Newtown plays on

Just after 14 months in operation at its 64, Tragarete Road, Newtown home, the band ran away with the title after playing a Carlan Harewood arrangement of Superblue’s “Get Something and Wave”, leaving all and sundry in its wake in the finals at Arima Velodrome on January 29.

Former mayor of Port-of-Spain Keron Valentine, who is the band’s chairman, spoke with Sunday Newsday about a dream coming true.

“Newtown Playboys is a steelband, pan theatre and sport and cultural organisation which was born out of the need to further develop the Playboyz brand, a link to its neighbour, Woodbrook Playboyz, on the the cultural landscape of Trinidad and Tobago and by extension the world.

“It was formed on August 25, 2015 and launched on November 21 of that same year,” he said.

Although it was not easy, the band had good fortune in being supported by the business community of west Port-of-Spain “After acquiring the property the task was to build the pan theatre.

We had help and I would like to publicly thank Mr Ibn de Leon of Strategic Assets Solutions (SAS) for his contribution both monetary and managerial to the development of this institution.

“I also want to thank the Sunny Group and especially Ma Pau and Amera Marketing for their continued assistance.” The former mayor went on, “I have a good team in leader Kwame Rodriguez and manager Vincent Benjamin. The players have been the pride and joy of the Newtown, Woodbrook and St James communities for the past 19 years and are all former members of Woodbrook Playboyz Steel Orchestra.

“They have engaged in community activities including Christmas initiatives, entertainment concerts and educational programmes. The talented steelpan musicians have also marketed the Playboyz brand to over 17 countries throughout the world on various tours, one including the national football team.” As recent as 2016, Playboys has been a guest at Barbados Crop Over and Miami Carnival.

The members of this steel orchestra have hosted and perform for world leaders, ambassadors such as Colin Powell, Prince Phillip, Sepp Blatter, Danny Glover and Caricom Heads of Government among others.