Exodus stops traffic in St Augustine

GARY CARDINEZ

It appeared to be divine intervention at work as judges moved from Genesis to Exodus, as the Preliminary round of judging for Large Conventional Bands for the National Panorama competition kicked off on Saturday evening.

Traffic on both lanes of the Eastern Main Road, St Augustine, came to a standstill as the large crowd of supporters and pan music lovers met at Republic Bank Exodus Steel Orchestra long before the judges arrived at their panyard.

Hundreds of people gathered to hear Exodus perform BJ Marcelle and Pelham Goddard’s arrangement of Patrice Roberts’ 2018 hit Sweet for Days.

The 100 players strong Exodus did not disappoint their faithful as they went through their seven minutes 47 seconds performance. They played with energy while executing the piece as Goddard conducted from within the band and Marcelle watched on from in the crowd.

This was in comparison to the very few supporters at Genesis Pan Groove at their Evans Street, Curepe panyard and the no-show at Harmonites in Morvant Junction.

Many pan music lovers were very disappointed when they arrived at an empty Harmonites panyard.

The band was suppose to start the Eastern Region judging but opted out at the last minute just like they did last year. It was up to Genesis Pan Groove to face the judges in first position at their Evans Street, Curepe panyard. It was quite obvious that this band was not ready to perform in the large category. The official count put them at 32 players well short of the minimum of 40.

However, the judges did listen to Genesis play a Renrick Lewis arrangement of Len “Boogsie” Sharpe’s composition Magic Drum.

One positive thing about Genesis is the manner in which they laid out the instruments. It appeared symphony style with all instruments in a section, the tenors, the guitar pans, and the bass all in their own section as opposed to the mixed up formation.