Friday, October 19 2012

Members of the pan fraternity yesterday spoke about the tremendous loss suffered by the sector with Bertie Marshall’s passing. Fellow pan icon, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe said, “He was one of the greatest pioneers in pan in this country. He tuned the sweetest pans for Desperadoes, and Highlanders. He invented the electronic double tenors that I played in Laventille.” Boogsie expressed his condolences to the family and said, “All of us in this country have to mourn this great person. He was a pan icon.”

Former captain of Witco Desperadoes, Anthony Mc Quilkin, said Marshall worked for this band from 1970 until a few years ago. “He tuned our tenors, double tenors, and double seconds, but all of Highlanders pans. He also did tuning at the UTT. He’s been in and out of hospital regularly since he started ailing. It is really a tremendous loss to this country. I don’t know if we will ever be able to replace the loss of Bertie Marshall. I know everybody will be sad,” he said.