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Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra: The History Speaks I have followed the comments on the 2006 Panorama results made by various people via the media and found them rather interesting to say the least. It will probably be useful for me at this point to express my take on the issue. The very first bit of information of which the public and in particular steelband players and enthusiasts should be made aware is this: The total of the marks given by all seven (7) judges would have placed All Stars in the number one position. The marks for All Stars were as follows: Judge No.1 - 92; Judge No.2 - 93; Judge No.3 - 94; Judge No.4 - 93; Judge No.5 - 96; Judge No.6 - 96; Judge No.7 - 93 which together gives a grand total of 657. The Phase marks in similar order were as follows: 91; 94; 95; 95; 94; 93; 94.5 which together gives a grand total of 656.5. However, the accepted practice or convention is that both the highest and the lowest marks are dropped. All Stars lost one mark of 96 and their lowest of 92, while The Phase lost one mark of 95 and their lowest of 91, giving thereby a grand total 469 for All Stars and 470.5 for The Phase, the 2006 Panorama winners. Obviously there was rational justification for a tie, rather than merely proceed with the abstraction of a mathematical formula which was intended to address situations in which there are wide disparities in scores above and below the average suggesting the existence of bias, but which when applied to scores that are tightly bunched around the average create the opposite dilemma. Indeed a tie would have been most appropriate given the fact that Panorama 2006 was considered significant to the celebration of the Soca Warriors, Journey to Germany as well as celebration of the life of the great Clive Bradley, two requirements, so to speak, aptly handled and addressed musically by the two bands. But Steel Orchestras in general through their representative body, Pan Trinbago, have brought such dilemma upon themselves when they opted to forbid any final consultation between judges before public declaration of Panorama winners. As the marks reflect, it is easy to assume that the most minimal dialogue would have resulted in a tie, and there are many such examples in past and recent history in which brief dialogue would have brought joint winners, one case involving the very same two band except on that occasion the outcome was the reverse. One commentator from Trincity, in analyzing the Panorama 2006 results, talks about All Stars being, cocky and over-confident going into the 2006 Panorama Finals, displaying to all and sundry his obvious ignorance of the history of All Stars. All Stars is the one band that takes nothing for granted, not even when it is leading the field. But when the band mounts the stage on final night, the band comes ready for musical war and to bury the opposition. Yet it is the one band that has never protested in any form, that has never taken any authority in any form to any court of law, has never engaged itself in any form of litigation despite the numerous incidents by certain individuals to harm the band's competitive efforts and sprit; the worse case being the refusal of a particular judge to score the band because in his view the choice of tune, Trinidad Oil was not a Panorama tune, and that was long before the policy of dropping the highest and lowest marks was introduced. Not one murmur of protest came from All Stars on that occasion. The judges decision was accepted and the band moved on. People will never forget that All Stars had the humility to participate in the Best of the Rest contest and to rise out of that back to glory. No other big band would or could do that. Cocky is not the word, rather it is élan; and élan that is rooted in the understanding of one's history and one's social responsibility as a notable institution that belongs to a certain community. In true All Stars styling and tradition, the management team issued a statement after Panorama
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