WEY PAN REACH…

STEELBAND – invented in Trinidad and Tobago in 1939 – was the only major global musical creation of the previous century. 

A $14 million pan theatre for Desperadoes – a 12-time national Panorama and five-time Classical competition winner – has been finally opened at its Laventille community. 

Over the years, Despers has shifted its base, and on at least one occasion this had to do with concerns for players’ security. 

The home for the much-acclaimed steelband would attract tourists and foreign exchange, government officials said. 

The theatre was launched 33 years after the death of the band’s inspirational leader Rudolph “Charlo” Charles, memoralised in David Rudder’s seminal The Hammer.  

But Despers is ahead of the national steelband movement, whose headquarters are still at cramped rented offices in Port of Spain, 88 years after the invention of pan. 

In 1986, the steelband organisation was finally granted corporate status. 

In 1992, pan designated as the national instrument, by then-Prime Minister Patrick Manning. 

In the late 1990s, then-Prime Minister Basdeo Panday provided State lands in east Trinidad, along Churchill-Roosevelt Highway, for construction of a head office for Pan Trinbago. 

“Bring the plans and I will find the money,” Panday said. 

He also admonished the organisation to “get down to serious business” and to manage the fraternity as an entrepreneurial entity. 

Pan has entertained the world but head offices for its administrative offices have still not been constructed. 

Other countries have commercialised the instrument and launched successful pan schools. 

But at least the government has high hopes for the Despers theatre. 

“It gives tourists, visitors and our locals a chance to immerse themselves deep in the history of the steelband, witness its creations and lose themselves in the melody,” said Culture Minister Randall Mitchell. 

For Despers and Pan Trinbago, an age-old calypso lament – “wey pan reach” – is appropriate. 

But for different reasons!