‘Sharing the Soca’

Stephen Drayton was born 30^th August 1937. From an early age, around ten years, while attending the Marabella E.C. School in Trinidad, he was called upon very often to sing; by that time he was already playing the tenor pan in at least two steelbands in and around San Fernando.

Drayton was the first captain of Sundowners Steelband where he also made the pans for the band. During the early 1950s, through the sixties and into the seventies, he progressed immensely having captained other bands. With the challenges of life going into manhood, he left the pan scene and ventured into body-building where he won seventeen titles in Trinidad and Tobago.

Drayton then entered into the calypso arena where he was a semi-finalist in Trinidad & Tobago’s national competition in 1998. Following this he took a hiatus for a number of years, but subsequently returned to the fold.

Drayton is credited with three calypso and one gospel CDs, having decided to pursue a musical career indefinitely.  He both composed and performed the track featured here, Sharing The Soca, along with Pan Pioneers.