by Curlan Campbell
- Pantastic Saturday Ultra held at National Stadium on Saturday, 6 August
- Co-op Bank Commancheros Steel Orchestra 7th Panorama championship
- Andre Greenidge arranged winning performance
Co-op Bank Commancheros Steel Orchestra continues to celebrate after emerging victorious over defending champions New Dimension Steel Orchestra, earning them their 7th Panorama championship: 1994, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2022.
Their rendition of 10,000 Masqueraders by female soca artiste ‘Myney’ in 2008 was arranged by Andre Greenidge, who first started assisting with the band’s arrangement back in 2006 alongside Cecil T. Noel.
“This victory means a solid relationship with Co-op Bank starting off on the right note, being the best bank in Grenada and the best band in Grenada solidifying this synergy. It’s only beautiful things we can do after that, making magic culturally so that it is what this victory means this year,” Greenidge said.
Greenidge said the last 2 years have been quite challenging. “The 2 years were rough. You know you lose kids every year for all different factors ranging from students going on study leave, some get married and move on and start working so that 2 years we weren’t able to do any new programmes in terms of training. 90% of the people you are looking at there are old members, so it had affected us in that way with us not being able to recruit new people but we were able to get over that hurdle and emerge the winners.”
Only a 3-point difference separated the champions from second place Republic Bank Angel Harps Steel Orchestra, led by veteran arranger James Clarkson who has led the band to 15 titles since 1973. The band’s first Panorama championship was in 1970 with arranger Mitchie Bain. Their rendition of chutney soca Chala Baiti by Tanglar was among the crowd’s favourites.
Drill master for the Angel Harps Steel Orchestra senior band and arranger for the junior band, Jevon Andrew, claimed that Angel Harps was clearly the better band. “I am very disappointed with the results. I believe the judges did not do a very good job at all, but the decision is final and w respect it,” Andrew said.
The Covid-19 pandemic affected many bands and Angel Harps was no exception. “We were much smaller this year than we normally are, we were about 70% than we would normally be, but we can expect that in a Covid year. The junior band last week was larger than the senior band because the kids love it, so they came out in their numbers,” Andrew said.
The defending champions, the New Dimension Steel Orchestra, had to settle for the third spot with 266 points, with Cordel Byam’s arrangement of Skinny Banton’s Wrong Again.
“This year was hectic because of the Covid situation. Everything slowed down when it came to music, so teaching was a bit harder. No one was coming to practice, so it was very strenuous, but we still worked very hard to prepare for the Panorama. Looking at our performance, it was great. I don’t think we need to work on anything per se, but I will await what the judges had to say and try to work on it,” Byam said.
This year, Panorama was dubbed Pantastic Saturday Ultra, and it was held at the National Stadium on Saturday, 6 August.