BIRTH and INFANCY of the STEELBAND
1991 George Goddard Forty Years in the Steelbands: 1939 - 1979Steelband Fever Spreads Abroad
Carnival was returned to the people in 1946 after a break of some five years, 1941 being the year of the last officially sanctioned Carnival. The Port of Spain Gazette of Tuesday, March 5, 1946 in a front page story "Mad King Carnival Starts Reign"... reported:
(1)His Excellency the Governor and his party showed much amusement at the John John steelband led by "drummer-Springer" who treated the crowd to varied musical tunes. Among the popular tunes the band played were "Lai Fung Lee", "Ave Maria" and ending with "God Save the King"...
After the Victory in Europe (V-E) and the Victory over Japan (V-J), in 1945 when steelbands (as they were than called by the press) were granted permission in Trinidad and Tobago to parade the streets in Carnival fashion, the culture of the steelband spread rapidly to other neighbouring islands in the Caribbean - British Guyana (now Guyana), Antigua and Grenada and later to St Vincent and St Kitts, as well as in the USA, the UK and other parts of Europe.
In Antigua particularly, the steelband flourished in a surprisingly short time after its birth in Trinidad. Furthermore the steelbandsmen in Antigua seemed to take their talent much more seriously than their counterparts in Trinidad. In Antigua they formed an Association in 1949; the steelbandsmen in Trinidad and Tobago did not come together to form an Association until 1950, and this was achieved largely through the influence of Albert Gomes and the hard work of the government-appointed committee on steelbands chaired by Canon Farquhar and with Lennox Pierre, Carlyle Kerr, George Mose, Beryl McBurnie, Charles Espinet, CR Ottley, Bertie Thompson, E Mortimer Mitchell, Patricia Carter, Sydney Gollop of Crusaders steelband and Nathaniel Crichlow of City Syncopators steelband, as members. The steelbandsmen in Antigua, with the help of Lord Baldwin, the Governor, had gotten together and formed the Antigua Steelbands Association in 1949 as noted above. How quickly the Antigua steelbands had progressed in just two years can be gauged from the following news report in the Sunday Guardian of January 26, 1951, under the caption "The Story of Steelbands in Antigua: from Hellish Cacophony to Festival of Britain":
© 1991 Mona GoddardInseparably associated with Carnival in the minds of Trinidadians as well as inhabitants of other lands who have heard of both is the calypso ...Not as well known to the outside world, however, though originated in Trinidad, is the steelband. Of more recent birth and more difficult to export, this popular medium of musical interpretation has yet to invade Europe and North America in the way the calypso has done. Both Europe and North America have heard of and have heard steelband. But it did so, not from Trinidad...but from Antigua which has come under the steelband craze, sweeping the West Indies.
For in spirit of the calypso's greater international popularity, it is the steelband cult which found more disciples and proponents in the West Indian islands themselves.
In Antigua where Lord Baldwin's interest did much to stimulate pride and accelerate improvement, steelbandsmen attained a standard of performance which equals if not surpasses that of the best there is in Trinidad. In a little over two years steelbands have progressed from instruments of what one clergyman in reference to their activities at Christmas 1948, described as "hellish cacophony" to harmonious and pleasing interpreters of popular musical composition... They were denounced from pulpit to platform and, for varying reasons, by every newspaper in the island... To help put themselves beyond the threat of legal prohibition steelbands formed an association which formulated immediately a strict code of conduct of bandsmen...
The association of eight member bands crowned its initial effort by publication in December 1949 of The Steelband Herald as its official organ...
But perhaps their biggest triumph was when Brute Force (the Antigua's steelband) got their picture in the second issue of The Times Survey of the Colonies. The Central office of Information had already circulated pictures of a Trinidad steelband but it was to an Antigua band that fell the honour of representing in this eminent journal the sect to which it belonged.
And while a Trinidad steelband can claim to be the first of its kind to have its performance broadcast by the BBC, it was for another small island band, the Hell's Gate in Antigua is planned the honour of representing West Indian steelbands at this year's "Festival of Britain".(2)
© 1997: tobagojo@gmail.com 19980109 - 1m20071228 - 2m20140615
Historic Update: 09 January 1998; Last Update: 16 July 2014 23:45:00 TT
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