Kei­th An­der­son

They have been hailed as the "Lib­er­a­tors" of the steel­band move­ment, and pan­men. I'm talk­ing about the Dix­ieland Steel Or­ches­tra led by Cur­tis Pierre. It was on­ly a few years ago the band, which blazed a trail in the 1960s, was ho­n­oured by Pan Trin­ba­go. While pan­men grudg­ing­ly ac­cept the fact that it was on­ly when these "white boys" start­ed to play the pan, the bar­ri­ers of prej­u­dice and the stig­ma of hooli­gan­ism be­gan be­ing lift­ed. It's re­al­ly a fact that pan­men have to live with, as these "col­lege boys," flew in the face of so­ci­ety and fam­i­ly to em­brace the na­tion­al in­stru­ment. They did so at great risk, even sac­ri­fic­ing their school ca­reers. Long be­fore the Pan Am North Stars, Dix­ieland was the rage in par­ties, dance­halls... you name it. The band soared to great heights af­ter win­ning the 1960 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val.

Soon they were off the Lon­don for an ex­ten­sive Eu­ro­pean and African tour.

These "Lib­er­a­tors" left on May 20, 1961. The tour­ing ag­gre­ga­tion com­prised Cur­tis Pierre (cap­tain), Miguel Bar­radas, Rus­sel Valdez, Fred Tot­saut, Trevor Cum­ber­batch, George Ng Wai, Hady Lee, Lennox Lang­ton, Lau­rice "Pops" Lash­ley, Michael "Nat­si" Con­stant and An­gela Christo­pher. Just re­cent­ly, five sur­viv­ing mem­bers of the Dix­ieland-Hady Lee, George Ng Wai, Bil­ly Car­pen­ter, Mervyn Telfer and cap­tain Cur­tis Pierre-were pre­sent­ed with plaques by Son­ny Blacks, in recog­ni­tion of their vis­it to Britain some 50 years ago. Blacks, a vet­er­an show pro­mot­er, and Pan Trin­ba­go or­gan­ised the awards. A cer­e­mo­ny will be held among awardees to cel­e­brate the mile­stone. One Sat­ur­day soon, the "Fab­u­lous Five" will gath­er at Shay Shay Tien Restau­rant, Cipri­ani Boule­vard, Port-of-Spain to cel­e­brate.