Panning for gold

It’s carnival time, and in Trinidad and Tobago that’s a big, big deal. Many locals spend hundreds, if not thousands of US dollars to “Play Mas” and take part in one of the carnival parades.  For others, it’s an opportunity to win big money. So much money, in fact, that when the nine-times national winners of the steel band competition failed to make this year’s finals and the chance to win the top prize of £200,000, they mounted a legal challenge.

In such competitions, Tobago is very much the junior partner.  Not only is Trinidad larger, more populous and sophisticated, it is oil-rich, commercially-minded.  The majority of Tobago’s steel bands are enthusiastic amateurs in comparison.  Imagine the gulf between a National Theatre performance and Linda Snell’s Christmas production in Ambridge and you’ll get the picture.

But, joy of joys, we have discovered a steel band that can challenge very the best in Trinidad’s premier league right on our doorstep.  After several nights listening to the sound of their practice rising over the hill and drifting down to our terrace, we hopped in the car and followed the sound of the pan.  We didn’t have far to go.  Under the floodlights of a basketball court in the next village our local band Katzenjammers – the Pride of  Black Rock, is being put through its paces in preparation for the All Tobago Pan-orama and, of course the National finals in Trinidad.

With around 40 people on steel pans, oil drums, conventional drums, and percussion, most of the villagers under the age of 25 are probably in the band.  And what a great sound they make.  Swooping from orchestral volume to pianissmo quietness in a heartbeat.  Not that this satisfies their conductor.  Keeping beat with a stick on hollowed wood, he prowls the court listening out for the slightest flaw, frequently stopping the drums to start again.  If you are going to win big in Trinidad, only perfection will do.

Two days later, excited by our band’s chances, we head over to Scarborough to see how they get on in the Tobago Panorama.  It’s going to be a long evening, so we check out a local restaurant first, arriving at the Panorama at 10.30pm to the sound of soca blaring out of the massed banks of speakers, and wondering if we’ve missed the action.  But it’s only the interval, and soon the first band pushes on a series of decorated flat bed trolleys each containing a different drum section and kicks off the main competition.

There are no seats left, but a cold Carib in hand, we position ourselves in the standing room next to the judges and with band supporters coming and going, soon find ourselves at the front.  Katzenjammers are the eighth out of ten bands to perform.

Three of the bands that go before them have made the National finals – they are all sponsored, and the extra money set them apart from the enthusiastic amateurs also on the bill.  We are not sure where Katzenjammers fit into this hierarchy.  We have only seen them rehearse and the best of the competition is pretty good.  We nod sagely, muttering amongst ourselves that this lot could give us a run for our money. 

But as the Katz hit the stage, we realise that so far we have seen non-league and Division One performances.  Katzenjammers take us into the Champion’s League. Their band floats are confidently dressed in red and gold, the performers are smiling in their sponsored t-shirts.  They know what they have to do and the performance rocks.  They drum, they sway, they dance, they jump, they turn, they twirl – every step co-ordinated, and never a beat missed.  Their conductor no longer prowls.  He jumps and turns with them – and even those with a grandstand view are on their feet in support.

We don’t stay for the last two bands.  We know the Katz can’t be topped.  As we walk back to the car, we pass them pushing their trolley loads of drums down the street and onto the ferry to Trinidad.  They don’t wait to claim their £10,000 prize for winning this competition, the Pride of Black Rock’s focus is already on the Big One on Saturday.