It never took long to spot Sonny Blacks if he was in the hall or on the road at Carnival. You just looked out for the Panama hat, the polished shoes, the immaculate jacket. Wherever he was, Sonny was invariably the best-dressed man in the place and usually the best informed.
Born in George Street, Port of Spain, in 1932, Sonny’s start didn’t seem particularly promising. The rigours of school life were less enticing than the siren call of steelpan, and he became involved with Trinidad All Stars Steel Band, formerly known as Hell Yard. Mentors and friends included great pan pioneers such as Winston ‘Spree’ Simon and Ellie Manette. It was Spree who suggested Sonny start promoting steelband and calypso. The die was cast.
Getting steelbands into ‘respectable’ venues was a challenge when their reputation was so bad. In 1953, a letter-writer to a Trinidad newspaper demanded they be banned because “steel band fanaticism is a savage, bestial cult”! That makes Sonny’s success in organising the first steelband concert at Queen’s Hall – a venue associated with the affluent and middle class of Trinidad – all the more impressive.
Emulating the famous TASPO steelband expeditionary force of 10 years earlier, Sonny arranged for Dixieland (later named Les Flambeaux) to come to the UK in 1961 and organised ambitious tours of Europe and even to Africa, spreading the ‘gospel’ of steelpan perhaps more widely than any other promoter.
Sonny was a Carnival man through and through. He played Fancy Sailor mas for five years before going on to portray Diogenes in Harold Saldenah’s ‘The Glory That Was Greece’ (1957). He also forged strong links with calypsonians, notably the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose and David Rudder. His shows always featured artistes of the highest calibre.
He brought all these elements together in his hugely popular Caribbean Carnival Extravaganza shows, featuring top musicians, steelpan players and costumes by Wayne Berkeley.
Sonny was closely involved with the development of Notting Hill Carnival, constituting the Carnival Development Committee as far back as 1968 and remaining a valued member of the current Notting Hill Carnival Advisory Council right up to his passing, at the age of (a very youthful) 93. He was also beginning to offer valuable guidance to the organisers of next year’s celebrations for the 75th anniversary of TASPO introducing the sweet sound of steelpan to the UK. He never stopped planning for the future.
On a personal note, I shall miss my chats with Sonny, who was unstinting in his support and guidance. He never failed to pick me up, politely but firmly, if I made a mistake in writing about some matter of Carnival history. He had started to write his autobiography, and it is a matter of huge regret that he was not able to finish what would have been a fascinating, if surely controversial, book. He would have told it how it was!
The Carnival community in the UK, Trinidad and globally has lost one of the foremost promoters of Caribbean culture. More than that, we have lost a friend and a mentor.
Sonny Blacks was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on 6 July 1932 and died in St Thomas’s Hospital, London, after a short illness, on 19 July 2025. Soca News passes its sincere condolences to his family. The funeral will be held on 12 August.
