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Monday, February 1 9, 1 996 CUT 251 5O

CELEBRATION TIME: Back in the panyard on Charlotte Street, pannists and supporters of Panorama champion Amoco Renegades celebrated the victory. Smiling faces, hearty chit-chat, lots to drinkand eat and some play. These pannists sporting the colourful Renegades stage outfits mirror the joy of a winner. (See Page 13). Photo by LESTER FORDE.

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Charlotte Street band wins eighth Panorama titleBy REY DAVIS

AMOCO RENEGADESrepelled a terrific burst ofmusical fury from 11 of itsrivals at Queen's Park Sa-vannah on Saturday nightto win the prestigiousPanorama til le for a record-cquallingeighth time.

The 12 bands contestedthe 33rd edition of thePanorama final in the pres-ence of a record selloutcrowd estimated at 10,000.Hosts National CarnivalCommission and PanTrinbago attributed theturnout to the anticipatedhigh quality of the compe-tition which spanned a six-hour period under clearnight skies on the broadwooden stage.

Challenged true andhard by the other 11 bandswho presented selectionslike "Mind Yuh Business","The Power Of Music","Blast Off, "Pilgrimage"and "Case Of The Disap-pearing Panyards", the de-feiifling champions fromCJiarlotte Street, Port-of-Spain, countered and con-quered with "Pan In ARage", a calypso of TheOriginal De Fosto Himself.

The band won last yearwith another De Fosto ca-lypso "Four Lara Four" af-ter a string of five success-es with compositions byLore! Kitchener and one byBaron. , ;

Its Jit Samaroo arrange-ment of the De Fosto ca-lypso that likened the rageof a storm to the fiery mu-sical presentations of the

Panorama bands earned it473.5 points out of a possi-ble 500. Its winning scorewas five and a half pointsahead of second-placedPhase II Pan Groove(Mind Yuh Business) and33 and a half clear of 12thand last, Potential Sym-phony (Pan In A Rage).

Witco Desperadoes andExodus were tied thirdwith 467.5 points, six be-hind the winner.

Renegades clearly ren-dered its tune of choicewith tell-tale symbolism asits range of tenors, cellos,guitar pans, basses andrhythm section appearedto be engaged in a harmo-nious tug-o-war. It intro-duced in its play a taste ofthe infectious Indo-chut-ney rhythm currently mak-ing big waves in the coun-try's musical potpourri.

Other bands like Tropi-cal Angel Harps who alsoplayed "Pan In A Rage"and Neal and MassyTrinidad All Stars whorang out "Power Of Music"injected the Indo-Trinida-dian rhythm into theirplay.

So confident were theRenegades pannists andsupporters of victory thattenor player Anthony 01-livierre said moments afterthe band's performance atmidnight: "All those whowent before us and those tocome after us can countthemselves winners. Butwe are the leaders, thechampions and we havethe maestro Jit (Samaroo)on our side." >•

NO JITTERS: Meet Jit Samaroo, the arranger for whom the Panorama bell tolled aneighth victory call at the Queen's Park Savannah on Saturday night. Positioned in theheart of Amoco Renegades' rhythm section, affable Jit plays the cowbell to keep theupbeat rhythmic pace of "Pan In A Rage", the tune he arranged for the title-winner.

Photo by LESTER FORDE.

Appearing eighth in theorder, Amoco Renegadeshad seen all of ArcadianNutones (eighth-placed),Potential Symphony(12th), Pamberi (llth),Witco Desperadoes (tiedthird with Exodus), HydroAgri Skiffle Bunch (10th),;Phase II Pan Groove (2nd)and Tropical Angel Harps(6th) fire direct hits at theprime honour berth.

Then after it performedthe band left in its wakeSolo Pan Knights (sev-enth-placed), Exodus (tiedthird with Witco Despera-does), Sangre GrandeCordettes (ninth) and Neal

and Massy Trinidad AllStars (fifth) to shoot theirmusical guns.

But zeroing in closest onthe prime target beforeRenegades came on stagewas Phase II Pan Groove,band number six whichwas searching for only itsthird national crown. Un-der its inspirationalarranger Len "Boogsle"Sharpe, Phase II almost hitthe mark after stoking themusical fire with a red-hotperformance of "Mind YuhBusiness" which Sharpehimself composed. It wasSharpe's second shot atquelling the Renegades1

fury, having assumed lead-ership role for interpreta-tion of the Denyse Plum-mer-sung piece after Anise"Haffers" Hadeed's controlin the preliminary round.

Sharpe, whose composi-tion was played by fourother bands, was clearlydelighted at Phase II's per-formance.

"Winning a Panorama isnice. But I could sense thatthe people were enjoyingour music and that's whatmatters for now," Sharpesaid as he strolled offstage.

Witco Desperadoeswhich was joined by Rene-gades as the leading title-

winner in Panorama histo-ry, also poked the flames ofthe Panorama fire with itshighly explosive renditionof Robert Greenidge's"Blast Off as band num-ber four.

And later it was Exodusappearing tenth on .stagewith a highly professionaland staggering perfor-mance of Pelham God-dard-David Rudder's"Case Of The Disappear-ing Panyards" that threat-ened to ; overpower theRenegades' rage.

But none looked morepoised to tlirow the prover-bial cold water on theRenegades' fire than thenumber 12 band, TrinidadAll Stars who won its lastand fourth title in 1986. AllStars' rampaging roll ofKitchener's "Power Of Mu-sic" sent the audience intoecstasy, making its perfor-mance raise ominousclouds of an upset. But itwas not to be.

The seven-member pan-el of adjudicators used cri-teria of 40 points apiece forarrangement and generalperformance and ten eachfor tone and rhythm in ar-riving at final aggregatescores. The keyed-up au-dience though scored onthe sweet tonal quality andpulsating beats of thebands and handed the spir-it of exciting play to Pam-beri, Skiffle Bunch, Tropi-cal Angel Harps and cer-tainly Trinidad AH Stars.

The final highlighteddouble-pronged attacks byarrangers Samaroo (Rene-

gades and Cordettes),Greenidge (Desperadoesand Solo Pan Knights) andKen "Professor" Philmore(Skiffle Bunch and Poten-tial Symphony).

Samaroo, who playedthe cow-beil for Renegades,

* stays out front as the mostsuccessful arranger, leav-ing Greenidge, Sharpe,Goddard and BradJey (Nu-Tones) to savour their ownsuccesses in the past.

Other arrangers who fea-tured were Clarence Mor-ris (Tropical Angel Harps)and Godwin Bowen (Pam-beri).

THE RESULTS:1. AMOCO RENE-

GADES (Pan In A Rage)473.5; 2. PHASE II PANGROOVE (Mind YuhBusiness) 468; 3. WITCODESPERADOES (BlastOff) 467.5 and EXODUS(Case Of The DisappearingPanyards) 467.5; 5. NEAL& MASSY TRINIDADALL STARS (Potfer OfMusic) 46G; 6. TROPICALANGEL HARPS (Pan InA Rage) 459; 7. SOLOPAN KNIGHTS (MindYuh Business) 455.5; 8.ARCADIAN NUTONES(Mind Yuh Business) 455;9. SANGRE GRANDECORDHTTTES (Mind YuhBusiness) 451.5; 10. HY-DRO AGRI SKIFFLEBUNCH (Mind Yuh Busi-ness) 450; 11. PAMBERI(Pilgrimage) 446; 12. PO-TENTIAL SYMPHONY(Pan In A Rage) 440.