Panorama ‘launch' angers music lovers

Terry Joseph
January 16, 2002

Scores of pan music lovers who flocked to the Princes Building grounds on Sunday became upset after realising "The official launch of Panorama 2002" was nothing more than an advertising promotion mounted by an electronics store.

Pan Trinbago's offices were yesterday morning flooded with telephone calls from steelband aficionados expressing disappointment at the absence of live steelband performances at what was widely believed to be the official launch of Panorama 2002.

But Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold yesterday said his organisation was not involved in the event and its only contact with the promoters was through a telephone call that invited pan executives to the affair and asked their blessing for the demonstration of a sound system playing pan music exclusively.

The company, Sanch Electronix, showed off its Meyer sound system, touting the event as "Pan for the People-the official launch of Panorama season 2002", saying in pre-show advertising the event was a joint project mounted by Sanch, d Idea Shop, TNT Projects and Pan Trinbago.

This apparently led many members of the public to believe several top steelbands would perform at a show to kick off the Panorama competition, which gets underway this weekend.

What they got instead was a powerful public address system reproducing recorded music, mostly CDs produced by Sanch Electronix. Contacted yesterday, Sanch managing director Simeon Sandiford said: "My idea was to demonstrate the speaker system to corporate entities and for people who wish to hear what pan can really sound like through a system like this.

"I was on radio a number of times during the week explaining what would take place, but as usual, Trinis hear only what they wish to hear. We certainly achieved our objective, which was to present the system to people who could afford it."

Previous Page / Terry's Homepage

---