Historical Notes

How They Saw the Steelband

The Vincentian, Editorial, February 23, 1946: “Many young people have been so strongly influenced that for a single day or two they wildly kick aside that public decency to which they do confirm for the other 364 days of the year. The suppression of the police by that other nauseous orgy known as the ‘steel band’ cannot be too highly recommended.{{more}}

Its influence on the human mind is not a whit less than that of pornography, and, the facts are there to show that it has spatted harmful germs. These ungainly performances are even worse than the roaming at large of criminals because the standards of decency which should be implanted in youth and upheld in adults have too early offset by such lude displays. It therefore lies upon the public reason and conscience to censure the ‘steel band’ and when citizens refuse to take their stand against these vulgar and degrading practices, the arm of the law should be summoned with its coercive measures.” The 1946 Chairman of the Carnival Improvement Committee was Mr Ronald Brisbane.