THE happy sounds of the Caribbean echoed around Ivanhoe School in Oxford as the school’s steel band rehearsed for a series of concerts in 1978.

The band was preparing to give two concerts at the school and perform at the Blackbird Leys Festival. The musicians are, left to right, Mervyn Edmeade, Darren Hazell, Craig Mitchell, Keith Dallimore, Richard Howkins and Mark Thomas.

Headmaster Ron Love said: “The boys used to think that music was sissy. I started the steel band and that broke the sissy barrier.”