RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A night of steel­pan mas­tery end­ed in a tie as To­ba­go’s T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion and Gold­en Hands both earned 279 points to share the cham­pi­onship ti­tle at the 2025 Na­tion­al Panora­ma Small Con­ven­tion­al Fi­nals at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, on Sat­ur­day.

South­ern Stars Or­ches­tra fol­lowed close­ly in third place with 276 points, while Fu­sion Steel se­cured fourth place with 271 points.

New East Side Di­men­sion played Lord Kitch­en­er’s Rain-o-ra­ma.

Lord Nel­son’s hit “Mih Lover” was the se­lec­tion for Gold­en Hands and South­ern Stars Or­ches­tra, earn­ing rap­tur­ous ap­plause, es­pe­cial­ly when Lord Nel­son made a sur­prise guest ap­pear­ance on stage.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia af­ter the re­sults were an­nounced, T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion arranger Kersh Ram­sey ex­pressed pride in the shared vic­to­ry.

“This is my sec­ond win in two years. When you win alone, it’s sweet­er, but we are still cham­pi­ons,” Ram­sey said.

“Ku­dos to Gold­en Hands—they gave a fi­nal­ist per­for­mance tonight. The re­sults could have gone ei­ther way, but I’m grate­ful.”

Ram­sey high­light­ed the chal­lenges his To­ba­go-based band faced in com­pet­ing.

“Bands in Trinidad have four nights to prac­tice but we on­ly have one be­cause our pans are on the boat back to To­ba­go, and my play­ers are from the coun­try. We are at a dis­ad­van­tage when all the oth­er bands have four nights to pre­pare but we on­ly have one be­cause of the trav­el­ling back and forth,” he said.

De­spite the lo­gis­ti­cal hur­dles, Ram­sey re­mains op­ti­mistic about the fu­ture.

“Year af­ter year, we are grow­ing and im­prov­ing. Steel­pan mu­sic is im­por­tant, and I’m grate­ful for the ded­i­ca­tion of my play­ers. You get the best out of me when I’m un­der pres­sure,” he added.

Mean­while, Gold­en Hands arranger Vanes­sa Headley-Brew­ster said the win was a con­tin­u­a­tion of their lega­cy and a trib­ute to the steel­pan art form.

“This is 33 years of build­ing some­thing from noth­ing, set­ting a gold stan­dard. It’s a tes­ta­ment to the hard work and pas­sion that goes in­to steel­pan,” Headley-Brew­ster said.

She em­pha­sised the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of the in­stru­ment and the glob­al op­por­tu­ni­ties it presents.

“The world is ready for pan. It’s such a trans­for­ma­tive in­stru­ment, and we need to fo­cus on the pos­i­tives and build on them,” she added.

The fi­nal plac­ings were:

1. T&TEC New East Side Di­men­sion, Rain-o-ra­ma - 279 pts

1. Gold­en Hands, Mih Lover - 279 pts

3. South­ern Stars Or­ches­tra, Mih Lover -276 points

4. Fu­sion Steel, Bon­nie and Clyde -271 points.

5. Todd's Road Rhythm Raiders, Go­lo - 270 pts

5. Fas­ci­na­tors Pan Sym­pho­ny, Swet­tness is my Weak­ness - 270 pts

5. Up­town Fas­ci­na­tors, Doh Rock it So - 270 pts

5. Tokyo Steel Or­ches­tra, Cheers to Life - 270 pts

9th: T&T De­fence Force Steel Or­ches­tra, Swing - 269 points

9th: First Cit­i­zens To­ba­go Pan­thers, Tiny Winey - 269 pts

11th: Ari­ma Gold­en Sym­pho­ny, Gold - 268 pts

12th: St Mar­garet's Su­per­stars, Rack me, Rack me - 267 pts

13th: Panoson­ic Con­nec­tion, Gar­lic Sauce - 266 pts

14th: Road­block Steel Or­ches­tra, So­ca Train - 263