Brief History

Panash Steel Orchestra UK was formed in 1983 at MountView High School in Harrow by David Griffiths.

The School closed but their successful and nationally renowned Steel Band continued as Panash.

The original band achieved notable success and disbanded in 1989.

Our current leader Jay Butcher took over the Panash name in 1990 whilst being the Steel Pan Tutor at Rooks Heath High School (now College)., also in Harrow.

 In this line up the orchestra toured extensively around continental Europe and appeared on the festival circuit regularly.

The band was folded in 1996 due to members leaving for university and Jay returning home to South London to take over the Musical Direction for the Comets Steel Band.

Jay spent 12 years arranging for the comets and led them on 2 tours to Barbados, 5 Croydon Music Festival wins, 2 Met Police "battle of the bands" wins and 3rd place at the Notting Hill Junior Panorama and ' best steel band on the road' competitions.

Panash was reformed in 2008, and has worked tirelessly promoting the Steel Pan and running classes for the community.

We are also extremely proud of our close links to Stanford Primary School and undertake weekly hour long sessions for each year group in KS2 (years 3-6)

Panash transcends Racial, Social and Class barriers to create an atmosphere of fun and learning for all

2020 has been a difficult year for all of us with the COVID19 Pandemic.

Panash kicked off the new decade with an outstanding performace at the London New Year's Day Parade. We continued to add to our repertoire until shutting down rehearsals in March due to lockdown.

We resumed rehearsals in July in socially distanced bubble groups, and worked until October. During this period we have managed to deliver a number of acclaimed and prestigious  performances.

In July we were invited to the Royal Albert Hall in London, to participate amongst the UK's Top Steel Orchestra's for the pioneering online Notting Hill Carnival's "Access All Areas" Stream. Panash were honoured to be involved. We have received so many positive and encouraging  comments on this and were proud to be included 

We were also extremely proud to have been featured in the London New Year's Day Parade 2021. Our 3rd appearance at this much loved event for Panash. We were thrilled with our performance and look forward to appearing every New Year's Day in the future!