The SoS Homepage - Info Page

Sounds of Steel are a community steel band based at Portchester Community School but we are far from a school band !!! The band started out when our music teacher returned from a trip round the world, he had a vision.......What he wanted was the best youth steel band in the country. Although we are not quite there yet we are on the way up !!!

When we started out we were only an 8 piece band called 'Arriba' but we changed it because we realised that 'Arriba' is Spanish for upstairs!!! After many hours of arguments and disagreements we decided on the name 'SOUNDS OF STEEL'.

There are 24 people in the band. The age range spreads from 11 to 17. There are 18 female pan players and only one male, our percussion section has 3 males and 2 females.

In 1998 the band performed concerts at many major festivals and events, with the highlight of last years concerts being a Concert Tour To Spain which brought out some excellent playing to some brilliant audiences. While in Spain we visited Barcelona and performed in "el Pobel Espanol" which is a little tourist village on the outskirts of Barcelona. We performed in a floodlit arena at the top of a castle in "Tossa de Mar" and the last concert that we did was in a typical Spanish village. The people in the village had never heard of steel pans so they all came out to have a look and a listen. After they had all had a few drinks the band members parents and friends all decided to get up and have a dance and they dragged everyone up with them!!! They all enjoyed it so much that we must have played half of our set a second time as an encore !!!

Last year the band performed at the Lord Mayors Show (Portsmouth), Whitbread Round The World Yacht Race, The London festival Of Youth Music, Fairthorne Manor Open Day and many, many more.

The band have just recorded a "Ray Holman" ballad called "Since You've Gone" and that has been recorded to go on a compilation album that will be distributed around schools in the South of England. We also hope to record our first CD in April/May 99' and it will have a wide range of styles on it from Calypso to Classical and more !!! below is a list of songs that the band play.

Pan Crazy,

High Mass,

Mr Panist,

Radetzky March,

Laa Laa,

I Can't Help Falling In Love,

Clear the Way,

Symphony in G,

I can see clearly now,

Stir it up,

Since you've Gone,

The first time ever I saw your face,

First Light,

Trepak,

Moonlight Seranade,

Typical Spanish Piece,

Kasandra,

Kimberlay,

Indian Calypso.

Since we got back from Spain there has been a few people leave the band for different reasons and we would like to say a big thankyou to all of those players who put alot of time and effort in making the band what it is today !!!

After Spain the players that left the band were Zoe Gilbert and Melissa Fuller (Tenor Pan), Laura Foley and Beth Clarke (Seconds) Charlie Wood (4 Cello) and Kathy Renwick (Tenor Bass). Since then there has been alot of changes in the band, we have a lot of new Tenor, Double Seconds, Guitars, 3 Cello and Tenor Bass players. Sarah Murphy has moved from Guitar Pans to Triple Seconds, Hannah Walden has moved from Tenor Bass to 4 Cello, Zoe Bunn has made a move from Single Second to Double Tenors, Michelle Fawdry, Claire Naguib and Hayley Garner have moved from percussion to pans. Claire is now playing Guitar Pans, Michelle is now on Tenor Bass and Hayley is playing Seconds.

Toussaint is a Steel Pan player and maker from Bath. (he runs the steel band "Rainbow Steel Orchestra"). Toussaint runs workshops for lots of bands from all around the country but he mainly deals with Plymouth, Penzance, our band and Swindon.

This year the band has been asked to play at the Pullhiem Music Festival (Germany). It is a three day non stop party for 72 hours and the band will be performing many times over the three days.

Back to The Official Sounds of Steel Homepage !!!