LAWRENCE NOEL

LAWRENCE NOEL – Living Notting Hill Carnival Mas Pioneer
In 1959 the lady they called the mother of Notting Hill Carnival Claudia Jones (famed political activist from Trinidad & Tobago) organised the first official Caribbean Carnival indoor event in London in response to the racial violence occurring against Caribbean/Black folks across the streets of London.

In 1960 a similarly inspired Carnival Dance & Costume Competition event was held at the Brixton Town Hall around the time of the Trinidad Carnival and Lawrence Noel who had recently settled in London from Trinidad was the winner of the costume dancing competition. This Carnival Dance was organised by Rudy Narine & Joe Hunt as part of the activities of a black organisation that they had formed to help combat racism by bringing the Caribbean/Black community together.

In 1973 Lawrence Noel was instrumental in bringing the first costumed masquerade band onto the streets of Notting Hill. The band consisted of two large UK-made costumes which were themed the Head Hunters designed & lead by Lawrence Noel. It was produced within just 3 weeks of Carnival by Lawrence, his wife Joan, Mack Copeland, Rudolph Roberts & friends in the front room of their home in Leytonstone. Rather than coincide with Trinidad Carnival, Notting Hill Carnival was now being held in August as this was a warmer time of year for us Caribbean folks to come out onto the streets.

Before 1973 Notting Hill Carnival was unlike carnival as we know it today in that there were no costumed mas bands involved. Rather, Notting Hill Carnival was more of a spontaneous people’s jump-up affair with no locally made costumes to add to the splendour & spectacle.

Lawrence Noel was a key figure in helping to change this. His Head Hunters costumes were accompanied by Ebony Steelband which was historically the first racked steelband to come out onto the streets of Notting Hill for the Carnival festivities. Apart from Ebony Steelband all the other London/UK steelbands around at the time like Metronomes, Nostalgia, Paddington Youths & Blue Diamond were pan-round-the neck steelbands. Lawrence Noel as well as designing & building the Head Hunters costumes was the man who constructed that first historic pan-rack for Ebony Steelband back in 1973 with which they accompanied his costumes around the Notting Hill streets.

Another first for Lawrence Noel was the introduction of carnival costume making workshops throughout London which he started during the build-up to the summer carnival of 1975. These workshops educated and trained folks throughout London in the art of carnival costume design & production. Many top designers and mas bands have consequently sprouted across London & the UK over the years directly through or inspired by Lawrence’s carnival costume making workshops. It was also approximately around 1975/76 that Lawrence’s band became London’s first official Carnival Mas Band Organisation when it was aptly christened the Trinbago Carnival Club. In the resulting years many other Carnival Mas organisations were formed in London & the UK following in his footsteps including now famous award winning Mas Bands like Masquerade 2000, Mahogany, Yaa Asantewaa & South Connections.

Trinbago Carnival Club lead by Lawrence Noel was also the first Carnival band to bring its own mobile soca sound system onto the streets of Notting Hill after they were let down by their regular accompanying steelband. Lawrence was advised and helped in the endeavour of getting his own mobile soca sound system together by Notting Hill Carnival pioneering DJ & soundman Lord Sam.

Pheonix Carnival band & many others have since followed this example of becoming combined Mas Bands & Sound Systems thus making themselves less reliant on external forces in order to come out onto the road for the Notting Hill Carnival. The Sound System can also separately engage in other money making activities to help fund the mas band during the rest of the year outside of carnival.

Over the years Lawrence Noel & his Trinbago Carnival Club have received numerous awards for their pioneering efforts & contributions to Carnivals in the UK & Europe including the highly prestigious His Royal Highness Prince of Wales Award received from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday 31st July 1979.

Researched & written in October 2008 by: Soca Professor aka Soca Phd CMA Notting Hill Soca On The Move Champion DJ 2007 & 2008.

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Boscoe Holder Rest In Peace

The older brother of famous American film actor Geoffrey Holder, Boscoe was exposed to the piano at a very young age. He began his professional career playing music, but turned to painting and dancing as a teenager. Both his dancing interpretations and his paintings reflected the Afro-Caribbean experience, and he hosted his first art exhibition in 1937. During the 1940s, he had his own radio show "Piano Ramblings" on the Armed Forces radio station, and formed his own dance troupe, Boscoe Holder Dancers.

In 1946, he went to New York, USA, where he taught at the Katherine Dunham School and exhibited his paintings. He returned to Trinidad in 1948 but left for England in 1950 to pursue a career as a dancer. He formed the dance company Boscoe Holder and His Caribbean Dancers and appeared on British television in "Bal Creole."

He performed at popular clubs and theatres in England (London), France (Paris, Nice), Monaco (Monte Carlo), and Belgium (Ostend), where he had the privelege of performing with the renown dancer, Josephine Baker.

While based in England, he continued to develop his skills as a painter and held impromptu exhibits on his dancing tours, briefly returning to Trinidad from 1961 to 1962.

He returned home for good in 1970, made a name for himself as a painter with exhibits throughout the Caribbean, and later opened his studio at his home on Woodford Street in Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain

Vs Naipaul

When I arrived in London I saw a program late at night called hard talk and it featured Vs Naipaul...

A seemingly sad old man ... or maybe tired? I waited for him to mention something that would inspire me to create something fantatastic here in London.

The host asked him ...what sort of influence has your background had on your writing ... you came from Trinidad...

To my astonishment he said trinidad was a long time ago? The navel string semed to have been broken and buried a long time for mr Naipaul.

Over time we have watched different goverments suck up to our external "citizens", praise and applaud them for their achievements but do we have to parade them everywhere for what looks obviously like political gain?

As we get older different things become important ....life......home ...identity and in Mr Naipaul's case, legacy as he is rumoured to be ill.


So we gave him citizenship....and he accepted happily and has come home maybe for one last time?

Mammy always said "all skinteeth is not smile" and many handshakes and almost $2,000,000 tt later we feel dissapointed in a man who is a child of our soil but has'nt really come home in person or in heart for a long time.

The man is a nobel prize winner, just send him a medal and call that george. He cant relate to the curiousity of young children and shouldnt be asked to pretend that he is enjoying it.


As he himself said Trinidad is a long time ago, so give him a house or something and let him fade away. In time all we will remember is he won a nobel prize and that will be good enough to inspire others.