Len "Boogsie" Sharpe the arranger for Phase II Pan Groove tells it as he see it.

After the 2005 Panorama season, When Steel Talks chatted with the arranger for Desperadoes Steel Orchestra - Clive Bradley. Now relaxed after another hectic season, Bradley indicated that he is quite pleased with the performance of the band Desperadoes.

They sat and listened to the words of pan guru and leader of Phase II Pan Groove, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe. It was after two in the early hours of a February 5 Saturday morning, with the crucial Steelband Music Panorama finals at the Queen's Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad just hours away. The event is one of the major attractions of the country's annual carnival festivities.

Pandemonium of the sweetest nature rained down on the Big Yard stage in the wee hours of yesterday morning as Trinis went wild when Phase II Pan Groove was declared the 2005 National Panorama champion. They beat defending champ Exodus by 20 points with a score of 478 points.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - After years of entertaining crowds during annual Carnival festivals and other celebrations in the Caribbean and elsewhere, steelpan players are likely to experience hearing loss, a new report shows.

Shannelle County is in her own world. Leaning over the wide steel basin with her eyes barely open, the 18-year-old from Valley Stream beats at its dents with her rubber-tipped drumsticks in a gentle calypso that's eclipsed by the room's loud clanking pandemonium.

Pan is a finely tuned steel drum from Trinidad. Jumbie is a Caribbean word for a mischievous spirit. Collide those two words at the Ford Amphitheater in the form of a seven-member calypso-style band, and you have the energy and excitement of a Trinidad carnival.