‘He saw signs saying No Blacks – but he never got bitter’: Sterling Betancourt, the man who brought steelpan music to the UK — SkimNews
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- Sterling Betancourt died on 3 June aged 96, the last surviving member of the 11-strong Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra (Taspo) whose 1951 performance of oil-drum steelpans outside the Royal Festival Hall stunned a sceptical Festival of Britain crowd that had initially joked about 'black magic.'
- Betancourt was the only Taspo member to remain in London, building his own instruments from discarded oil drums — including in the industrial wasteland behind King's Cross station — and teaching the instrument patiently, telling his widow Beatrice he believed any student 'will get there.'
- Betancourt partnered with Trinidadian jazz pianist Russell Henderson to lead a 1966 steelpan walkabout around Notting Hill that, together with Claudia Jones's 1959 Caribbean carnival, became the basis for Notting Hill Carnival, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in August.
- Betancourt toured steelpan across Europe and Asia from the 1970s on — performing in Switzerland (where, Beatrice says, 'half the members of his Nostalgia Steelband ended up being Swiss and German'), Singapore, Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Spain, France, Germany and Holland, including barge performances on European rivers.
- Betancourt recorded 'Brexit Bacchanal Story' in 2018, a calypso-flavoured lament his widow says he framed as decrying 'the folly of the UK leaving the EU,' reflecting a lifelong belief in bringing people together through music.
- Southbank Centre's Steel Scenes festival later this month will mark Taspo's 75th anniversary with 500 pan musicians; producer Deborah Yewande Bankole commissioned Betancourt — frail after a major 2024 stroke — to record one final melody line 'one last time' before his death, with young bands set to develop it into new work.
Why it matters: Betancourt's death severs the last direct human link to the 1951 Festival of Britain performance that seeded British steelpan, and reframes his 1966 Notting Hill walkabout with Russell Henderson as a founding moment of what became Europe's biggest street carnival, now marking its 60th anniversary. The Southbank Centre's Steel Scenes festival this month will use his final recorded melody line to hand the tradition to a new generation of 500 pan musicians.
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