Down memory lane with an All Stars stalwart

Photo and story by Lara Pickford-Gordon

St Clair Plowden is 94 years old. He joined the Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra at the age of 19 and though he played pan for only four years, he has remained a loyal member and supporter.

‘All Stars’ has won ten Panoramas starting in 1973 and the last in 2017.

St Clair Plowden

‘Plowden’, as he is known, shared a few memories during an interview at the band’s Duke Street panyard on January 29.

“We were young fellas and started liming down in the river here because we used to play football and cricket, that time down inside here was dirt. They had breadfruit tree right here and we got together, (Neville) Jules, Fisheye (Rudolph Ollivierre) and others, Hamel; playing the little cricket and football, playing little card games,” Plowden said.

“The first band we really hear was a little band coming out from Woodbrook….And we stand up on Charlotte Street, where Payless [supermarket] is now, opposite is where we were. It was a Tamboo Bamboo band, but it had a little pan and thing.” That band was Alexander’s Ragtime Band named after a movie of that year, 1937. It was led by Carlton Forbes—‘Lord Humbugger’ and he was dressed formally with a hat and long coat and waving a stick for a conducting baton.

The music caught their attention and Plowden related that they subsequently took the metal receptacles people used for their garbage to make music. “At the time, people put out their little drums and thing…then you get biscuit drums and other things,” he said with a laugh at their brazenness. Jules began tuning pans down in the East Dry River using fire and they limed.

Plowden said: “It had a breadfruit tree…and it had some people in front named Chabonne. Well, they didn’t even want the band around there because of the breadfruit tree; we used to take the breadfruit, roast it, and go by the Chinese shop there and get a saltfish tail.”

The family did not appreciate the sounds nor the fumes emanating from the tuning of the pans, but they continued. Plowden said the group of eight to ten men began gathering at George Street where Fisheye lived, on the site of the present George Street Health Centre.

They shifted to the corner of George Street then were on two locations on Charlotte Street—upstairs MI Bakery, and the attic of the Maple Leaf Club, called the ‘Garret.’

He said the band grew as “friends bring friends” and people came to listen. Upper Charlotte Street was known as ‘Hell Yard’ so Hell Yard Second Fiddle was formed and later Cross of Lorraine (1945). These bands preceded All Stars which came into existence in 1946.

“Trinidad All Starts real name registered as Trinidad All Stars Philharmonic Steel Orchestra and eventually we cut out the Philharmonic, the members and them find it too long that’s how it became Trinidad All Stars”.

The ‘fine man’

Plowden said a few of them including himself, Jules and Fisheye got together and decided the band should have rules for discipline. At practice, there was to be “no smoking, no drinking, no obscene language that goes for upstairs in the Garret and also on the road or any function we are playing, and you will be fined”. The fines were 6 cents, 12 cents and a shilling ‘bob’—24 cents. Persons getting fines of 80 cents and one dollar had to be a “serious offence”.

Plowden explained that while late coming was not tolerated, allowances were made. “Practice starts at 7 o’clock, you could come, you working up to 4 o’clock according to where you living, we giving you a certain time. Beyond that, 20 minutes after that, my job is to fine you unless you have an exceptionally good excuse”. This duty earned Plowden the nickname “fine man”.

As the rules became established, Jules asked Plowden if he wanted to play pan. He was interested in bass and so played for four years. “I stopped playing pan when I started to work at Telco (Telephone Company Ltd) in 1962 as a security officer on shift,” he said.

Another rule was that All Stars members could not just go and listen to other bands playing. Plowden added, “like how you will leave here and say you going to look for Invaders or anything? If we get good proof of that, heavy fines. Don’t go by any other band whatsoever.” This rule came when the bomb tunes were introduced.

The Bomb Competition

Jules is known as the pioneer of the bomb tune—non-Calypsoes played in a Calypso tempo. This saw the introduction of Classical and other kinds of music being played during Carnival with revellers dancing along.

In those days, panmen did not read music but Plowden said Classical pieces like Liebestrum No 3 (Love Dream) by Franz Lisz, Intermezzo by La Scala and Bacarolle by Frédéric François Chopin were played. While preparing to drop their ‘bomb’ for Carnival, the tune was fiercely guarded.

Players practising in the Garret played with their fingertips or with the rubber end of a pencil to keep the tune confidential.

According to Plowden, “only Jules and them know the tune; you, not your own mother you could tell. It was a secret. Only time you as the players would get to know because J’Ouvert morning up in the Garret and the only time that you hearing the music playing is when we leave the Garret and come down in the road. That is the time everybody would know what it is.”

He said all the players knew was their part of the song “One”, “Two” and “Three” but as time went by, they got to know the titles of the music.

The Bomb Competition, named in Jules’ honour will be held at 4 a.m. on J’Ouvert at Victoria Square.

Although he played pan for only four years, he continued as a member of the disciplinary committee. Today, he remains “still a little active” and is a familiar face in the panyard. He devotedly follows the band’s performances and competitions.

Asked why he remains close, he replied, “it’s in the blood as a family”.  Plowden says his philosophy is: “God, faith, family and friends…though it have some friends better to you than some of your family”.