PANORAMA, THE FINAL NIGHT
A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE
By
Pat Bishop
Panorama this way was played out against the setting of a Carnival which for a variety of reasons, is unlikely to be forgotten. Presided over by a brand new Committee, the season came replete with a phony birthday, a home in “Carnival City” the location of which place could only be surmised and it was distinguished by a single blimp whose forlorn presence in the Grand Stand sky was to perplex us for many nights. It ended in a host of controversies, disputed judges’ decisions and a sea of garbage over which Man Crab, the King of pollution, was to reign with lasting and terrible authority. There were barriers and routes, competitions without judges and a residue of Carnival stories which will keep the population amused, enraged possibly, but certainly engaged in debate and reminiscence for many weeks to come.
But for me the final night of the pans stands clearly apart from the nonsense. For it was an event characterized by intense musical richness and originality. There seemed to be a new spirit of performance in the air and a search for excellence which contrasted sharply with so much of the costume mimicry which was to come, the neo jungle-fevers and all the rest. It was a short season in which the ear, at least by the final night, was perhaps more richly rewarded than the eye in respect of the visual offerings which were to come.
That the start of the season was beset by problems of players and money for many bands is undeniable. Old arguments about the undesirability of playing one’s “own” tune as opposed to the composition of a calypsonian emerged yet again. Once more, the competitions between the period of the Preliminaries and the Finals occasioned the elimination of bands which sometimes seemed ruthless and, in musical terms, difficult to comprehend. But sitting through several sessions and looking across the panel of judges, I often reflected upon how thankless is their task and how difficult, especially in a competition as keenly contested as this was, it would be to find a winner and persuade a loser that his music just wasn’t good enough.
But by the final night, there could be no losers. There emerged, instead, a champion of champions; for survival along the hard and often bitter road to the finals is an achievement which few can boast. There were two separate searches for Pan Championship on the night of Saturday February 12th, 1983. The first was the competition among the traditional or “pan around the neck” bands. This is a competition which seems to be more enjoyable for those perform than for those who have to listen. This is extremely unfortunate because prejudice against the smaller sound of these bands inevitably makes the listener deprive himself of a quality of music no less interesting because its volume and range possibilities may be more limited. The work of Pan Jammers, the eventual winners and Skiffle Bunch the runners-up provided ample evidence of considerable musicianship. Both Hoytonians and Skiffle made use of a new bass experiment, a product of the search for a wider range and quality of low notes. I don’t know how successful this experiment will eventually be. When I first saw it in use during the Pan is Beautiful, Two Festival, stability of tuning seemed to be a problem and I don’t think