The national instrument was silenced by a sad song yesterday morning, as one of the country’s most well-known steelbands, Woodbrook Playboyz, was evicted from its #6 Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook home.
As the rain fell, the steelband’s equipment was gathered and placed under a single white tent by a few members of the executive, waiting to be moved.
The yellow office container onsite was then lifted by a crane and placed onto a truck.
Deeply saddened, the members of the executive said they gave up hope of keeping their beloved home. They said the property was owned by the Port-of-Spain City Corporation, which had agreed to lease the land to someone else. Band members claimed the property will now be used as a car park.
“Well, the emotions…you know, in the industry as a steelband since 1998, kinda successful and low and behold, in 2022, we are given the notice to move from location, where we have been very comfortable, not disturbing any neighbours,” Woodbrook Playboyz secretary Leroy Grant told Guardian Media.
“Woodbrook is the home, you know what I mean? We have been here for the longest while.”
Grant said he tried everything to keep the location and met with Government representatives and the executive of Pan Trinbago to see if they could stay at the venue.
And as time ticked closer to the eviction date, the band’s management even considered shutting down the band’s operations and selling their equipment.
However, in stepped Pan Moving Forward president Aquil Arrindell.
Arrindell met with social activist and political leader of the New National Vision Fuad Abu Bakr and together they found a temporary home—at Number one Mucurapo Road, the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen’s compound.
The Woodbrook Playboyz container office is hooked up to be removed from their Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook panyard yesterday.
JOSHUA SEEMUNGAL
“Pan is community and when we are seeing community centres being pushed out of communities, we know we have a problem. Steelbands are usually visited more by youths than even the community centres and sometimes even more than the churches in the area,” Arrindell said yesterday morning.
Speaking about the new arrangement, Abu Bakr said, “It’s a very difficult situation for Playboyz, a band with such history to be in this position at this moment…We understand the difficulty that they are facing and until someone intervenes and gives them a pan yard or renovates this existing spot, we will be housing the band.”
Guardian Media contacted Port-of-Spain Mayor Joel Martinez for a comment on Playboyz’s eviction but was unsuccessful in speaking with him.
Woodbrook Playboyz won the Panorama Finals Single Pans competition in 2003, earning 275 points for their rendition of Music in We Blood by Len Boogsie Sharpe/Anslem Douglas.