Newtown Tamboo Bamboo Band Analysis

The year 1935 is accepted as the year for the transition from bamboo to metal according to Selwyn Taradathe. That year was particularly significant as the Newtown Tamboo Bamboo band led by, Lord Humbugger, discarded their different lengths of bamboo and took to the streets for the J'Ouvert celebrations with a full band of metal containers. These included garbage bins and covers, biscuit drums, paint cans, brake drums, chamber pots and bottles and spoons. This band became known as Alexander's Ragtime Band, their name came from an American movie and this band caused a stir in Port of Spain. Lord Humbugger was the conductor of this band who led the band with a baton in hand, adorn with a top hat, gloves and coat tails, his musicians with their music sheets in front of them; Alexander Ragtime band changed the musical
To the west of the city are Invaders; Starlift; Phase II; Hummingbirds pan Groove; and, again, a host of smaller bands such as Modernaires, silver Stars, and Playboyz.” (Johnson 1) These were just a few of the many steelbands in Trinidad at the time who dominated the music of the land.
The end of the war was imminent and in 1945 and the colonial authorities made a declaration that when the air raid sirens sounded to declare victory on the European front, citizens would be allowed to congregate in celebration. On VE Day, March 8, 1945, there was Carnival like celebrations; the steelband was legally presented to the world for the first time. A multitude of blissful revelers paraded the streets of Port of Spain and in the words of a reporter for the Trinidad Gazette, ‘They waved branches and chanted songs to the accompaniment of music thumped out of old