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April, 27, 2000:- NCB Angel Harps Reunion 2000 continued on course last night as close to one hundred persons turned out for a Pan Symposium and photo exihibition at the GBSS Auditorium. The Symposium carried the theme "Pan in the 21st Century - The Future of Pan" and was jointly organised by the NCB Angel Harps Steel Orchestra and the Grenada Steelbands Association. The focus of the discussions was on how to put the pan movement on a solid footing to face the 21st Century.

The pannelists for the event were David "Peck" Edwards, responsible for Steelband development in the Ministry of Culture and former President of the Grenada Steelbands Association, Andy Chichester, President of the Grenada Steelbands Association and Michael Archibald, General Manager of the National Commercial Bank.

After introductions by moderator Lincoln "Toro" Depradine, some background on the current situation facing steelbands was given by Carlyle Roberts, Manager of NCB Angel Harps. He said that while the steel pan had made significant progress socially and that more youths were now involved in the artform, there were still significant hurdles facing the artform, hurdles that we will have to confront head on if pan was to be in any position to take on the 21st century.

Roberts outlined three basic areas that need attention;

pan people attending the symposium Angel Harps' ace arranger James Clarkson (arms folded)
Some of the pan players & supporters who attended the symposium

Addressing the first point of expanding the steel pan player base, David "Peck" Edwards told the audience that although there were now 14 schools in Grenada with a steelpan program, the main hurdle facing schools with pan programs was the availability of instruments. He said that notwithstanding the fact that a few community bands (Dimensions, Rainbow City All Stars, Commancheros and Angel Harps) do make their instruments available to their respective school programs, there was a significant gap between the number of persons wishing to play and the number of instruments available. He called on the government to address this by providing assistance in procurring instruments for the schools programs. After all, he said, pan is ours and we have to take care of it before someone else does it for us. Another problem for the schools program, he said, was the availability of suitable tutors to teach the steelpan. He pointed out that sometimes people had learned to play an instrument without knowing the names of notes on the instrument or even how to form a basic major scale.

One of the main problems with the procurement of instruments was the availability of Pan Tuners in Grenada. Grenada depends heavily on Trinidadian tuners to prepare their orchestras. He recalled hearing that in the early days, each band had its own tuner and wondered how we had allowed this predicament to befall us. This lack of a tuner he continued, was also contributing to the small number of bands that were existing today, and he noted that the really successful bands in Grenada had been fortunate to have had Corporate sponsors who had helped to purchase instruments from Trinidad.

Pannelist David 'Peck' Edwards L-R: Carlyle Roberts, Andy Chichester, Lincoln Depradine, Michael Archibald

David "Peck" Edwards

The other Pannelists

In the area of expanding the number of community bands, Edwards indicated that Commancheros Steel Orchestra had recently donated a number of instruments to a group in St. David's and the launch of that band was imminent. Later on in the program Trevor Emmanuel also indicated that the once pride of the west coast "Happy Hill Silver   Stars" (who were affectionately known as the Klim Kids) will soon be re-established. He commended Commancheros and encouraged other bands to donate instruments to groups and communities who wanted to form a steel orchestra.

Edwards said that the solution to expand the player base for the steel pan rested in a number of things. These he listed as