Aubrey Bryan
Aubrey describes
steel pan music in London:
"I had a couple of calypso records
which I used to play
every afternoon when I came in
from work,
just keeping in touch with home.
But I was missing my pan,
as pan was my thing.
In London,
Ladbroke Grove especially,
the guys had pans,
but out this way in Croydon,
which people call the sticks,
pans were unheard of."
"One night I heard some guys
playing pan
and I thought,
this is nice!
And then I gradually started
to play pan again,
and since then I've never looked back."
"I think people in the authorities
felt that
having a growing number
of black children in the schools,
it was a good idea
to have steel bands in schools.
But for me the idea
was to develop the music
for the host nation
in order that they could appreciate
that aspect of Caribbean culture.
The white kids also wanted to play
steel band -
so it wasn't a colour thing,
music is music,
it transcends all races."