Passing on pan legacy

YVONNE WEBB

AT AGE 20, Joshua Regrello is perhaps one of the youngest captains of a conventional steelband in the large band category.

The baton of leadership has been passed on to him from his father, the Mayor of San Fernando, Junia Regrello. After four decades, Regrello has bowed out as the skipper of what is now CAL Skiffle Steel Orchestra, passing on the legacy to Joshua, leaving some large shoes to fill in the process. Regrello continues to guide the band as its manager.

Joshua, a law student, who has taken a sabbatical to lead Skiffle, hopefully to victory in this weekend’s National Panorama finals, says while the title was unexpected, he is up to the challenge and the responsibility his dad has placed in his hands.

But the weight of this task has not been placed singularly on his small shoulders. In his attempt to create a balance of youth and experience to continue his pan legacy, Regrello, has introduced another first to the pan fraternity, by having two captains oversee the band.

Brandon Babb, former bass section leader, committee and executive member who has been with Skiffle for over 20 years, is sharing co-captain duties with Joshua.

Explaining his rationale, Regrello said, “what we have done is unique. In the same way we have three arrangers, we have two captains. Both Brandon and Joshua have different skills. Brandon has the institutional knowledge, having grown up in the band. He came about age 14, matured in the band, fell in love in the band, got married in the band and is part of the system that understands how the band works and its philosophy.

“Joshua is like the future. He is charismatic and outgoing and has the kind of personality that augurs well for the future. So, you have a mix, a blend of two different personalities that can carry this band forward and I think that is what it is all about.”

Agreeing that he would be a hard act to follow as he sacrificed family life and his career over the past 30 years to make the band he started as a pan-around-the-neck-band in 1977, a success, Regrello said if he had to train someone to take over from him, he would not have gotten a better fit.

“Both of them grew up with me, so they saw the trends, the decisions I would have taken and the direction the band has gone in over the years. It’s a good mix and once they keep that synergy, that understanding, we will continue to succeed.”

Babb, a lighting technician at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA), is currently a part-time student at the University of the West Indies (UWI) studying technical theatre. Along with his wife Rheanne, who also plays with Skiffle, they operate an after-school home-work centre for children whose parents work late. The couple has a six-year-old daughter. Babb said he is very excited about what the combined talents under their co-leadership can bring to the band. “We work very well together. We share ideas and agree to disagree when we don’t have the same views,” Babb said.

Although he has been playing since he was a first-year student at Grant Memorial Presbyterian School with the Little Bunch Steel Orchestra, a band his father was instrumental in establishing, it was not until age ten that Joshua started playing for then TCL Skiffle Bunch.

He recalls, “I fell in love with a girl who was playing with the band. I came well-dressed one day (to impress her) with shirt and pants and a little flower I borrowed from my mom. I asked my dad to play and I am still here today.

“I love Skiffle. My brother and I grew up here. We practically lived in the panyard. My mom Kamla Regrello travelled a lot and dad would bring us into the panyard and put us in a box. Some of the players, including Brandon, literally held us when we were babies. Our bikes from when we were small are still in the back of the panyard,” he said.

Pointing out that Skiffle is more of a community than a panyard, Joshua said once the band wants him around, he would stay. “When I can’t give them any more, I will step down.”

Making it clear that his new title had nothing to do with preferential treatment from his dad, Joshua who along with his elder brother Nicholas are players, feels he has earned it and vowed not to let either the band or his father down.

Like his father, Joshua, who also leads the band called the Triplets and is the chairman of the People’s National Movement San Fernando West Youth League, just gravitated towards the pan. About four years ago he started injecting his own ideas and influence in the band.

Using his initiative he started doing different things, assuming different roles like running the practise, drilling songs, putting together the song list and giving them a face on social media, until he became the unofficial captain for the stage side.

“I did not even know I was doing it until one night I was told in a meeting that my dad was going to hand over to Brandon and I. I was shocked. The odd thing is that there was a vote for captain, I did not even know about that either.”

However, understanding that was his role Joshua said, “I did not take very long to be shocked or overwhelmed. We had things to do.”

One of the first things under his and Babb’s watch was to enter a youth team in last Sunday’s National Junior Panorama competition in the non-school category. The band placed sixth.

“Both my dad and I are big on youths. I believe the future of this band is in the youths. Where the pan has to go, the youths have to take it there. I am trying to bring as many young players as I can. Once you become my friend you automatically become a pan player at Skiffle,” he said.

On his vision for the band Joshua said, “Upwards. I know that sounds vague but there are many different things we want to do in the development of the band and the players, as future leaders.”

With CAL Skiffle placing second in the preliminaries and fourth in the semi-final rounds of the National Panorama competition, the band is being supported by the entire south land to bring the title home.

“Win, lose, or draw, next year we are coming back better and harder. The goal of every steelband is to win a National Panorama. If we don’t win it this year, I just want us to win it before I die. I just want to be a part of (winning) it.”

Apart from band responsibilities, Joshua is also writing a script he hopes to transition into a film.

“I want to enter the film festival. I want to do a film on suicide prevention. I woke up one morning with an idea. I know a lot of people who suffer from depression. Some close friends too. Some mornings I am at people’s house talking to them. I too have experienced depression, to an extreme extent for a short time, so I understand they want to give up in the heat of the battle. That is why I want to do a film. Whether it is accepted or not, I feel I have to put it out there, “ he said.