1956-01-04 — Page 4

$

'Page 4

TRINIDAD STEEL BANDS HAVE

BIG AMBITIONS

"H

By WILLIAM FISH

10 minutes,

Port of Spain, Trinidad. over again with slight variations, ELLO," yelled A making cach nong at nearly voice through The tops of Instruments are atatic that marked with the notes they can But, lite good planists, crackled and buzzed on the

know Trinidadians

whero to

play

phone line. "Dis is Mighty strike without looking. Skipper speaking."

"To years ago this music I listened carefully and could have caused a riot," said heard a Trinidad steel band Mighty Skipper. In fact, steel playing in the background. bandame caused many riola in It sounded like six xylo Port of Spain during and after phones keeping time with a tlozen pairs of maracNS,

Watal "I understand VI learn about stevi banka" shui ed the voice This in the place to do it, milstal the Blatnond Horeshoe Chrb. C'e right

round."

The How went dead

Un

A 10-minute FIVE 1gh Port of Spain's oven-hot streets brough

me to The Diamonal Horseshoes

Seven dusky young men

stari tit op a lurk corner of the large grbited floor Poont Hanges in front of them were four large blue tot drunner stling pight 473

wooden falarken Three of the Trinidelines haut etivular pieces of steel hung round their neeka like egazette hayz

THE INSTRUMENTS

THEY seed short sticks it

ped with rubber and beg playing a calypso on the all drums and deel discs

اللہ

The drums gave oul low The tw trofe like

double instruments muscle smaller unvartily sound between that of

kufa and a xylophonw

W

the war.

Gangs of hooligans stole dust- 1 Wine and beat discordant tunes upon them with

beer bottles armed themselves Banismen

rival musicians with agaid

daggers, Ull police had to br squncis called out to restore order.

SEMI-PRIMITIVE

razors and commando

ĐỰT ike so many other low- ▷ born institutions, stesi bands have becotue eminently res- pectable

They Trindad. Jz1 are an integral part of the enlour and y that is the back- ground to life in this contented Hitch colony.

Their 2114 is after and sweeter, an exponenta Bre to refer to them as beginning

steel orchestre!

But steel band music is still

ar

in a semil-primitive stage, and players

atly Biterate, youtin from

Their

גירו12

under-privileged Trinidad's slum only tutor is an inherent musical ability and a love of music.

The steel band wite born in Trinidad, aut spread from here uther isinds in the sparkling Caribbean,

Now the Highlanders, Dixie Star Southern Serenaders and are carrying instruments other steel baris

America and steel music to Europe Gramophone recortis are spreading it to the rest of the world.

In the background were the only conventionat

In the band-the marues.

Mighty Skipper, u shock- hended TrinidadBon authority in steel bands, stepped forward the mustetans swung utto a Neupolitan air.

"Steel bands can play any thing," he said smiling proudly. It the band begun To prove playing "Lambeth Walk"

Mighty Skipper the acknow- ledges no other name) began Identifying The instrument.

circular st Painting

ploves he said: “Ping pongs, silo pops and tenor kifles. Thesy pravil

to be the tops of ait drums eut off about va down.

He named the frikenglik el drums as tune booms and base

boons.

WITHOUT MUSIC

211

**Trinidadian steel bandsmen sold Mighty

Skipper.

THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY. 4, 1956,

$10

'So much for your economy plan-'We'll-go-out-and-got-a-couple-of-pheasants-instead-of-paying-through-the-nose-for-a-turkey."

Landon Express Service

By NATHANIEL GUBBINS

PETER PAN FINDS HIS MOTHER

"Peter Pan," the story of a boy who wouldn't grow up, bp the late Sb James Barrie, 104 first produced

I

51 years ago,

T is Christmas Eve.

The corner house in Bloomsbury where the Darting family lived

ehin is in the room before she can life the receiver.

He gives a little grunt because of his lumbago.

Seedy Man; Don't be fright- ened of me. Wendy.

Wendy (switching off radio); is still there. The Did I hear you call me Wendy?

"We are aiming for in 1904 Racilo City, London and Paris." little girl Wendy

COME TO STAY

WHATEVER the rest of the

W world may think of steel

LI

cone to stay 73045 Tandad Every night club car - ries a steel barsel in addition to the dance orchestra

A new race

Darling

Yo ho, yo tre. when

"paw"

I say first what is the price of falry

dust?

By fear they're overlook. Naught's left upon your bones

when you

Have shaken hands with Hook.

Peter His sun sinus a difer- mit version of it.

Wendy: Is he a pirate too?

Peter: Oh, something like £5 down and a £l a month, Were

af during ow

packet?

thinking

a

Peter: When

You might 'ave

we were 12 on Mrs Smith: the laland missing our mathers seen a dozen. I've od 14 and you played at pretend mother buried four. Did you say your and we were all very happy. I name was Peter? think if I had a mother I'd be young again.

Wendy: If you want a mother that about your own?

Peter: Yes. Peter Pan,

Mrs Smith: I never 'ad one, called Peter. Though there was a Fred I'd forgotten. I expect

Peter: Not Fred? Smith?

Wendy: I remember you once sprinkled some on me and I new as easily es anything. Right out of the nursery to my own

Peter: But she must be dead, you're Fred. little house the tree tops.

Wendy: Sho's not Pater: But it wouldn't work very fit and lively £9. rather common, too. รา Peter; Il ray he is, but a today. I mean you were only a diferent kind. He runs a never- · chiid, a feather-weight

then, you her addrem. never store in the Never Never And what naine. Land. When you can't

Twelve, 13 stones? Hour instalments you hear ha stumping along singing:

aren't

Seedy Man Of course you is now a did. You are Wendy. pump, go?

13} -

fort

Ε ()

॥ ઇ ! ä

Wendy: That's my Who are you?

married

Seedy Man: Peter Pan.

Poler

wo man

Peter Pan? Wendy: in her pan? Oh, I remember. The boy late 50's who didn't want to grow up. with

violet-tinted grey perm.

EN

Peter: That's me, You know the story.

When I was a day old

tell I heard my parents the each other what I was going to

Out I didn't want to top be

Forts your thousands youngsters who could afford no ather type of instrument begin picking out Tunes on oil drums, They pay is 4d for the drums, attl

14 h.ve the tune:1.

She is no longer in of eraftsmen In Port of Spain's fuckstreets have night nursery on the

instrument-makers

floor expecting Peter Pan anything but a little boy. so i flew away to the Never Never They heat the ges of drums and chisel them to fly through the window. Land. into differently shaped segments She is in the ground-floor to produce the required notes,

elnim this parlour sitting in an Steel handsmen

listening

the rene

the steel bands.

CUTSEL

mebly music of the garbage dum, Beatles using oil drums, ster

fasion instruments banderacn fom dustbes, brake drums car parts and jonk area

The band struck ny a wallz. They play without music and it was impossible to determine who ASOS the

They played the same tupe over and

dives

them the distinction of chair being the enly musicians in the Archers." world to play upon instruments fashioned with a blowioren and cold chisel.

pay

Yo he wa 40, when sa

pay'

By fear they're overtook.

are

THE TO?

Wendy: After that you won't get a thing to eat. What's hap- pened to tay little house in the tree tops?

Their bank accounts are red Missing mother

us blood

When they've been done by

Hook.

Not Fred

'Save' you

She's A

And

rive

Well, I

Mrs Smith; What bin doing all this time?

Peter; I've been a fairy.

Mrs Smith: A fairy?

What

We fade in to an Old Folk's that's a nice thing, mix't it? Hume on Christmas Morning od one son in the Foreign Office where. Peter Pan's mother, Mrs but he was a messenger. Aggie Smith, is in bed with a kind of a fairy was yout bottle and a glass beside her.

Peter,

I bed: And mother.

hobbing towards her Mother. mnt/ darling

!

Peter: I flew over the tree in the Never tops and Hved

and Never Land with Wendy the others.

Mrs

Smith: Lived

with Wendy, ch? Well, well, well What did you do for a living?

With Mermaids

be

Wendy: I've found the never- never people very reasonable about payments.

Wendy: arming now? to "The

Peter: Rheumatismi.

Peter: Hook's son is trying to sell it on the never-REVET,

The thy plg. Wendy: loved that ttle housC Peter: So they may be.

But how's your fairy giri friand, He sells fairy dust not Hook.

Tinker Bell ? Why aren't you By- in packets now. So much" down

and a much a month. But I Peter: You know what hap- can't afford it, not on National pens to fatries when you don't Assistance.

believe in them?

Mrs Smith: Hey!

Peter:

Peter I'm your son,

Pan

Wendy:

Arc

you hungry.

Puter?

all

about

Wendy: Then you certainly have grown up. Won't the old fairy dust help?

Peter: Starving.

They die. Wendy: Yes. Everything dies if you don't be Lieve in it. You don't believe In fairies any more?

Mrs Sanfth: Oo did you say maids. you wast

Peter: Peter Pan,

I flew out father.

Mrs Smith: Just like your

born A natural

bum

llor husband's dinner is Never never land cooking in the kitchen. She

Peter:

but Nothing

swim about and play with the mer-

СА

Very Fine Cognac

MARTELL

CORDON BLE U alie CORDON ARGENT and Extra

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Sole Agents:- DODWELL & CO., LTD.

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has forgotten

Peter Pan.

Peter: Captain Hook's son's Remember got a corner in it. Captain Hook?

The window opens

slow- air ly, a draught of cold blowing the curtains aside. Wendy reaches for the tele- 999, but A phone to dial

Wendy: The dear old pirute? seedy. middle-aged man

Why, I can even remember one with a grey stubble on his of his songs:

JULIA,

of our mursery window when I with an eye for girls in bath- was a day old

costumes, ing others?

Was

tho

Peter: On National Assistance Wendy: At one time you were quite happy on pretend meals, you don't believe in anything.

Mrs Smith: We never 'ad no Wendy: That's why you've nursery. All mine was born in Peter: There was the pirate the back bedroom except one in Captain Hook and Smce and

Starkdy

and a bus.

Indians. And, of course, Peter: Then I wanted you so there was the crocodile.

Peter: I've had tough of those for the past 50 years, grown up and got lumbago. That's a nicc smell coming

Peter: It's that damp island from your kitchen,

that's

tumbago. given mic Wendy, will you be my mother?

Wendy: Pardon?

Wendy: ' get you something to eat in a minute. But tell me

THE GIRL

WHOM

50 MEN WANT TO MARRY

London have lots of gold.

And

the

"T is exhilarating to wanted a bar, e TV set, a tele-

watch В £15 159, phone and flowers.

I

bottle of perfume "What about the being poured over the carpet I sald, urging her on -when the perfume is not carpet, now that it one's own. So I sat back en- right, apparently passed. joying the libation and the aromatic fog which sulted.

re

carpe17"

But the smelled

by ANNE· SHARPLEY

rous proposals from at least 50 men

"All worth ten million dollars each," adds her brother.

"She's got one now," he says, "He owns a racecourse and says ten or fifteen factorics," she, of the man she calls "my date." "Wherever I am be files to seo. me, Brazil, Cuba, Canada, London soon, of course. Even L it means there is only time its lunch with me.

"And this," she said, picking her jewels are in a strong room up a plain wicker wastepaper round the corner, ("Let me basket, "I want in gold, too." take you there and show you.")

"Each of my dresses has "There,"

The girl with the Midas touch said the girl,

is Julia of the dance team own set of jewellery. I always whose surname la never Darvas and Julia. "The number buy in sets earrings necklaces, used, "that is my atmos one dance team of the world" bracelets and rings, One of my phere."

she says, in a way that allows diamond necklaces is worth no contradiction,

Dizzy. I agreed, as I listened to her orders for the complete redecoration of her dressing- room at the Palladium. It must

$5.

1955 GILES ANNUAL

stock will be limited.

kings acc

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST LTD., HONG KONG & KOWLOON

"GOLD. PAINT.

8,000 dollars."

can afford it on her beball. money they carr.. Gold, even when it is paint,

to

the

much I came back and found another little boy in my, cot,

JULIA-e menemo li novor, uses to the girl with the Midas. Hack

up in Istanbul. Studied in'an Italian school. Hod a Russian

nurse.

"I learned to dance at seven.

Mrs Smith: Crocodiles, 100%

ch7

Peter: You always knew he was coming because he had swallowed 471 alarm clock which went tick, tock, tick, tock.

Mrs Smith: Do you know what's wrong with you, Fredt

Peter: No, mother darling. Do tell me. -

Mrs

Smith: You're

either barmy or you've got

the 'overs Hke your father ad

When

cather 'ad. the *or-

dians, and nothing to im. lot.

rers, artest orocodilies

He'd seen the

Peter: Please, mother,

Mrs Smith And the one thing

$2,000 A WEEK

"He has begged me for and a half years to marry him

"And will you?"

onc

12 Nicky came from Hungary one.

very, unhappy "

At nine: I was the Shirley that put your father, right was Temple of Turkey. When I was a drop of tiddly, Go on, 'Avo

Peter: No thanks, mother,

and we started to dance

night club, Then it was, Greece, Lebanon," Cairo, Aléxazidria,

And, first as it should be... Julia's trinkats are only the outer

symbols of financial security. Her half-brother, and "I am one of those miserable Paris, New York In New York She can afford all the gold partner--the "Darvas" of the ones who always says no bes we stayed dye yous and there paint, or rather the Palladium foam-shrewdly. invests the cause I am very happy

Tot we made our big big fathe to be married.

"How much do you estimate του are worth, I snaked.

most-asked and lesst-ans question, "I wouldn't dare With deen nd Las Vegas for or the tax men would be; after While the brother "Nicky" the pair at £2.000 a week, she, me,'' said, Nicky. Her truge white Cadillac, alke calects property, his sister can afford to keep Mary's Jambi, has followed, her collecte fincurles-and' suitoren, happy, even at the rate of turn; "Let's start the musing at a || Derous, thió" "Atlantic

* down. ⠀⠀ inulti-millionairam. "million,”. I suggested helphilly. have been put into a London

dance – not "with her." The Palladium are not revealing !! SŁONKOTI (WATU BER they refused, brother in whiili che is trially what they are paying. They did not want the reasons- nuit: }bilityzat|my|0,000-dellaz: minke frautasent

bas

a reassuring, companion- We have real estate in Las "It I quit dancing I would be coming up with the repor able feeling for her. And everys Vegas, Rio de Janeiro and ve where that Julia goes her: al- Canada,” anys - Julio, . mosphere goes $50,

Her er danc

cont.") Pertum praoke my angalia chim, and

theredible with: mi" Atician

ever thought Thould-

Mrs Smith: All right, sour- pumy, 1'11ove:

mesel (Sings suddenly,)

Good King Wencesley fooled

On the feet of Stephen

Peter: PlanINE Mén Baktii:

Bring me fiosk

Don't

bring me