Growing Up - The 1950’s
1991 George Goddard Forty Years in the Steelbands: 1939 - 1979

Raising Funds for TASPO’s Tour

   The project started with an appeal from the mayor of Port of Spain, Councillor Raymond Hamel-Smith, who in launching the appeal for $7,000 to send the steelbandsmen to England to represent the Colony at the Festival of Britain, said, “Steelbandsmen may well turn out to be ambassadors of goodwill.” He further described the proposed visit as a “turning point in the progress of the colony.”⁽¹⁾

   One week after the Mayor’s appeal, on May 3rd, we staged the first fund-raising event. The Trinidad Guardian story on May 3rd, headlined “Steelbands Fiesta Tonight”, indicated that in an effort to raise funds, the Association was holding a “fiesta” at the Mucurapo Stadium. Entertainment would be supplied by Invaders, City Syncopators, Tripoli, Crossfire, Kentuckians and Chicago Steelbands, and by calypso singers. This story also indicated that members of the Association had the day before collected from the Bermudez Biscuit Company, one dozen steel drums, free of charge, and that Mr Fitz Blackman, proprietor of a well-known tailoring establishment, had offered to tailor, free of charge, the uniforms for members of the steelband selected for the TASPO tour of Britain.⁽²⁾

   On Wednesday May 2nd, 1951, sub-committees were set up by the Association to raise the required funds. One such sub-committee was that of Finance. It was headed by Canon Max Farquhar and included Mr Wilson Minshall, Mr [Carlyle] Kerr (secretary), Mr Lennox Pierre and Mr Ulric Nesbitt (trustees). This sub-committee was given permission to co-opt representatives of the Junior Chamber of Commerce.⁽³⁾

   Realising that the target of $7,000 would not have been sufficient to cover all the expenses of the project, the committee and the Association then decided to set their sights on a more realistic target. The Association also decided to request Lieutenant Joseph Griffith, formerly a conductor of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Band, who was then in St Lucia, to lead the band. [64]

   All these developments were reported in the Sunday Guardian of May 6th, 1951 in a story captioned, “Steelbands Set Target of $15,000”:

   Operation Britain Action Committee... has set a target of $15,000 to send a representative steel orchestra to the Festival of Britain celebrations. As part of the drive to collect funds, more than 100 official cards have been issued to bona-fide collectors. They are signed by Canon M E Farquhar and Mr Carlyle Kerr... Mr N Joseph Griffith, formerly of the Trinidad Police Band has accepted the invitation to accompany the band as manager and musical adviser...⁽⁴⁾

   The Committee then endorsed five functions to aid in the fund-raising drive: a grand dance and floor show at the Samba Club at Carenage; a cinema show and steelband concert at the Rio Cinema, Laventille; a recital by Victor Soverall and the Casablanca steelband at the Royal Victoria Institute; a concert by the Eastern counties Steelband Association at Sangre Grande; and a grand fair and dance on Empire Day at the Parisian Hotel.⁽⁵⁾

© 1991 Mona Goddard

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