Pan Down Memory Lane
Keith Simpson of St. James Tripolians
Staff Article
Interview Recorded: April 21, 2006
For the preliminary round of the Pan Down Memory Lane 2K6 Competition, bands were judged, as in previous years, in their communities. We interviewed some of the key people within the bands about the competition, their history and other activities in the steelband arena. We spoke with Mr. Keith Simpson, Manager of St. James Tripolians.
TRINBAGOPAN: Mr. Simpson, what song is the band playing for Pan Down Memory Lane?
KEITH: We will be performing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes". It's an old standard. I know it was sung by the 'The Platters' because we were able to source a copy of their record. It's a nice melody. I haven't heard many bands playing it. In fact the last band I heard playing it was Invaders. I think Ray Holman did it for them a few years ago on Independence Day. The tune is arranged by Darryl Reid, a young arranger. I was the musical director but I handed it over to him. This year we came fourth in the National Panorama with Boogsie's tune "This One's For You Bradley". This band is an old band with a lot of history. We have been in existence for almost thirty-five years. We are the first 'Pan Round The Neck' of the modern era. Our band was formed out of Tropoli, one of the older bands. They left in 1967 and went to the Exposition in Montreal. After that, they went on tour all over America with the great pianist, Liberachi. When the band went away, the members who stayed here decided to bring out a band. Following that they borrowed pans and so on. Emmanuel Camps was a Founder and first Captain of the Band. They came on the road in 1972, and made a very big impact. We won the first Panorama in 1975 with a tune called "Do Them Back" by Calypso Rose.
I came into the band in 1995 as manager and musical director. Between 1996 and the present time, we have been in the semi-finals twice and most times we have been in the finals. We did well in all the other competitions. We do not have a sponsor, we are self-sufficient. We are doing repairs in the pan yard piece by piece. We just came back from a four-day tour in Jamaica. We have been to Barbados on two occasions and we will be going back soon. Last year we went to the Tobago Fest. We played on many occasions at the Prime Minister's residence. February this year we played at the President's house. We are also hooked up with the St. Mary's Catholic Church. For many years we accompanied the choir for Christmas Eve and for Easter. We have been doing quite well and we have been active all through the year. That has helped us to pay our members and we boast about it. Last year and this year we were able to pay members as much as nineteen hundred dollars.
I do a lot of public relations work for the band and Norman Fullerton has been helpful. He has pulled in a lot of jobs. We played in a lot of parties and at Carnival time we do well. All through the year we do well. We played at Best Village, in the church, 'We Beat' and so on. Because of the discipline and the type of music we have, we are able to be self-sufficient and doing well. We have some people who have been assisting us, like KFC, Scotia Bank, Angostura, NLCB, Unit Trust, Carib, Prestige Holdings and so on. We are still doing work here in our pan yard. As you can see, we have built the stage, the wall and we have put in toilets and baths, a bar and so on. We have nobody to help us. We try on our own to do what we could do. We have spent over fifty thousand dollars in repairs so far. We will be approaching the government soon to help us repair the roof. This pan yard was built in 1972. The pan yard is thirty-four years old so we need to get it repaired. This is the land of Steelband but sometimes you wonder. We are trying and we are here again in the competition. We have made a vow to enter our own competitions.
TRINBAGOPAN: Thank you.
St. James Tripolians in Pictures
Down Memory Lane 2006 | Pan in the 21st Century 2006 |Homepage
|
|
