Veterans tell of badjohn pan days

The Trinidad Guardian

The “badjohns,” from left, Rawle Dove of Starlift, Rudy Marshall and Keith Moore of RenegadesTrinidad & Tobago, W.I. - A comprehensive and vivid dissertation on the birth and development of pan, and the formation of Pan Trinbago, was delivered last Wednesday night, at bpTT Renegades pan theatre on Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain.

Produced by Pan Trinbago, as part of Pan Month, a small gathering of pan enthusiasts was held captive throughout accounts by six steelband veterans, including former Pan Trinbago president Melville Bryan, Bill Trotman, Rudy Marshall, Rawle Dove, Hugh “Dasheen” Hackett and Kirton “Eddie Boom” Moore. Cameo snippets were also given by Pan Trinbago trustee and event host Allan “Pablo” Augustus and Renegades pan player Leiba Trotman.
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  • Hey Cecil thank you. So all yuh hide the cutlass and the iron bolts in the ark. Ah thought you could only put two of each according to the scriptures. Glenroy There is a wealth of info right here. I come on every day and soak up the knowledge like a blotting paper. Thank you Bede, Claude, Winston and  Ms. Gittens and all the folks who share their stories. Dr. Lance Seunarine

    • Aye Lance, They had 2 of each but they had a lot of different sizes.

  • Based on the amount of comments and views of this Trinidad Guardian article, there is a lot of interest in this topic. 

    The thought occurs that, had this subject been written on ,discussed, and promoted on this forum, the discussion at the Renegades Pan Theatre may have been much more successful.

    Pan people have yet to learn the value of promoting events such as these on this forum  BEFORE they occur, not just using the forum as a place of discussion after the fact.

  • I've always felt that some of the success of the "Town" bands was because of the badjohn influence on those steelbands.

    I never "beat pan" in "Town" -( that's how we referred to Port of Spain, though it's a city)- but I know that they were more disciplined than the South bands, often reinforcing their discipline with corporal punishment.

    I have a friend who once told me that the reason he never joined a steelband was out of fear.

    If you did not practice, you could get "licks".

    According to him a band member missed practice and took his girl friend to a movie , for example, and he was dragged out of the theatre and "tapped" in front of his girl.

    The band he mentioned was the same San Juan All Stars, though technically they weren't a 'town" band.

    To us in south, any band that paraded on the streets of Port of Spain was considered a "town" band back then.

    Anyway, practice in South bands were laid back, and I doubt any band physically disciplined their members.

    I don't know the truth of this since I didn't see it, but I remember back then in a lime after the 66 panorama someone mentioned that he saw Despers tenor players being "tapped up" on the Drag during rehearsals , for not 'rolling" properly in "Melda".

    Maybe that's why they won?

    What you got to say about that, Ian Franklyn?

    P,S I still have a hard time saying "playing pan" It's so PC, one of those things we had to correct to make the pan more 'acceptable".

    Everyone knew that "beating pan" was dialect. I once "beat pan" in St Paul's Anglican church.It never meant pounding on a pan, it's terminology.

    Maybe it's just me, but I've always objected to changing traditional terminology, accurate or not, for any reason.

    Next thing you know, the language purists would change the name of our beloved "tenor pan".

    Heaven forbid!

    But I digress from the main topic.......

     

    • Glen,

      The language purists have already changed the name of the beloved "tenor pan" it's now called "soprano pan"

      While I agree with you "beating pan" was dialect, we must understand how the term evolved...the beating of the drum ...the steel drum. We need to have books on the steel-band history and its development brought into the Pan In The Schools curriculum, its not just about learning music theory, its also about knowing these other parts of pan history and getting it right in order to appreciate where we came from to where we are now.

    • Dont worry about dem Glenroy, say beating pan! I love the historical term! It is the Modern Day version of the drum, isnt it?

    • Wey the man wid D hammer Gone, David Rudder said "or even ah chupid man" men get lash wid the hammer too.

  • Greetings One of the best wire benders from down South is Winston Showboat Khan meh Ambakaila man from Benedict's. He now resides in the USA but he also bend wire for the Bailey brothers. On another note I thought the big fight between Despers and  San Juan All Stars was when Despers played something about the ice age.  Guidance Dr. Lance Seunarine

    • No Lance,

      Despers was really playing " Noah's Ark. I remember clearly. San Juan All Stars I think was playing 'To Hell and Back' which was based on the movie with Audie Murphy. And it is true, they both had 'ammunition' -- in the Ark and the tank. But it was not so much cutlasses (although there were quite a few.) Both structures (tank and Ark)  were carrying refreshments for the panmen including cases of soft drinks. The bottles were not plastic in those days.

      It was a sight I will never forget, almost beautiful. Bottles glinting in the sun as they flew through the air, some full of orange, red, or grape-coloured liquid, others empty. Sometimes one saw  dark objects among them -- iron bolts! It was only after the barrage of bottle pelting was done that the cutlasses and knives really came in to play.

      I watched all of this, hunched in a little alcove with a few others who were unable to (or to scared to) run. I was mortified with fear. My 17 year old brother (I was 15) was beating in San Juan All Stars and I was scared for his life. (Little did I know that, at the first sign of trouble he had taken to his heels, running through the hospital, tearing off his shirt -- which would identify him -- and making his way to safety.

      I remember my most horrific moment. A man from despers, trying to get into the (now closed) gates of the hospital, being refused by the security guard who knew that some San Juan All Stars supporters had taken refuge there. The man gained entrance by turning his back and showing the guard a gaping slash running diagonally across almost his entire back.. It was bleeding, but we could see the white flesh!

      • Noel, I believe San Juan All Stars played "Battle Cry" that year. I think that was a WW2  war movie with Aldo Ray(I'm also an old movies fan- I love TCM).

        They say the street was littered with Fruits and Flowers after the clash that day.

        As a matter of fact,either that year or the year, the Marabella band, Southern Marines took Sando by storm with a big time presentation of Audie Murphy's "To Hell and Back".

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