About Us

The Maturing of a Great Band

In 1978 students of the Princess Margaret Secondary School with a great love for steel pan boldly changed the name of the school steel band P.M.S. Serenaders to Gemonites. This as in order to facilitate membership continuity beyond graduation. This proved fruitful, as Gemonites soon rose to prominence in Antigua, performing at hotels and participating regularly in the National Panorama Competition in the annual Carnival celebrations.

This climb up the ladder landed Gemonites in first place in Panorama 1981 with a sparking rendition of Swallow's "25 years of Mas" arranged by Paul Cambell. The band also traveled to Barbuda and Tennessee in 1982 to perform at Caribana and The World's Fair respectively. Later in the 1980's and early in the 1990's, Gemonites was consistently placed among the top three bands in Antigua earned the right to represent their country at the "Festivals de Confolens" in France in 1992. A close second place in Panorama 1995 was followed by the band snatching the inaugural "Bomb" competition for Carnival 1996 with a calypso arrangement of "Blue Danube" and second place in 1997 (Eine Kleine Nachmusik) & 1998 (Grre, Green Grass).

Gemonites pioneered a School of Pan in 1999, offering all ages opportunity to learn the art of playing the pan; something unheard of until then. In times of declining support for the pan, Gemonites then produced and promoted arguably the best concert witnessed in Antigua. "Moods of Pan" was put on in and featured the world famous Trinidadian pan arranger and soloist Len "Boogsie" Sharpe. Before Antigua had the chance to recover from the musical fest, The Gemonites put on a bigger concert; Moods of Pan Festival 2000", featuring once again Len "Boogsie" Sharpe and Ken "Prefessor" Philmore of Trinidad. Also featured in the 2000 festival were; Lacou Samuel, and Gemonites' very own Jerry Lawrence and Johnny Gonsalves along with the host of other artises.

With the absence of the traditional Panorama Competition, the Gemonites hosted a mini panorama competition during The Moods of Pan Festival 2000 open to all interested parties. It was called "Keep pan Alive wih Five" and later shortened to 'Five Alive". As the name suggests, each group consisted of five members playing any Kitcherner song for a maximum of five minutes. A contingency from the Gemonites School of Pan emerged victors, having emphatically rendered "Flad Woman" aranged by Johnny Gonsalves. This victory was evidence of the success of the excited School of Pan program.

Gemonites in the Panorama Competition

Many have described The Panorama as the Olympics of the Steel Band competitions. Panorama is the celebration of the steel pan. it is the culmination of months of attending music practices and drills. Arrangers too, work with the selected musical scores excelling in melody, elegant lines and clever phrasing; and tuners providing finishing tones for the appropriate orchestra's tonal quality. Although Antigua has not had the Panorama Competition since 1995, it certainly was once the highlight of the Nation's Carnival celebrations. Many attempts have been made to reestablish the Panorama competition as a part of the Carnival celebration, these attempts proved fruitful as the Panorama compeition has been reinstated as a part of the Carnival celebrations, and is on for August 3 2001. The Gemonites first entered the Panorama competition in 1978 and have since accomplished the following: