From Tuesday 21 to Sunday 26 July London will host one of the greatest celebrations of steelpan Britain has ever seen or heard.
The dates commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) playing their first gig on UK soil, which took place outside the Royal Festival Hall on 27 July 1951. This was the moment that the country was introduced to the power of a steelband. The audience was entranced and baffled in equal measure. “Where’s the sound coming from?” people asked, peering under the instruments expecting to find some sort of radiophonic wizardry. But no, they were hearing the 20th century’s newest acoustic instrument – no AI fakery involved!
TASPO was Trinidad & Tobago’s contribution to the Festival of Britain and consisted of 11 panmen from T&T’s top steelbands. The conductor was the highly experienced Barbados-born Lt Nathaniel Joseph from the Trinidad Police Band. They travelled by sea, leaving Port-of-Spain on 6 July 1951 on the ship San Mateo, which docked at the French Atlantic port of Bordeaux on the 24th. They arrived at Victoria station on the morning of 27 July and had just enough time to hurry across to the South Bank and set up before hitting the first notes of that groundbreaking performance at 3 o’clock the same afternoon.
The South Bank concert made the national headlines, and in the following weeks the band spread the ring of steel all around England. By November, they were wowing the crowds in Paris. The TASPO contingent sailed home on Canadian National ship Lady Nelson, reaching Port-of-Spain on 12 December 1951.
One of their number, Sterling Betancourt, stayed behind in England. Along with Russell Henderson and Ralph Cherrie, Sterling was to play a pivotal role in the introduction of steelpan on the road, first at an outdoor children’s party and then, on 18 September 1966, at the opening parade of the first Notting Hill Fayre. In 1985, Sterling founded Nostalgia, which still plays pan-round-the-neck at the Fayre’s rather more famous successor, Notting Hill Carnival.
