Music

Much more than just ‘Country’

If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them.{d}

The day you open your mind to music, you’re halfway to opening your mind to life.{e}

SEE ALSO: You can listen to recordingS of St Helena music on our page Sounds of St Helena.

Music (n): A series of sounds organised in time, usually employing some combination of harmony, melody, rhythm, tempo, etc., often to convey a mood.{f}

Not just Country…

Anybody who visits St Helena will quickly observe that Country Music is the commonest style - so much so that it has a page of its own: Country Music. But it would be a big mistake to assume that Country is the only popular music style here. Pretty-much any style of music popular in any western democracy has its fans on the island, from Classical’ to K-pop’ and from Rock’ to Rap’.

So what is popular?

The best way to summarise what people listen to is to look at what is played from various sources…

Below: What do the radio stations play? What about the entertainment venues? And elsewhere?

What do the radio stations play?

The diversity of a nation’s musical tastes is demonstrated by what its radio stations play. St Helena has three radio stations, but SAMS Radio 2 is simply a relay of the BBC World Service so does not broadcast locally-selected music. Our two music-playing stations are:

• SAMS Radio 1, which plays a diverse selection of music, with the emphasis on styles popular with younger and middle-aged listeners, including chart music, both current and from recent decades; Rock; and Modern Country music.

• SaintFM Community Radio, which plays a lot more ‘classic’ country music (some programmes are exclusively Country), but also plays all the other styles, aimed at an older audience but also popular with young families.

Of course, the above is a fairly broad generalisation. Neither station has a mandated playlist, and presenters are free to play whatever style they wish, although the Media Standards Code does impose some restrictions on what can be played before 21:00h, banning, for example, explicit sexual content and language.

What about the entertainment venues?

St Helena has quite a large collection of Bars and other entertainment venues and probably the only common factor in their music is that it is loud!☺ It is also curiously varied. It is not uncommon to hear Neil Diamond, Alan Jackson, 50 Cent, The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Prince, all played on the same evening by the same DJ to the same audience.

About the only musical style you can be reasonably sure you won’t hear coming from a bar is Classical!

And elsewhere?

Plantation House event, 2016

Musical events are often held at Plantation House, at the invitation of The Governor of St Helena. Classical Music is much more likely here (see Filippo Gorini below), but also local bands and especially school performers. These are often a ‘dressing-up’ occasion.

The Godfathers Rock Club in Half Tree Hollow often provides musical entertainment, but - despite its name - it is usually Country Music (the ‘rock’ refers to the geology, not the music).

Recently the Roman Catholic Church in Jamestown has also hosted many musical events, mostly of a more ‘cultural’ style. It isn’t where you choose to have the launching performance of your Death Metal band… (or maybe it is!☺)

The Mule Yard actually has a stage, so music is frequently performed there, mostly by local artists and schools. While it would make a great place to listen to a piano recital of works by Robert Schumann (accompanied by Mynah Birds and noisy motorcycles) it certainly hasn’t happened anytime in the last 20 years.

St. James’ Church has hosted musical performances, but not in recent years. St. Paul’s Cathedral does too. And clearly the island’s community centres often hold events where music is played, but here the music is usually incidental to the purpose of the event: a wedding reception, for example.

As recently as twenty years ago it was not uncommon for someone to host a ‘musical evening’, where people assembled and listened to an opera or symphony by means of a recording, usually on cassette tape. This no longer happens.

Our National Song is worthy of note because it is, as far as we know, the world’s only Country Music national song.

Our various Religions all, naturally, have music for their rituals, and relatedly there is, of course, an explosion of music at Christmas.

Finally, there are also lots of ‘mobile concerts’… Since portable music speakers arrived on the island, it is not uncommon for a wandering minstrel to ‘entertain’ the residents of (predominantly) Jamestown by wandering the streets playing a selection of the agent’s preferred music tracks, usually at window-rattling volume (see below).

Without music, life would be a mistake.{g}

Featured Musicians

Below: Filippo Gorini, 2025 ‘The Big Easy’ 2004- Deggy Yon Matty John Singers Gettogethers Orchestra Eric George MBE Teeny Lucy Marching Bands Other Community Groups

Below are some bands, performers and musical persons of special interest…

Filippo Gorini, 2025

Filippo with Jonathan the tortoise

In October 2025 the renown pianist Filippo Gorini visited St Helena as a stopover in his Sonata for 7 Cities tour.

He played various less-formal concerts around the island, including on 2nd October an event at Plantation House, all of which were well received despite the instrument made available to him being far short of the standard to which he is accustomed{1}! He also fully participated in the many tourism opportunities the island has to offer.

Watch a video of him performing at St Pauls Primary School.

As far as we can ascertain, this is the first time a globally-recognised performing artist has come here to perform (if you know otherwise please contact us).

‘The Big Easy’ 2004-

Formed in 2004 and in its 17-year career having more lineups than Fleetwood Mack, The Big Easy rock band was undoubtedly one of the Sounds of St Helena.

The band played its first gig on Friday 3rd September 2004, performing at The Standard in Jamestown, then operated by bassist and band founder Johnny Dillon’s family. As the St Helena Herald reported: While the evening began in rather subdued fashion with just the occasional murmur of audible appreciation from the audience, by the end of the band’s marathon 4-hour performance, the audience just couldn’t get enough of The Big Easy - an extremely convincing and thoroughly uplifting performance.

Initial lineup was Johnny Dillon, who led the band and played bass guitar (the only constant throughout its life); Stuart Leo on drums; Amon Bennett on keyboards; Wayne Yon on lead guitar; and Paul Crowie delivering the vocals. Their next big gig was on Boxing Day that year, an event that was recorded for broadcast on Local Radio; one of the tracks can be heard (right). Shortly afterwards they played for the Saint Aid event, to raise money for the victims of the 2004/5 Asian Tsunami.

The Big Easy are to be congratulated on the music they produced - the results were absolutely fantastic.{i}

Now established as ‘St Helena’s Rock Band’ they were a must-have for all events featuring live music, always headlining, though not all of their events were a complete success:

To suit local taste they sometimes played tracks verging on Country Music (Credence Clearwater Revival and Lynyrd Skynyrd, for example), but their base was always rock, covering tracks by inter alia Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Guns ‘N’ Roses, Creed, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Tom Petty and Eric Clapton.

The band’s lineup was constantly changing as band members (like so many younger Saints) had to move overseas for work or retired for other reasons. Over the years there were many guest singers and the instrumentation varied widely, including at times a saxophone and even a trombone. Only founder and bassist Johnny Dillon was a constant and the band continued until his untimely death in August 2021 aged only 59 years.

You can hear three tracks (right), the first recorded in 2004 with the original lineup and the others in 2009 and 2016{2}.

The Big Easy band were live and in full effect, playing a brilliant set of old favourites, classics and some bang-up-to-date hits. So many people remarked on the ‘CD-like quality’ of their playing. Special mention must go to vocalists Merle Peters, Anna Henry, Suzie Gal (Samantha Arms-Lawrence) and Dion Yon. Also special mention to a young, but extremely talented guitarist, Michael Williams. A great night out that really showcased the island’s musical talent. Encore!{j}

Revived 2024

In 2024 a band calling itself ‘The Big Easy’ started playing gigs on the island, playing similar music. Some of the lineup were former members of the original Big Easy (in at least one of its many line-ups!). Whether this was a reincarnation of the original band or a new band with the same name is a philosophical question Saint Helena Island Info doesn’t intend to address. ☺

You can hear them performing in December 2024{k} and there is an extract from this event in Music (above).

Deggy Yon

Derek (Deggy) Yon used to sit outside The Market on a Saturday morning playing his accordion. He wasn’t busking he was just playing for the enjoyment and for the entertainment of the shoppers. Apparently. he couldn’t read music but could play any song by ear. The photo (right) was taken in 2014. Sadly, no recording of his playing seems to exist{3} He died in April 2017 but his music is still missed by those that remember it.

Matty John

Matty John was a sufficiently known and loved musician he has an entry on our page Characters of St Helena.

St Helena Singers

The St Helena Singers is an informal choir that performs at musical events on the island. More on our page Community Pages. The group was previously known as the Palm Villa Singers.

The Gettogethers Orchestra

The Gettogethers Orchastra is an informal band of musicians that play a wide variety of music styles, and commonly appear at festivals and events. For example, in November 2025 they led an evening of sing-a-long wartime choruses for Remembrance Day, organised by Pilling Primary School.

Eric George MBE (1936-2001)

Eric George MBE deserves a mention here because of his dedication to teaching music to children throughout his life, as a result of which he is always known as Eric ‘Mr. Music’ George. You can read more about him on our page Important People.

Teeny Lucy

Originally the music teacher at Prince Andrew School (now St Helena Secondary School), Teeny now heads up Creative Saint Helena and also leads or gets involved in musical productions across the island. It was Teeny who arranged for the 2025 visit by Filippo Gorini

Marching Bands

Mechanics Society band

Because of its military history, the island has - in its past - featured no end of marching bands. These would have performed at every ceremonial event: The inauguration of Governors; various military celebrations such as the end of World War 1 and World War 2; Coronations; etc. etc. These all disappeared when the garrisons were withdrawn in the early 20th Century.

The Friendly Societies also had bands, who played during their annual march, and the Salvation Army has maintained a band since their establishment on the island in 1884. The Scouts have a band which leads the marching at official festival and celebrations such as St Helena’s Day and Remembrance Sunday.

Other Community Groups

Other Community Groups of a musical nature can be found indexed on our page Community Pages.

Music is something everyone on Earth can share. Music is meant to heal us, to bring us together, to make us happy.{l}

In July 2024 a song started circulating on Social Media entitled St Helena’s Batsh!t Crazy, the lyrics of which made a dig at several local people but also made fairly specific allegations of corruption and malpractice. It was, of course, anonymous, with Artificial Intelligence used to generate the instrumentation and vocals. We have decided not to include the song on Saint Helena Island Info because it is potentially defamatory. It can be found on the Internet.

Read More

Below: Article: A Fitting Tribute to Johnny Dillon Article: St Helena celebrates the work of Beethoven Article: Fabulous Fossils Alive at The Mule Yard

For a complete history of St Helena music get hold of the book ‘For the Love of the Music’ by Emma-Jane Yon (usually available from the Museum of St Helena).

Article: A Fitting Tribute to Johnny Dillon

Published in The Sentinel 23rd November 2023

On Saturday evening, truly massive crowds packed into the Mule Yard to hear local bands and musicians perform, all in honour and in memory of the late Johnny Dillon, an avid musician, and a mentor to many performers who took to the stage on the night. The whole night was spectacular, with all bands performing brilliantly, and certain groups interacting with the crowd like true rock stars. The crowd certainly enjoyed the entertainment and was up, dancing and singing along to their favourites. A touching moment during the performances was when Johnny’s wife Anne took to the stage to thank everyone involved, and those who turned up, and paid tribute to her husband’s love for music and live bands on St Helena. Rock on JD!

Article: St Helena celebrates the work of Beethoven

Published in The Sentinel 8th October 2020

Creative St Helena hosted a short but moving concert on October 3rd in celebration of the 250th birthday of the legendary composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The event was held at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Jamestown, and was so well-attended that the venue ran out of seats.

St Helena is one of the few places in the world this year able to host a live concert honouring the life of the composer - due to Covid-19, most other international events have been cancelled or are being held virtually.

Around 20 of the island’s musicians together performed a varied selection of Beethoven’s work.

These included performances of well-known pieces like ‘Ode to Joy’ performed by the St Helena Singers; and a jazz-infused version of ‘Für Elise’ performed by Ivy Ellick and Gay Marr, which was met with great applause.

Other performances included a moving rendition of ‘Adagio Cantabile’, from Pathétique Piano Sonata No. 8, which was rearranged for violin and performed by Jenni Ratcliff; and a version of ‘Danza Alemana’, which was rearranged for guitar and performed by James Fantom.

Performances were interspersed with stories of Beethoven’s life, read by Gay Marr.

Article: Fabulous Fossils Alive at The Mule Yard

The Fabulous Fossils at The Mule Yard

Last week the cruise ship ‘The World’ visited, bringing with it a very special band that put on a very special show.

The Fabulous Fossils are an informal group made up of the ship’s jazz trio and a few musically talented passengers. They performed at The Mule Yard, playing a great selection of blues from well-known classics such as Mustang Sally, to a few songs only real blues fans would recognise. All were performed with such a high level of skill and enthusiasm that you were instantly immersed in whatever song they played. Although perhaps the biggest stars of the show came from St Helena in the form of some amazing work from The Big Easy’s horn section that included saxophone and trumpet solos that would leave you breathless.

Needless to say it’s a night that anyone who attended will always remember fondly.{m}