"She told me about the band and I thought it a good idea for my children, who are Kiwis. Their father was from Trinidad," Ros says with a laugh.
Meeting Camille, the band's manager, was a piece of luck. "I hadn't realised how much I missed the Caribbean society that I had been living in in Britain."
Ros dragged her daughters along but couldn't get them interested. "Somehow I stuck and haven't been kicked off yet."
Her spunky attitude fits right into the band's fun, laid-back culture. She plays cello drums, the ones that give rhythm to the music. "I didn't know enough about the different drums to choose one and I was not quick enough to play the frontline tenor pans. And also I'm not the right face. I'm too old and too pale and so they hide me in the back," she teases Camille.
"Do you see the hassling I get around here?" Camille replies with a sigh and a shake of her head in mock frustration. "I am supposed to be the boss here, but they tell me what to do."
Alesano plays tenor drums, which carry the tunes, explains Camille. They have nine sets of pans: three tenors, one double tenor, two double seconds, one double guitar, one cello and a bass.
"We don't have that formal approach to being an orchestra. We still have a very strong Caribbean flavour and atmosphere. We aim to keep that," she says.
Alesano admits his mum had to bribe him to practise with the band, but he now enjoys it. "It's cool to be able to play," he says. The band is trying to attract younger members of all ethnicities, and is holding a Join De Band and Pan Workshop on July 14 and 15.
"You don't have to know anything about music when you join us. All we ask is you have a sense of fun and you're willing to teach others when you learn. That's a key part because that's how we learned in Trinidad," Camille says.
Ros says even after five years she doesn't know if she has learned all about the steel band yet, but she's happy to teach.
"I know the music because I've listened to it all my life."
Join da Band
Caribbeanz Southern Stars Steel Band workshop, Onehunga Workingmen's Club, July 14-15.
Cost: $20 for five hours. If you want to jam, contact Camille: 021 045 7368
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