Len "Boogsie" Sharpe the arranger for Phase II Pan Groove tells it as he see it.
When Steel Talks - Special Post - Trinidad and Tobago Steelband Panorama 2005After a hectic panorama season, a weary but pleased, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe, leader and arranger for the 2005 Panorama Champions, Phase II Pan Groove, chatted with When Steel Talks in its post-panorama review segment. Boogsie conveyed that all his players were extremely happy especially the youths, and they, their families and the steel orchestra's sponsors, Petrotrin, shared a victory celebration at the steel orchestra's pan yard after the band's performance at last weekend's Pan Champs In Concert held at the Queen's Park Savannah. In the opinion of some who attended the concert, the band's performance even topped their winning presentation just a week earlier. Ninety players, consisting of Phase 2's faithful musicians from Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean islands - especially Antigua, Japan, the US and Europe, took to the stage at that concert. The compliment for the winning performance had been one hundred and twenty pan players, but many would have traveled out of the twin-island republic immediately after the carnival celebrations.
Boogsie expressed concern that Pan Trinbago indicated that they may be unable to organize the Tobago leg of the Champs In Concert. He voiced his disappointment especially for his young players who had been very much looking forward to the Tobago show. According to Boogsie, Pan Trinbago says it cannot afford the TT$200,000.00 price tag to host the show which is an annual event. However the Phase II leader is quite unhappy with that excuse. He is questioning "where has all the money gone," and cannot understand why, after the millions given this year to the governing body for pan by the Trinidad and Tobago government, that Tobago's Champs in Concert, an important feature in the Pan calendar of events, was not budgeted for.
Sharpe also revealed that every year Pan Trinbago retains ten percent of all prize monies given to the steel orchestras in the finals, from the small, medium and large bands, supposedly going toward "stationery" (operating costs). This means that Phase 2 Pan Groove actually went home with TT$340,000.00, not the $400,000.00 promoted as the first prize purse. The same is true for each check presented to all the bands in the finals - each was less ten percent. This has been the case for quite a while, Boogsie said, but no one is willing to talk about it. He repeated his call for "business people" to take over the running of Pan Trinbago.
