‘Sweet sticks’ and steel songs: From Desmond’s to Black Lives Mattering

Millette, Holly-Gale (2024) ‘Sweet sticks’ and steel songs: From Desmond’s to Black Lives Mattering. Black British Music: Past, Present and Futures: A Symposium to Open the British Library's Black British Music, Beyond the Bassline: 500 years of Black British Music exhibition, British Library, London, United Kingdom. 12 Jul 2024.

Abstract

This paper reframes "Black British Music" as intangible cultural heritage where the music itself becomes a container for the diversity and complexity of of Black British culture. It draws on the storyline and culture-mapping present in C4’s ground-breaking television series Desmond’s (1989- 1994) to trace the story of the steel plan in Britain and in Black British diasporic music. Part of this interrogation will offer a review of the critical and historic information on the Steel Pan in Britain and the limitations of that literature.

At its heart, is my nascent collaboration with Pantonic – a local steel pan band that has been using a Hackney church to house its pans, practice, and perform since 1989. In 2023, in line with local gentrification of the area, the church underwent renovation. In the process, Pantonic’s pans were moved under the church tower – a tower built with profits accrued in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Following renovations, the band found that, like in Hackney itself, they were ‘priced out’ of their own neighbourhood/rehearsal space.

Thus, my research shifted into a more collaborative project with the band itself, and one that addressed the challenges and limitations of speaking together, through others, about the Story of the Pan. In attempting to decolonise the legacy of Black British music, this collaboration will/has/is addressing systemic issues and fallacies inherent in racialised legacies. Together, we would like/are posing questions about how we might – with an institution such as The Church of England – ‘do’ reparation and gentrification in a way that assures Black Lives Matter now, if they didn’t then.

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Contributors

Author: Holly-Gale Millette

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