Victoria Jaquiss was an English teacher at Foxwood School in 1983 when the headteacher, Bob Spooner, decided to use Section 11 money to buy a set of steel pans for the school. Seacroft was a (nearly) all white inner-city area and the headteacher wanted to promote a positive experience of black culture. The music teacher hated steel pans, but for Victoria it was love at first sight.

At their first assembly, Foxwood had two songs ready to play - Liza Jane and Mockingbird. After setting up and nervously waiting to be called, they were counted in. Half the band started to play Liza Jane whilst the other played Mockingbird. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Victoria did both. Thus the Foxwood Steel Band was born.

Over the next decade the Foxwood Steel Band got better, moving from assemblies to local primary schools and old people's homes. Their weekends were fully booked in June and July and even played In the school holidays. They did the Town hall, they did tele; they bought some pans from Trinidad. Players took GCSE Music using steelpans - and got top marks, of course.

When Foxwood School [by now renamed East Leeds High School] closed In 1996 they were determined to keep the band going, so, at French teacher: Ray Woodcraft's suggestion they now called themselves the Foxwood Steel Bandits, and just kept on going, adding a few more local players, and trying hard to find other ex-players from yesteryear. For a while, natural disasters, such as babies, University and Saturday jobs took their toll, and players came and went. But mostly they're all back.

The Foxwood Steel bandits play regularly at TUC rallies, and a few years ago the Leeds TUC incorporated a steel band into the design of their banner, in honour of the band.

However, rehearsals became history some years ago. This is not something to be proud of, but, sadly a fact. So, at the New Roscoe, last November when they decided to play Sunny Afternoon, they hadn’t agreed on how many times they’d play D minor before going back to the verse. Half the band gave it two bars; the others waited longer. Half of them were really, really annoyed and half of them, doubled up, sobbing with laughter.