who is himself no stranger to winner’s row.
He lead Halcyon to four consecutive championships
as arranger for the years 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995.
Halcyon Steel Orchestra is the only band to ever
achieve a four-peat in the country, and now has
a grand total of eleven
national championships.
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Panorama champion arrangers and Prime Minister:
Panorama champion
arrangers and Prime Minister - Pictured
left to right: Patrick “Stone” Johnson,
Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, the Honorable Prime
Minister Baldwin Spencer, and 2010 winning
Panorama arranger Victor “Babu” Samuel
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Mr. Samuel credited discipline, dedication,
working to make the tune clean and “having a good
balance” as the main factors of their win.
“It’s not about how large you are. It’s about
how balanced you are, and the tonal quality that
you have, and the quality of the players that you
have,” he explained. “Babu” Samuel also declared:
“if I like the tune, and I have the players, I could
make something out of it.” Indeed that was
case for this year’s 2010 panorama. Incredibly,
in terms of the time-frame to make it all come together,
the veteran champion arranger said that he only
had “three weeks, many restless nights, twisting
and turning...” where he found himself literally
“jumping out” out of his bed and straight to his
pan [with inspiration] - hard work.
Ebonites opened the show with 90-plus
musicians, and were pleased with the support of
players from their sister band in Barbados, some
of their pan colleagues from Dominica, as well as
their former players who made the trek back home
for the Panorama.
They were followed by Harmonites
(also 90-plus players) who had at their helm, arranger
Robin Margetson, formerly of Gemonites Steel Orchestra,
and now also leading his own aggregation called
Panache Steel Orchestra. But as Harmonites’
vice-captain Simon Toulon looked at it, Robin was
simply ‘returning home’ having spent three of his
formative years with Harmonites from 1974 through
1976.
Ending at 10:12 p.m., the eight-minute
performance of defending champions Hell’s Gate (100
players) - the orchestra taking up every available
inch on stage - was described by one commentator
as a ‘textbook’ performance, and at the time was
seen as ‘the band to beat.’ Back with 2009
winning arranger Khan Cordice, they would concede
to the eventual 2010 champs, Halcyon.
Three-time national panorama champions
Gemonites Steel Orchestra took the stage with 75
players, and despite having been faced with several
challenges at the onset of the season, were very
pleased with their representation for the night
of competition. No stranger to the championship,
arranger Patrick “Stone” Johnson took the band,
with many young players in their ranks - to third
position.
Halcyon had one of the smaller configurations
for the evening with just 75-plus players, but it
was their performance and arrangement that ‘did
it for them,’ not sheer size - as pointed out by
arranger Victor “Babu” Samuel - and this despite
getting off to what was probably the latest start
of the pan season, a mere three weeks before competition.
Samuel was also instrumental in the band’s selection
of “Rock Me” for Panorama 2010.
Among this year’s team of adjudicators
were Nubia Williams and Mark Hosten. The Antigua
& Barbuda pan community were quite pleased as 2010
represents ten straight years of panorama competition.
Prior to 2000, there were periods of no panorama
due to various challenges.
Interestingly,
the 2010 line-up featured solely former panorama
championship bands - all five have been to winner’s
row in the past. And of the five arrangers,
four are prior championship arrangers.
Shawn Nicholas, the Antigua
Commercial Bank Marketing and Public Relations Manager
felt that the event flowed very well
and was pleased with the turn out for the show.
The panorama started promptly at 8:00 p.m. with
the playing of the national anthem, and had concluded
with results - before 12:30 a.m.
The broadcast team from Antigua’s
Observer Radio - inclusive of, but not limited
to: Anika Kentish, Cleveroy Thomas and Sam
Roberts - brought their A-game, coming in prepared
in terms of both content, professionalism, intelligent
discourse, and respect for their listening audience,
complemented by thoughtfully pre-recorded interviews
with management personnel of each of the five bands
appearing that night. Listeners were afforded
some insight and background into the preparation
and challenges which faced the steel orchestras
coming into the Panorama 2010 competition.
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RESULTS for Antigua & Barbuda
2010 National Panorama
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Bands
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Results
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1st
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2nd
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We Ain’t Leaving
/ Samoya Kirby
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3rd
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Tourist Leggo / Short
Shirt
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We Ain’t Leaving
/ Samoya Kirby
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St. John Tung Mash
Dung / Swallow
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Antigua & Barbuda Panorama
Champions
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1. Hell’s Gate (champions 1949,
1953, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1967, 1976, 1990,
1991, 2002,
2006, 2007 &
2009)
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2. Halcyon (champions 1975,
1978, 1979, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995,
2008 &
2010)
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3. Harmonites (champions 1968,
1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1985,
2001 &
2004)
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5. Gemonites (champions 1981,
2003 &
2005)
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6. Ebonites (champions 1977)
Click for more on steelpan in
Antigua
Antigua & Barbuda
Steelband Champions of Antigua & Barbuda
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