Invaders Youths taste sweet victory

Since Panorama's inception in 1963, Shell Invaders Steel Orchestra has never won a competition but, this year, a historic victory came to the pan side from their youth team when they won the 2019 Junior Panorama 21-and-under category, last Sunday, at Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain.

Shell Youth Invaders played David Rudder and Voice's (Aaron St Louis) soca song Madness – not to be confused with Rudder's 1986 calypso of the same name – arranged by sixth-form Trinity College, Moka student Rashaun Williams, 18, and 19-year-old University of TT (UTT) music student, Jalen Charles.

In an interview with Sunday `Newsday, Charles said, "I don't have any words. It's awesome. It's the best feeling. It's great joy and excitement, and I can't wait for next year. When it happened, we couldn't believe it. The players made it amazing. The performance was clean. The execution was perfect. They made both of us proud on the stage."

The two became arrangers when the past arranger for Shell Youth Invaders left to arrange for bp Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra. In his absence, Charles and Williams took up the responsibility of determining what their group would play for Junior Panorama. They did, and dethroned Youth Renegades – the 11-time champions– who played Nailah Blackman's Iron Love and placed third. Massy All Stars Youth Steel Orchestra was second, also playing Madness.

Charles and Williams chose Rudder and Voice's Madness, a song Charles said the audience loved and had plenty "vibes."

He said, "We usually like songs in the minor keys, and it's a song the crowd would react well to. It had lots of vibes."

The teen-duo played around with the song's chords taking advantage of the name.

Charles continued, "I liked the song because we would be able to depict what the song was about, which was madness. Within the song we had a lot of clashing chords to depict madness."

Charles and Williams are best friends who joined Youth Invaders in 2012.

Charles said, "Sometimes we may have our differences, but we would find a way to incorporate the ideas or determine whose idea was better. Me and Rashaun make a great combination because we work really well together.

"We've been friends since birth. He's my god-brother. We started playing Panorama the same year in 2012. I was 12 at the time and he was 11."

Shell Invaders did not have a youth arm yet, but a lot of young people joined the band that year and the Invaders Youth Steel Orchestra was formed during the July/August school holidays of 2012.

Charles has pan in his blood. Both his mother, Roxanne Christian-Charles, and father, Eion Charles, played the pan. They would often take Charles on gigs or practices and he became enthralled with the instrument. When he was ten, he started playing pan and never looked back. The three share an anthem called Sadiki Sticks on Steel which they frequently play together.

"They used to have their gigs and I would go. I became interested in going to the practice and I started to play,"

Charles is now studying music at UTT with a specialisation in pan.

Shell Invaders manager Michael Dinchong hoped the win could have carried on to the large band's performance in last night's Panorama finals.

"Since 1963 we never won. The youth band started the ball rolling for us. We have been in Panorama for 50-years and never won. The youth band did well. They have us on a high," Dinchong said.

He said approximately 20 pannists from the youth team would have played with the senior band last night. He said, since their win, there was a new confidence in the junior players.

"There is a surge of confidence in them now. They have always been confident, but it is different now. It has been diffused into the band as a whole," he said.

Shell Invaders played Farmer Nappy's Hookin Meh, arranged by Arddin Herbert, for the Panorama finals.