Renegades Youth tops pan prelims

THE BPTT Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra is going into Sunday's National Jr Panorama final with a boost of confidence, having topped the 21 and Under Category preliminaries which was held on Wednesday.

The band will play last, in position 10, in Sunday's final at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain.

Playing Trouble in the Morning by Jevaughn “V’ghn” John, the band scored 268 points with Jamal "Mek Mek" Gibbs' arrangement of the song.

Following closely was Shell Invaders Youth Steel Orchestra, which trailed by one point, scoring 267 points, also playing Trouble in the Morning arranged by Rashaun Williams.

Trinidad All Stars Youth Group also known as “Tasso youths” placed third with 265 points for its performance of Fog by Machel Montano, arranged by Kygel Benjamin.

In an interview with Newsday on Wednesday, Renegades' youth band manager Leon Chandler said the youths are confident that they could go all the way, but are aware, because of the experience of the senior bands, that winning the preliminaries is just a first step.

“It is a result of preparation,” Chandler said. “We started in November and that would have been represented in the performance.”

He commended Gibbs for his work and said because he was a young arranger he was not afraid to step out of the box and get views of players on what is appealing to them.

“What happens because of that, is it is not just a group of performers playing an arrangement but the youths really feel part of the process and they enjoy themselves,” Chandler said

Invaders' manager Atiya O’Neil said arranger Rashaun Williams tried to express the feeling of “trouble” in the arrangement.

“They tried to express a contrast in the music,” she said.

She said while the result was a positive one they are awaiting the notes from the judges to see how they can tighten their performance.

“We still have to drill and work on the song,” she said.

The bands will play in the following order at :

UNDER 21 CATEGORY

1. Trinidad All Stars Youth Steel Orchestra

2. Kimberly’s Royal Youth Steel Orchestra

3. HADCO Phase II Youth Steel Orchestra

4. Supernova’s Youth Steel Orchestra

5. Pan Elders Youth Steel Orchestra

6. Shell Invaders Youth Steel Orchestra

7. MHTL Starlift Youth Steel Orchestra

8. Tropical Angel Harps

9. Desperadoes Youth Steel Orchestra

10. BPTT Renegades Youth Steel Orchestra