For the sec­ond time in the re­cent his­to­ry of Panora­ma fi­nals, Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra will not be among the com­peti­tors.The last time this hap­pened was in 2012.

Known as the band from Laven­tille, Des­pers, as the side is al­so called, placed 11th af­ter their se­mi-fi­nal per­for­mance of Kes Di­ef­fen­thaller’s hit Co­coa Tea at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

Des­per­a­does has won the Panora­ma fi­nals 12 times, their last ti­tle in 2020.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, arranger for the band Carl­ton “Zan­der” Alexan­der said while the band ac­cepts the re­sults, it re­mains up to the man­age­ment to de­cide if they will be con­test­ing it or mov­ing for­ward. Asked about the mood of the play­ers fol­low­ing the re­sults, Alexan­der said: “The mood is, of course, it’s not the same as if you’re in the fi­nals. You know, Des­pers is a band like that, they don’t make a thing like, you know, and get frus­trat­ed, you know? They just, move on.”

Echo­ing the sen­ti­ments was for­mer arranger and cap­tain Cur­tis Williams.

Speak­ing at Des­per­a­does’ pan yard on George Street, Port-of-Spain, Williams said the judges’ de­ci­sion was fi­nal. He said he was proud of the band’s per­for­mance Sun­day night.

Al­so speak­ing at the pa­n­yard was Char­maine Stowe-Thomas, who said she has been a sup­port­er for over four decades and miss­ing out on the fi­nal, while rare, was not enough to make her switch al­le­giance.

“I don’t just love the band I LOOOOVVEE the band,” she said, which brought laugh­ter from those around, in­clud­ing one man who had the band’s name tat­tooed on the left side of his neck.

Sup­port­er, Ken­neth Charles, in a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, said the band not mak­ing it to the fi­nals may have been a dev­as­tat­ing blow to some fans. He said he sus­pect­ed that the death of his friend Leonard Ja­cob, an avid Des­per­a­does lover, may have been due to the band’s plac­ing.

“When I saw him last, he was limp­ing. I said, what hap­pened? He said it’s Des­per­a­dos! So, I don’t know if it’s the re­sult of what hap­pened. He died last night, and I heard he died hold­ing his heart. You nev­er know eh, some peo­ple does take on these things.”

Charles said the band re­lied too heav­i­ly on its pop­u­lar­i­ty to make it to the na­tion­al fi­nals, which will take place on March 1 at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

The fi­nals of the medi­um band cat­e­go­ry will take place in To­ba­go this Sun­day, with home side Katzen­jam­mers, who topped the se­mi-fi­nal round, hop­ing to cop the ti­tle again af­ter last year’s win.

Yes­ter­day, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine heaped prais­es on the reign­ing champs, say­ing: “Once again, our To­ba­go bands and arrangers have done us proud.”