Rita Seethaler

'Pans on Fire' was started in November 2009 as a Black Saturday bushfire recovery project in Marysville and Triangle district.

The 20-person Steelband has grown into a vital community asset that crosses cultural territories as widely different as Trinidad, Africa, Europe and of course Marysville and the Triangle district.

 

'Pans on Fire' love to surprise their audiences with a variety of music styles, ranging from Calypso, Latin and Samba over Jazz to world music and classical.

 

Playing at many music festivals in Melbourne and regional Victoria the Steelband has released its first CD entitled "Recovery" in 2011. Back from their 2014 concert tour in Southern France, ‘Pans on Fire’ has continued to play at music festivals in regional areas and Melbourne, toured to Queensland to participate in the national Steelband Festivals, PANZfest in 2015, 2017 and 2019 and to Auckland to participate in the 2018 NZ Steelband Festival.

 

During 2016, ‘Pans on Fire’ has gone back in the studio to work on their second album “Stand By Me” to showcase the process of their recovery – this album also includes songs involving local Celtic musicians combining the Caribbean steelpan with harp and violin. It ends with a contribution of the youngest steelpan players – the steelpan kids from a local primary school.

 

The year 2019 was an important milestone for the band as it was the tenth anniversary of the Black Saturday Bushfires with a busy performance schedule. At the start of 2020 ‘Pans on Fire’ performed at the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne’s Victoria Market and participated in a number of international Zoom based music projects during COVID Lockdown before resuming rehearsals at the start of November.