Sterling Betancourt, the Trinidadian musician who died on June 3 aged 96, brought steelpan music to Britain in 1951, facing immediate prejudice. Jokes about “black magic” were heard outside the Royal Festival Hall before he and his 10 bandmates, wearing rusty steelpans, began to play. The upcoming Steel Scenes festival at Southbank Centre will mark the 75th anniversary of the Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra (Taspo), the group Betancourt played with. This event highlights a cultural legacy born from migration, often met with suspicion and racism at Europe's borders.
Taspo performed at the government-funded Festival of Britain, an event that celebrated British and Commonwealth cultural excellence. After their initial London performance, Taspo toured the UK extensively, appeared on BBC TV, and secured a residency in Paris, where they produced Europe’s first commercially released steelpan band recordings. All other Taspo members returned to Trinidad later that year, but Betancourt chose to remain in London, building his own instruments from oil drums discarded in the city’s waste grounds.
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Betancourt was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1930. He began experimenting with rhythms on empty tins as a child, as his widow, Beatrice, recounted from a recorded interview. The second world war brought the US navy to Trinidad, and their empty oil drums were repurposed into instruments. Betancourt mastered instrument making as a teenager, playing them on the street.
Beatrice noted that panmen were often associated with gangs, and steelpan bands represented poor neighbourhoods, with brawls occurring at competitions. The formation of the Steelbands Association of Trinidad and Tobago in 1949 professionalised the movement, reducing rivalries. Funds were raised to send a steelpan band to the Festival of Britain, leading to the selection of 11 musicians for Taspo.
Initially, Betancourt struggled to generate public interest in pan in the UK. Beatrice described him as “quite distraught,” and he learned jazz drumming to earn a living. She stated, “Sterling didn’t procrastinate or feel down.” He later integrated the instrument into the Soho jazz scene, then across Britain, and from the 1970s, into continental Europe and Asia. Beatrice called him “an incredible teacher,” noting his patience with students.
Betancourt partnered with Russell Henderson, a Trinidadian jazz pianist and panman. They performed at Claudia Jones’s 1959 Caribbean carnival and, in 1966, led a steelpan walkabout around Notting Hill. These events became the foundation for the Notting Hill carnival, which celebrates its 60th anniversary in August. Beatrice said Betancourt was “surprised at how carnival took off over here.”
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Alongside his carnival work, Betancourt recorded with jazz, pop, reggae, and soca musicians while continuing to build his instruments. Beatrice recalled him going to the industrial wasteland behind King’s Cross station in the 1970s to find oil drums. He would cut, heat, and hammer them to develop different notes, a process that took him “a good three days” due to his perfect pitch.
Beatrice stated that Betancourt spent the rest of the 1970s popularising pan worldwide. “The Swiss were amazed by steelpan,” she said. He spent weeks there, and eventually, half the members of his Nostalgia Steelband were Swiss and German. He performed in Singapore, Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Spain, France, Germany, and Holland, even playing on river barges. In 2018, Betancourt recorded Brexit Bacchanal Story, a calypso lament about the UK’s departure from the EU. Beatrice confirmed, “Sterling was aghast at Brexit. He loved playing pan all over Europe and believed in bringing people together, not pushing them apart.” This stance highlights a fundamental opposition to the tightening of borders and the criminalisation of movement that Brexit represents.
Deborah Yewande Bankole, the producer of the Southbank Centre’s Steel Scenes festival, commissioned Betancourt, then the last surviving member of the original Taspo lineup, to write a melody line for young bands. Betancourt had suffered a major stroke in 2024 and had not played pan since. Bankole described how he “put his mallet to his pan and said, ‘one last time,’ and played the melody line while a friend recorded it.” Beatrice said Betancourt was “happy to know Steel Scenes was honouring Taspo’s original concert,” but he remained humble until his death. “My role is not enormous but I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved,” he told her. The Steel Scenes festival runs from July 24-26.