About

The North West Steelband Association’s mission is to support and develop the status of steel bands in the community, by providing opportunities for children and adults to learn to play and perform as part of a group.

Read about one of the local bands, Sensory Sounds, here.

History of the Association

North West Steelband Association was set up by Elisabeth Morris and Arthur Culpeper in the 1980s. North West Steelband Association was an off-shoot of the London Association and masterminded by Elisabeth Morris who became drawn to steelpan music when teaching at Royce Primary School in Hulme, along with Arthur Culpeper, who had been invited by Manchester Music Service to make a set of pans and teach a group of children at Ducie High school in 1975. As more schools acquired instruments more peripatetic teachers were employed (some being former players at school) and Arthur was promoted to Head of World Music. An in-service course was set up by the music service on Thursday evenings for class teachers to learn to play.

Lis maintained contact with the London pan world and when their association folded the Northwest Association was formed and in partnership with Manchester Music Service a Youth Steel Orchestra called Mancunian Steel was formed, which toured Germany in 1987.

In 1985, Arthur was approached by Bill Seizling to teach his son to play a tenor pan he brought from Trinidad where he had been working and Pantonic Allstars was born.

In the 70s, the Association began organising Steelband festivals for school bands with a competitive element and a trophy. However, these became oversubscribed and as the workloads of teachers grew, transport became expensive and the festivals fizzled out.

Elisabeth Morris was very skilled at accessing funding and had multiple contacts, some from her work as a part time magistrate. In the 1990s residential weekends were organised by the Association for about 4 steelband groups from inner city schools to gather for a weekend to learn to play a mass tune together, as well as enjoy fun activities eg a canal boat ride, disco etc. I have fond memories of excited children from my group from Clayton looking forward to “going to the hills”. Families were happy to contribute £10 towards their keep.

In 2005, the Association funded a set of instruments for a new Youth Orchestra run by Manchester Music Service and these are the instruments now housed at Walthew House in Stockport and used by Arthurs Class Act and Sensory Sounds.

Arthur retired in 1994 and the Thursday class dwindled until the Association asked Arthur to start it up again at Zion Arts Centre in Hulme but, of course, it would no longer be free and players donated towards their tuition. In 2006, he handed over to Vivien McDougall who ran it in various premises until  handing over to John Unwin in about 2019. Association meetings were few and far between and we had no Chairperson until John was persuaded to act as Chair. A new secretary and treasurer stepped up and things started to happen again.

Arthur sadly passed away in 2007 and Lis moved to Cockermouth. We owe them a lot.

Written by Mrs Vivien McDougall