The Trinidad All-Steel Pan Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) was formed to participate in the Festival of Britain in 1951. The group was the first steelband to travel abroad from Trinidad and Tobago, presenting the newly invented steelpan to an international audience.^[1]

Lieutenant Joseph Nathaniel Griffith was the conductor of the band. Griffith was originally part of the Trinidad Police Band.^[2]

On 6 July 1951, TASPO left Trinidad for England on the SS San Mateo.^[3] Carlton "Sonny" Roach fell ill and was left behind in Martinique.^[4] The steelband performed at the South Bank, London, on 26 July 1951, as well as elsewhere in Britain and in Paris.^[5] TASPO returned to Trinidad on 12 December 1951, the only exception being Sterling Betancourt, who stayed in London. Betancourt had been vitally involved in building up Notting Hill Carnival.^[6]

• Blake, Felix I. R. The Trinidad and Tobago Steel Pan. History and Evolution. ISBN 9780952552802.
• Goddard, George (1991). Forty Years in the Steelbands: 1939-1979. London: Karia Press. ISBN 1-85465-034-3.
• Stuempfle, Stephen (1995). The Steelband Movement: The Forging of a National Art in Trinidad and Tobago. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812233292.