NEED TO MARKET PAN

Pan Trinbago’s threatened boycott of Carnival 2005, if carried out, may be counter-productive, as was the mid 1970s pan boycott of the Parade of Bands at the Queen’s Park Savannah. An unexpected spin-off of that boycott was that most of the Carnival bandleaders turned, increasingly, to brass bands and disc jockeys to provide music for their mas players. In addition, several business houses withdrew their sponsorship of steelbands, and it was only the intervention of late Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams, which caused them to reconsider. What Pan Trinbago needs to do, instead of issuing boycott threats, is seek to develop strategies which would result, in the first instance, in the core players of the leading steelbands contracted for engagements the year round, in much the same way that many musicians in brass bands are in regular demand.

The steelband movement has to be run as a business, and as any other business it should be properly marketed. Strategies should be drawn up annually and discussed and those which are likely to take the movement further should be implemented. In turn, there must be accountability to the stakeholders. If the movement earns or is provided with, for example, State funding for a specific project or set of projects it must be prepared to detail for the benefit of pan players and the taxpayers whose money, after all, is involved, how that money is being or has been spent. In turn, it should be prepared, in the event that there should be cost overruns, to provide convincing arguments for the need for additional funding.

Pan Trinbago’s $22,840,000 budget for next year’s Carnival and its statement that unless it receives the amount, it would use the weapon of a boycott to disrupt the Carnival, appears to be more a case of politics rather than good economics. What Pan Trinbago has done in effect is make demands of the taxpayers, since Government merely acts on their behalf, that it is prepared to attempt to spoil their fun except if the money is forthcoming. Had Pan Trinbago come not only with a modified proposal, but with a business plan detailing how the organisation intended to earn most if not all of the prize money for succeeding Carnivals it would have won some measure of public sympathy. But its do it or else attitude may be viewed as unacceptable arrogance.

The instrument is too big and has moved too far along for Pan Trinbago to be appealing to the emotions of stakeholders, with talk of a boycott, particularly after the movement’s first and last boycott adversely affected the ability of the core pan players to earn money. Pan Trinbago should have a clear vision of where it hopes to take the instrument, including making it a factor in the development of tourism. Pan Trinbago should seek to take pan out of the Carnival mindset, and seek to market it for the provision of music at parties and at shows on an around the year basis.

In turn, Pan Trinbago should have on the drawing board plans for the design and construction of a Pan Theatre, where pan concerts can be held and the music heard clearly and appreciated, without having to compete in the ears of its audience with boom boxes from nearby shows, as happens all too often when open air pan shows are held. Such a theatre would have visitor appeal, and an annual pan concert season built around Independence and Republic Day — August through September — would attract foreign music lovers and be a boost to tourism. Pan Trinbago, with the assistance of the Tourism and Industrial Development Corporation, should market Trinidad and Tobago on a continuing basis as the home of the steelband and the place where the best in both pan played music and pan tuning can be had.

Pan Trinbago should seek to tap into the United States market where a bass pan (five or six bass) fetches as much as US$6,000 and a tenor pan — US$3,000. In Trinidad, for example, a bass pan fetches between TT$3,000-$4,000 and a tenor pan, with chrome, is sold for some TT$3,500! Pan should not be part of the dependency syndrome and the instrument if marketed effectively should bring Pan Trinbago, pan music and the players well deserved earnings and recognition.