Pan History - Looking back at the year 1951 in Pan - Forum

1951

1951

Arrival of Steelpan in the UK. Taspo 1951
Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) established
- Lieutenant Griffith of St. Lucia Police Band is musical director
- formed specifically for Festival of Britain
- toured France and United Kingdom for 3 months
- 11 best players from the country, 13 reserves
  - Orman “Patsy” Haynes / Casablanca
  - “Boots” Davidson / City Syncopators
  - Sterling Betancourt / Crossfire
  - A. De Labastide / Chicago
  - Dudley Smith / Rising Sun
  - Winston “Spree” Simon / Tokyo
  - Granville Sealey / Tripoli
  - Clive Belgrave / Southern Symphony
  - Ellie Mannette / Invaders
  - Anthony Williams / Sun Valley
  - Sonny Roache
  - Theo Stephen / Free French
- Operation Britain - to raise $15,000 for TASPO
- July 6, TASPO departs on San Mateo, Sonny Roache ill, left behind in Martinique
- September, Winston Spree gets contract to teach pan music at University of Nigeria & Ghana
Developments
- 3 drum bass boom
- 2 drum cello boom
- establish complete chromatic range of notes from ping pong to bass