Page "Steelpan" Paragraph 6

The first instruments developed in the evolution of steelpan were Tamboo-Bamboos, tunable sticks made of bamboo wood.

These were hit onto the ground and with other sticks in order to produce sound.

Tamboo-Bamboo bands also included percussion of a ( gin ) bottle and spoon.

By the mid-1930s, bits of metal percussion were being used in the tamboo bamboo bands, the first probably being either the automobile brake hub " iron " or the biscuit drum " boom ".

The former replaced the gin bottle-and-spoon, and the latter the " bass " bamboo that was pounded on the ground.

By the late 1930s their occasional all-steel bands were seen at Carnival and by 1940 it had become the preferred Carnival accompaniment of young underprivileged men.

The 55-gallon oil drum was used to make steelpans from around 1947.

The Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra ( TASPO ), formed to attend the Festival of Britain in 1951, was the first steelband whose instruments were all made from oil drums.

Members of TASPO included Ellie Mannette and Winston " Spree " Simon.

Hugh Borde also led the National Steel Band of Trinidad & Tobago at the Commonwealth Arts Festival in England, as well as the Esso Tripoli Steel Band, who played at the World ’ s Fair in Montreal, Canada, and later toured with Liberace and were also featured on an album with him.