The UK National Panorama Competition 2009

United Kingdom - The British Association of Steelbands celebrates their 32nd annual National Panorama ‘Champions of Steel’ competition on Saturday 29th August 2009 in Hyde Park. This is the third year this competition will be held in this iconic location. Eight steel orchestras with in excess of 500 musicians who practiced for six to eight weeks will play thousands of instruments to capture the coveted title of the ‘2009 Champions of Steel’. The event will also be featured on BBC London 94.9 FM and on line at http://whensteeltalks.ning.com/page/uk-national-panorama.

First to play will be Southside Harmonics who placed third last year and are looking forward to attaining even more with their Eustace Benjamin’s musically arranged ‘Bandoleros’. In second position is CSI. This is CSI’s second appearance in this competition and they are hoping to cause havoc with Brent Holder’s musical rendition of ‘Magic Drum’. In third position is London All Stars who have not appeared for some time at this Panorama competition and is looking forward to a comeback with Frank Rollock’s arrangement of ‘Dangerous’. In fourth is CSO who will play a Paul Dowie’s musically arranged version of ‘Pan Redemption’. Paul continues to inspire his young and talented pan musicians.

Fifth place is occupied by Real Steel from Plymouth who was second in last year’s competition. They will play a Leroy Clarke’s arrangement of ‘First in de Line’. In sixth position is Metronomes playing ‘Hostile’ musically arranged by Kyron Akal, who led Mangrove to victory in this competition a few years ago. In seventh position is Ebony, the juggernaut, of this competition. They have won this competition seventeen times since its inception in 1978 and are the reigning Champions. In the eighth and final position is Mangrove Steelband who will play an André White’s musical arrangement of ‘Magic Drum’. André has tasted victory in New York with ADLIB and is hoping to repeat his performance in the UK.

This will be a well contested Panorama competition with a high level of musicianship, excellent quality of music added to the dexterity, energised delivery and overall commitment from the players. The judges will have their job’s worth.  Pan 4 Life

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Order of Appearance:

1. Southside Harmonics
2. CSI Steelband Trust
3. London All Stars Steel Orchestra
4. Croydon Steel Orchestra
5. Real Steel
6. Metronomes Steel Orchestra
7. Ebony Steel Band Trust
8. Mangrove Steelband
    

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Band	Tune	Arranger	Composer(s)
CSI Steelband Trust	“Magic Drum”	Brent Holder	Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharpe/ Machel Montano
Croydon	“Pan Redemption”	Arddin Herbert	Jason ‘Peanut’ Isaacs/ Ingrid de Peiza
Ebony Steel Band	“Pan Redemption”	Anise ‘Haffers’ Hadeed	Jason ‘Peanut’ Isaacs/ Ingrid de Peiza
London All Stars	“Dangerous”	Princess Rollock	Ken ‘Professor’ Philmore/ Mark Loquan
Mangrove	“Magic Drum”	André White	Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharpe/ Machel Montano
Metronomes	“Hostile”	Kyron Akal	Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharpe/ Alvin Daniell
Real Steel	“First in de Line”	Leroy Clarke	Edwin Pouchet/ Alvin Daniell
Southside Harmonics	“Bandoleros”	Eustace Benjamin	Miguel Reyes/ Tunapuna Scanty

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Judges:

Nestor Sullivan
June Ifill- Bacchus
James Clarkson
Rudy Two ‘Lef’ Smith
Richard Murphy

Adjudicator – Mary Zinovieff

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Contact Robbie Joseph: robbie@panpodium.com
photo by Robbie Joseph

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