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Welcome to the
work of the Ebony Steelband
&
Ebony Steelband Trust
Introduction
Ebony is an organisation that delivers a variety of activities
for disadvantaged young people particularity those from the
Afro-Caribbean community. The organisation is based in
Kensington and Chelsea where there is the opportunity to work
with young people to direct them away from crime and anti-s ocial behaviour and towards living successful and purposeful lives.
Ebony has a real belief in helping its community so the
organisation tries its best to support anyone who is involved
with any of the programmes run by Ebony. This involves the band
doing many charity events, so that Ebony can be well known in
the community for the band’s positive contribution.
At this present and immediate time Ebony is facing a threat to
its survival because it no longer has its own permanent
premises, since their least expired in 2004 and losing their
previous premises due to re-development. Ebony are working in
partnership with other steelbands and Caribbean arts movements
to establish a Carnival Village to be Ebony’s new base, however,
this property will not be available until 2008 at the earliest,
but in the meantime Ebony needs to find alternative
accommodation for the medium term.
The History
The Ebony Steelband was founded in 1969 by a group of dedicated
pan men and women who shared one principle love ‘The Love of
Steelpan’. Since the very beginning the main focus for the
members of Ebony Steelband has been to promote steelpan music
and raise the importance of steelpan music across the UK and
over the years with the growth of Ebony Steelband this aim has
been increasingly fulfilled with fresh new goals.
 With the steady growth of new pan players coming and joining
Ebony and the recruitment of other steelpan musicians from other
bands, Ebony entered and won the National Panorama Championship
in 1983 having been runners up over previous years. With this
first win under Ebony’s belt it then led them on to becoming
National Panorama Champions for the next nine years, and to date
winners of the National Panorama Championship a total of
fourteen (14) times.
With the taste of success in Ebony’s blood the panorama success
could not hold Ebony, by now they wanted to become a European
and World force in Steelpan Music so in 1984 the Ebony Steelband
Trust was born. The Ebony Steelband Trust was designed to
promote the art of steelpan music and to make steelpan music
more accessible to people who, under normal circumstances would
or not have an opportunity to play or hear steelpan music in
their daily lives.
The Ebony Steelband Trust became the charitable side of Ebony,
through the Trust we are able to offer a range of services based
around steelpan music to disadvantaged young people, disabled
people, the elderly and the greater community helping to develop
confidence and self-esteem with the aid of steelpan music. The
Ebony Steelband Trust can offer a safe and friendly environment
where people (young and old) can socialise but at the same time
be given discipline and support through music and with life
skills.
Today the Ebony Steelband Trust is a charitable company
delivering a whole range of activities as outlined below.
Ebony Activities
Steelpan Classes: The Ebony Steelband Trust run steelpan
classes for the general public, the classes are set out
depending on the level of skill, Beginners, Intermediate and
Advanced. The classes are conducted by tutor who have all been
trained through the Ebony Steelband and qualified by Pan
Trinbago, the governing body for steelpan music based in
Trinidad, West Indies.
Steelpan Workshops: The workshops conducted by Ebony are
designed to allow as many people as possible the chance to play
steelpan music. The classes are set out so that all the
participants in the workshop have a first hand idea and feel of
what a steelpan is and how it is played; then they are given a
tutorial on the origin of the steelpan and the wonderful
benefits steelpan music has to offer and how it can be
integrated into mainstream of the music industry.
One 2 One Sessions: The one 2 one steelpan classes are
designed especially for people with disabilities, the steelpan
classes help many of our disabled users expand their use of main
senses of the human body, sight, sound and touch. We have found
that the vibrations that come from the steelpan help to simulate
the senses so that the user cannot only hear the sound but also
feel the sound of the note(s) through the steelpan. We have has
great success with our disabled users by using this technique of
steelpan music therapy to teach steelpan to deaf or blind users.
Ebony’s Outreach Programme: The Ebony Steelband do a lot
of work outside of our community, Ebony visits many schools and
colleges across the UK introducing steelpan to new users; it has
also allowed us to introduce Outreach Programmes to many of the
HMP Prison Institutions across the UK and cater for each
institutions special need, so this programme has given Ebony
access to reach a wider audience.
By this we mean we are able to show a larger cross-section of
society the benefits of the steelpan, they learn where the
steelpan was born and how it is played and how this unique
instrument can be implemented with modern instruments and music.
Ebony has had tremendous success with its Outreach
Programme, on many occasions Ebony has been instrumental in
implementing steelpan classes as part of a school’s everyday
curriculum so the children can continue to learn and play
steelpan even after we have gone, and we have a support and
aftercare programme to assist the schools.
Millennium Volunteers: The
Millennium Volunteers programme was introduced to the Ebony
Steelband Trust in 2000. This programme is a Government and CSV
Consulting Partnership backed initiative, which is designed to
introduce young people between the ages of 16 and 24 the
opportunity to learn a new skill, in Ebony’s case the steelpan,
as well as benefiting the community by giving the young people
involved a chance to continue learning and to gain valuable life
skills which they may need for later life and for work
prospects.
The MV programme set-up with Ebony Steelband Trust is designed
for our target age group, to help them view volunteering
differently and to realise that volunteering can be fun and that
it benefits the volunteer as they are continually learning new
skills. Since Ebony opened its doors to the Millennium
Volunteers programme our current group of students have taken
part in a number of new activities e.g. weekend team building
exercises, paint balling, camping and sailing. The MV’s have
also performed at some very prestigious events, notably at the
Royal Court Theatre, Flora London Marathon, Cannes in France and
for Heads of State and the Royal Borough of Kensington Chelsea.
The Ebony Steelband Trust Millennium Volunteers programme was
voted best Regional Millennium Volunteer Programme in 2000 and
again in 2003 and has been awarded the Unsung Hero Award by HRH
Queen Elizabeth in 2005, for the outstanding work of the Ebony
Steelband Trust Millennium Volunteers programme.
Project Work: Ebony currently runs a successful NEET (Not
in Education Employment or Training) project funded by London
Connexions through the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. We
have also been running a Golborne SRB Drumming Project for the
past five years that has produced some of our current drummers
in the band; interest in this project from the Golborne
Community is enormous.
Ebony also runs Young Offenders Project, which rose like a
phoenix out of the ashes from our Outreach Programme found their
was a great need for Ebony to work more closely with these
institutions and establish a programme that would best serve the
users and the Young Offenders Project, which is funded by the
Tudor Trust catered for all these needs. The Ebony works very
closely with Feltham Young Offenders Institution and other HMP
Prisons, including Ford HMP and Whitemoor HMP and more recently
Brixton HMP as part of their Black History Month celebration in
October 2005.
The Ebony Steelband Worldwide
It was a great privilege for the Ebony Steelband to represent
Britain at the first ‘World Steelband Festival’, which was held
in October 2000 and hosted in Trinidad, West Indies. The Ebony
Steelband was the only UK Steelband to qualify for the
competition, having successfully won the ‘European Steelpan
Festival’ in May 2000, at which we successfully competed against
nineteen (19) other steelbands from across the whole of Europe
and returned home victorious and ‘European Steelpan Champions
2000’.
The World Steelband Festival and the European Steelpan Festival
opened up new opportunities for Ebony to expand the work we do.
They were a showcase to demonstrate to Europe and the World how
much unrecognised talent there is in the UK and more importantly
how much untapped talent there is on our doorstep in North
Kensington. This was shown by the hard work of each Ebony member
put into the championship and showed the home of steelpan
‘Trinidad’ that their borders lie further away than they think.
The ‘World Steelband Festival 2000’ resulted in the Ebony
Steelband placed 4th in the World, this was a good result for
Ebony, leaving room for Ebony to improve at the World Steelband
Festival 2002 when they returned home victorious being placed
3rd in the World and retaining their title of ‘European Steelpan
Champions 2002’.
Performances, Concerts & Tours
The Ebony Steelband do steelband performances all year round,
Ebony is one of the hardest working steelbands across the UK,
alongside all the teaching work Ebony does we also find time to
do steelpan performances for the general public, charity &
fundraising events, corporate event, concerts and overseas
tours.
Over the past few years Ebony has performed at some very
prestigious events most recently for HRH Queen Elizabeth at
Buckingham Palace for the Volunteering Awards Reception and
other members of the Royal Family, HRH Prince Charles at the
Duke of Edinburgh Awards and HRH Prince Phillip. Ebony’s
performances have taken them as far away as the United Kingdom
of Morocco performing for the Moroccan Royal Family and Heads of
State; other recent tours include:
Penang International Cultural Festival in Malaysia – December
2003 – January 2004.
New Delhi Cultural Programme in New Delhi, India – March 2004.
Forde Folk Music Festival in Norway – July 2004.
Pamplona Music Festival in Spain – July 2004.
Trinidad & Tobago Carnival in Trinidad - February 2005.
Brussels International Music Festival in Brussels – September
2005.
And the opportunity to be the first UK Steelband to perform in
Kuwait in November 2005.
The Ebony Steelband also performs at more local events held all
over the UK e.g. weddings, private & corporate parties,
promotional events, funerals, television & cable channels and
most importantly charity events and children’s hospital. Every
event performed by the Ebony Steelband Trust is a chance for
public to see and hear the hard work of Ebony and at all times
the professionalism of their hard working youth.
Belief in the Community
Ebony has a real belief in its community; the community of Ebony
stays true to its roots and hold strong to the growth and
success of its community and the people within it. Ebony is
recognised as a model organisation working within the Black
Community; over the years the Ebony Steelband has become a
household name in the community it serves and commands huge
respect for its artistic achievements. The key attributes for
Ebony people are hard work, intelligence, creativity,
discipline, personal integrity and growth and the passion for
the steelpan.
The Need
The Ebony Steelband Trust needs their own premises to maintain
their very important work within their community, if you can
help the premises would be needed for three main purposes.
To provide office accommodation to enable the day to day running
of the Trust/Band to continue. We have a staff team of three
(Director, Administrator and Millennium Volunteer Co-ordinator)
together with part-time workers (e.g. bookkeeper, fundraiser
etc.) who need a base to work from.
To provide classroom space for the local steelpan lessons and
band practise that we run during the week, a typical weekly
schedule is shown below. There is a small recording studio that
is linked to the classroom.
To provide storage space for steelpans and other equipment.
Ancillary accommodation would be needed to support these
functions e.g. toilets, kitchen area.
Typical Weekly Activities:
Steelpan Lessons are Ebony’s core teaching activity.
Days: Class Times Activity
Monday 5.00 PM to 7.30 PM Millennium Volunteers Practise
Monday 7.30 PM to 10.30 PM Ebony Band Practise
Wednesday 6.00 PM to 8.00 PM Millennium Volunteers Workshop
Thursday 6.00 PM to 8.00 PM Millennium Volunteers Workshop
Thursday 6.00 PM to 8.00 PM Adult Beginners Workshop
Friday 6.00 PM to 7.30 PM Kids Beginners Workshop
Friday 7.30 PM to 10.30 PM Ebony Band Practice
Additional Classes:
Monday & Friday 7.30 PM to 10.30 PM Tutor Training
Tuesday (afternoons) 4.00 PM to 8.00 PM Studio Project
Friday (evenings) 7.30 PM to 9.30 PM Golborne Digital Combo
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