Pan Times; Tin pans started this so-called steel band movement in 1935, and not 1939, there weren't no drums made from iron and carbon, oil were shipt in wooden barrels, lined with tar, therefore the pan's that was used was not steel, but instead a metal we called tinning, which was too thin and too soft, the costic soda and biscuit drum was thicker than tinning but it was still not steel, there is a taped interview with George Goddard interviewing Carlton"sonny" Roach in 1980 before he passed, this is documented tape was lent to Kim Johnson where he used it in his book called "If you Iron Good U is King" February 1,1998, Quote ; What influenced you to become involved is steel band ? ask Goddard, who spoke in a surprisingly formal tone throughout the entire interview. Roach replied that it was just mischif that had him beating old pans around 1935 when he was 11 years old beibg bornAugust 24th 1924, there was this shango tent on Guthrie Street, St James, and goin to the shango tent on afternoons it turned out thatI cannot come inside, "he said." He decided that if he can't go inside he goin to get old pans and make noise so "They" can't hear the drums. the reason he chose to make noise on old pans was because the shango brums were loud, and old pans were the loudest thing he could get his hands on.The issue here is the tin pans started it, but the steel drum faded out the tin pan in 1945, which makes Gordon,s story fallible, where his dates are incorrect, as well as his stories about Panam North Stars in 1960 , Invaders in 1965, he also do not know that BWIA had sponsored West Side Symphony after they won the 1964 Music Festival, and another thing , I knew Carlton "sonny" Roach personally, I have spoken to him several times about pans and the tuning of them, he told me thing about pans like the reduction of metal when steel is heated and tempered, what happens, look I was in North Stars from 1958, what I'm not a witness to was told to me mostly by Anthony Williams and Carlton "sonny" Roach, these men do not lie, neither do I, so I hate when people do...
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