The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the home of Touchdown, Touchdown's members are blessed to be able to live in such a beautiful country, and although they intend to spead their wings and venture wherever their musical ambitions may take them,Trinidad and Tobago will always be home.

The Beginning: We know that the same old "story of the band" may bore some of you, but, Touchdown's story is quite unique in that it tells of the life-time dream of  it's members and how this dream has been manifesting into reality over the years. It is a story too fascinating to be told in ashort space, and relizing that it will be documented eventually, the band decided that now is as good a time as any.

The band members were all born and rised in Trindad and Tobago, where Caribbean music is not simply a pastime. Practically every member of an average family, male and female, plays the steel pan, and calypso music is more than an integral part of the society. It is in the context of this situation that Touchdown's story must be viewed. It will show how this band of Rock 'n Rollers,against all odds, have gained considerable popularity and achieved goals most people thought impossible in such a short space of time.

One has to appreciate the ambition, discipline, sacrifice and telant displayed by these fellas over the years, and imagine what they might be capable of if given the chance to do music professionally.

The Dream: Andrew Bernard and Robert Beadon met in the summer of1975 both at the age of thirteen. Robert's brother introduced them one day at a football match in the area. They arranged to meet that night with a couple of freinds at the "big tree" (which was literally a huge tree that hung over a hill overlooking the city of San Fernando) and to play some songs on acoustic guitars recently acquired by them both. It was on that night that they decided they wanted to form a band and make music their careers. However, there were a couple of snags. 

Firstly, Robert was leaving for England where he was to spend the next five years in school. Endof plans right? Wrong!                                                                            

They decided that thay would wait out theseyears seeing each other only dyring summer holidays, and would form the band when Robert returned from England. Boyish dreams, right? wrong!

They waited, and while Robert was away learning about fuzz guitars, Andrew was in Trinidad trying to find membersfor the band. The year was 1981 and Andrew's first mission was to find a keyboard player, and it was not long before he located the right one, Robert Johson.

As time passed by, Andrew and Robert Johnson finished school and entered the working world,and it was at this point the Andrew started looking for a drummer. Coincidentally, the wife of Arthur Reid has just begun to work for Andrew's father about three months before Beadon was to return, and one day, asked Andrew if they had found a drummer for the band. Andrew, not wanting to dampen the excitement that was being generated by the talk of this new rock band, said that they had, and insiuated that the band was almost ready to appear live. Luckily, Andrew soon found out that her husband was a drummer, and he was promptly invited to join the band to prepare for Beadon's return.

The Reality: When Beadon returned to Trinidad, the problem of reality began to present themselves. Firstly, there were the usual problems such as where and when should they practise and on what equipment.Andrew had been working for a year by the time Beadon got back, and with the money he had saved, bought some keyboads, amps, and an eletric guitar. This, together with some equipment Beadon had, ans some drums Arthur had borrowed, got them started.

However, they soon realised that more equipment was needed and each member was asked to contrbute $5000 towards the purchase of new equipment. It was very differcult for these young fellas, living in a party island in the Caribbean, to save $5000. But they did, and all came forward with the money.

The Band Room: The next major hurdle was to find a place to practise. Coincidentally, an uncle of Robert Beadon was at that time, the owner and manger of a concrete block factory in central Trinidad, and sympathetically, he made the band a proposal they could not refuse. That was, he would give them all the blocks they would need, and a small corner in the factory compound, but they would have to orginise their own construction, including all electrical work, roofing, plumbing and woodwork to build a band room.

Having absolutely no money to spare, the band members were left with little choice but to try and build the bandroom on their own. With no building experience whatsoever between them, and with the help of Beadon's cousin (who later became the band's sound engineer), who also had no construction experience, they ste out to build their band room.

Every evening for eight months they worked on this small building. All this was being done after they had worked all day long on their normal jobs. Progress was slow and their music was suffered.but they dedicated themselves to the task and ended up with a place to practise. The walls were not painted and the roof leaked, but it seved it purpose. They had a band room.