The NIU Steel Band has been mesmerizing audiences with its rhythms for 30 years.

G. Allan O’Connor, music professor emeritus and co-director of the NIU Steel Band, said he got the idea to form the band in 1968 after having his first encounter with the sounds of a steelpan, an instrument made from a 55 gallon oil barrel. The steelpan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago and the Steel Band’s instrument of choice.

The Steel Band will once again play to wow in its special concert entitled “Thirty Years of Steel: A Celebration of Past, Present, Future,” at 3 p.m. on April 27 at the Music Building’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.

O’Connor was able to pull the NIU Steel Band together by 1973 after an search for the rare steelpans, and the band became the first of its kind to actively perform in an American university.

Recently, the band increased its prestige by taking second place at the 2000 World Steel Band Festival, said Liam Teague, assistant director and research scholar.

O’Connor said he never dreamed the band would become so well-known and was shocked when audiences began “treating us like the Beatles.”

He said at least 300 other steel bands have been inspired to develop by the NIU Steel Band.

The NIU Steel Band’s special concert is going to be a celebration of the band’s long history and many achievements.

“The concert will show the audience where it started, where it went and where it’s going,” O’Connor said.

The first segment of the concert will be music from the band’s past and will start off with the first song it ever played entitled “Brute Force.”

The second segment will contain four musical arrangements by David Rudder, considered to be one of the best calypso singers in the world.

“David Rudder is noted for the way he constructs lyrics. They have double meanings, and he paints pictures lyrically. He also sings about political issues, poking fun at them, and about the social climate,” Teague said.

The concert’s closing segment will contain music by both Alexis and Teague, and the final song will be “Colours,” a complex, panorama arrangement.

Lester Trilla of the Trilla Steel Drum Corporation will also be honored during the concert.

O’Connor said Trilla has given the NIU Steel Band over $300,000 in the past 10 years to fund scholarships for student band members, many of whom are from the West Indies.

O’Connor said he thinks the concert will the NIU Steel Band’s best performance to date.

“If you’ve never seen anything like this, you’ll be absolutely blown away,” he said.

Both O’Connor and Teague suggested arriving at the concert an hour before it starts because they expect a large turn-out.

For information, call the School of Music at 753-1551.