Wes­ley Gib­bings

When sev­en-time win­ners Phase II Pan Groove strikes the first notes at this evening’s Panora­ma Large Con­ven­tion­al Bands Fi­nal at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, it will mark the home­stretch of one of the com­pe­ti­tion’s keen­est en­coun­ters in many years.

So far, there have on­ly been mar­gin­al gaps to sep­a­rate a tight­ly packed clus­ter of bands, with win­ning records, at the top. This in­cludes this year’s im­mov­able fron­trun­ners Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus, with a record of four wins over the years; joint de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons BP Rene­gades on 13 wins; and rel­a­tive new­com­ers First Cit­i­zens Su­per­novas.

Su­per­novas is no­table for its 2014 win among the Small Bands and as 2016 Large Band run­ners-up hav­ing skipped that year straight to the new cat­e­go­ry.

Mean­while, af­ter shar­ing third place in the pre­lim­i­nar­ies along­side BP Rene­gades, T&TEC Trop­i­cal An­gel Harps slid down the ta­ble at the se­mi-fi­nal with a joint ninth place re­sult – bare­ly es­cap­ing elim­i­na­tion in the process.

De­fend­ing joint 2024 win­ners and 11-time win­ners, Massy Trinidad All Stars, has al­so not had the best run­ning so far, lin­ger­ing mid-ta­ble through both the pre­lim­i­nary and se­mi-fi­nal stages.

Phase II has mean­while hov­ered near the top through­out the ear­li­er stages and nes­tled along­side Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Skif­fle in fourth place at the semis.

Five of to­day’s ten fi­nal­ists have been mul­ti­ple win­ners in the Large Band cat­e­go­ry, while three oth­ers have tast­ed vic­to­ry in ei­ther the Small or Tra­di­tion­al con­tests.

The bands have been spend­ing a hec­tic two weeks brush­ing up on fi­nal ren­di­tions of their arrange­ments. Ex­o­dus and Sil­ver Stars are play­ing Aaron “Voice” St Louis’ Too Own Way. This 2024 re­lease has been among the most played song among the Large Bands through­out the com­pe­ti­tion, matched on­ly by Kes the Band’s ‘Co­coa Tea.’

‘Co­coa Tea’ is be­ing played this evening by Su­per­novas and Trop­i­cal An­gel Harps. Machel Mon­tano’s ‘Bet Meh’ will al­so be played twice – by de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Rene­gades and All Stars.

In each in­stance, con­trast­ing in­ter­pre­ta­tions of these three hits have gen­er­at­ed the keen in­ter­est of au­di­ences. How­ev­er, Phase II Pan Groove’s ren­di­tion of Olatun­ji’s ‘Pan and So­ca’ has un­der­gone a meta­mor­pho­sis through the pre­vi­ous rounds at the hands of arranger/co-com­pos­er, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe.

RBC Re­demp­tion Sound Set­ters are bank­ing on the Lord Kitch­en­er clas­sic, ‘Flag Woman’, which won the 1976 Road March, to do the trick. Skif­fle, once peren­ni­al Tra­di­tion­al Band win­ners bear­ing the name, Skif­fle Bunch, is play­ing Voice’s ‘Retro’ and In­vaders is de­liv­er­ing its ver­sion of ‘Bless­ing’ as per­formed by Bla­ka Dan.

With the score­board now cleared, this year’s close calls and even past vic­to­ries will count for lit­tle at the judges’ ta­ble.

The show starts at 7 pm and the fi­nal notes will be struck by Bp Rene­gades play­ing in Po­si­tion 10.

Or­der and Tunes of Choice

1. Phase II Pan Groove - Pan and So­ca

2. First Cit­i­zens Su­per­novas - Co­coa Tea

3. Shell In­vaders - Bless­ing

4. Nu­trien Sil­ver Stars - Too Own Way

5. Massy Trinidad All Stars - Bet Meh

6. Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus - Too Own Way

7. RBC Re­demp­tion Sound Set­ters - Flag Woman

8. Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Skif­fle - Retro

9. T&TEC Trop­i­cal An­gel Harps - Co­coa Tea

10. Bp Rene­gades - Bet Meh