Skip NavThree Steelbands From Antigua
Steel Band Clash is an open-air recorded album of three 16-man oil drum orchestras from Antigua composed of 55-gallon oil drums, maracas, gourd, and 15kc cricket chorus. The names of the steel bands are Big Shell, Brute Force, and Hell's Gate.
Hell's Gate band recorded at sunset near the Lord Nelson Club on the north shore. Big Shell Steel Band played under corrugated tin roof at the Bucket Of Blood Club down on the beach, and Brute Force Steel Band recorded outdoors at night under the back porch of F.V.G Griffth in Antigua. The sound of Crickets is incidental but indigenous.
African Drums Rituals Ceremonies
Many years ago, the British and other European ruling powers banned the use of ritual drums on islands in the West Indies. In an effort to maintain law and order, several means were sort to inhibit the continuation of African tribal practices perceived as being backward, savage, and primitive in an attempt to shame the natives into European patterns.
But in African life, the original musical medium, the drum, played an integral part in society, at rituals, ceremonies, and gatherings of all sorts. It was the chief medium of expression. A ban of drums, therefore, removed one of the pillars of native existence. Legal restraints on drumming merely result in subterfuge approaches to obtain the same emotional effect.
Hand clapping, used in Negro spirituals and "Sankeys," gave new life to the traditional Anglo-Saxon hymns, with its syncopation. In the process of "avoiding the letter of the ban," cultural traditions of African drumming were mixed, initially with the Spanish musical heritage of melody and line, the various dance rhythms we find on this album.
Emergence Of Steel Bands in Trinidad
In the early "20s," garbage covers were notably missing from the back porches of Trinidad homes, and even as early as 1928. The practice of "Bamboo-Tamboo, a means of making music by striking together sticks of bamboo at the resonant joint (Tamboo from the French Tambour for drums) was still in active use. Bamboo was finally also banned by the police when it degenerated into a means of carrying on group conflicts.
In the late "30s," a man by the name of "Sprec" Simon discovered that different musical pitches could be obtained by striking the head of a steel drum in certain places. It was an exciting discovery in the West Indies, and soon, steel drums of different styles and designs were made and put to work.
Evolution Of The Steel Orchestra
The first pre-war and early post-war bans were primitive and discordant. The V-E Day celebrations were a fright for those who can bring themselves to remember. Gradually these crude instruments formed the nucleus of organized orchestras vying with rival groups for notoriety and musical supremacy.
The evolution of the steel band was fraught with violence. The memory of garbage can days lingered on, and they very nearly went the way of Bamboo-Tamboo by being banned by awakened police.
A new generation of steel drum beaters, raised in the less developed part of Port of Spain, had none of the ethical codes of their fathers, taking cues from Hollywood gang land cinemas. Inter-district fights, knifing, and worse crimes were commonplace, and the name of steel bandsman carried connotations of terror for many of the citizens.