Neville Jules has stated that Ellie Mannette's claim that he was the first person to sink a 55-gallon drum is a false claim. The modern term for a "false claim" is FAKE NEWS.
Jules said he and Ellie first saw the 55-gallon pan at a pan competition in a cinema in Tunapuna, and the person who played it was jeered throughout his performance. (What a world we really live in.)
Ellie Mannette claimed not to have any recollection of the BIG PAN, however he does remember the PAN COMPETITION.
Neville Jules could neither name the player nor the band in which THE REAL INVENTOR of the BIG PAN played. But Kenrick Thomas -- who later wrote a book called "PANRIGA" -- expanded on the story, identifying the player that night as Cyril "Snatcher" Guy, and the band was "BoomTown" from Tacarigua.
The story goes "that Randolph Phill "Ladd" Wiltshire, Snatcher Guy and Andrew Beddoe, the noted Orisha drummer who virtually lived, at the time, in the Orisha yard next to BoomTown's then location, were the ones responsible for making that CONVEX PAN. Beddoe, with a cold-chisel, made clear indentations to demarcate each note which was revolutionary at the time and provided clearer sound.
Randolph "Ladd" Wiltshire indicated that himself and Snatcher were employed at the construction site of the Caura Sanitarium and got the drum there at the cost of $3. There are enough people around who can verify all this and so establish these three as forerunners in the tuning of the MODERN PAN."
Ellie Mannette took the IDEA and ran back to the INVADERS PAN YARD in TOWN turning the invention UPSIDE DOWN and sinking the FIRST CONCAVE 55 GALLON DRUM.
I adapted this summary from an article written by BUKKA RENNIE which can be found on trinicenter.com!!!
I had a friend who used to introduce every statement with the expression "saying all this to say" and then he went on with the story.
I have never used the expression, but I will use it today: Saying all this to say ... IT IS TIME that we start GETTING THE HISTORY OF PAN S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T in New York and Trinidad -- which was the point of the original article written in 2000.
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