HISTORY OF THE STEELPAN

As the pan makers knowledge and technique improved, so did the sound of the instrument.

Because Steel Pan was such an amazing invention, by the 1940’s the Tamboo Bamboo and Biscuit Tins were both replaced by the Steel Pan.  

 

The Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO), formed to attend the Festival of Britain in June 1951, was the first steel band whose instruments were all recycled from oil drums, and the first time steel pan music was heard in Britain. The festival, held to mark the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, took place at the newly built South Bank Centre in London.