FOUR days following a vicious attack on Guyana’s veteran steel pan player and instructor, Mr. Roy Geddes, M.S; A.A., police are continuing their investigations, but have so far made no arrest. Roy Geddes was attacked around 13:45hrs last Thursday, by a lone gunman, who beat him on his head with a handgun and robbed him of two gold chains worth about $160,000, then made off in a motor car which was waiting a short distance away.

When attacked by the gunman, Geddes was tending his flower garden and trimming the parapet outside of his yard. Relating his mishap to the Guyana Chronicle, the septuagenarian recalled that, at the time, he was in a bending position, trimming the parapet and suddenly felt a blow to his head. Spinning around, he saw a man with a ‘big gun’ and a vicious look on his face. The intruder grabbed the chains Geddes was wearing, but the victim attempted fighting back. For a brief moment there was a scuffle, but the bandit, being armed, and younger and stronger, dealt Geddes about four blows to his head with the gun butt, causing him to fall to the ground.

As the elderly man struggled with the bandit, he managed to rip the bandit’s shirt off, and later turned it over to the police. The man was wearing a striped shirt he said.

“It was a terrible experience,” Gedes recalled. “He crept up from behind me and gave me a real heavy blow to weaken me, because he knew that I would put up resistance.”
But, ironically, as all the commotion was going on at the roadside, the victim’s wife, Mrs. Pamela Geddes, was upstairs sewing and did not have a clue that her husband was under attack. He said neighbours on their verandah and at their windows looked out and saw what was going on, but, probably reacting in shock, did not alert her. Eventually someone alerted the workmen at a nearby mechanic workshop and they immediately ran out and gave chase, but the robber escaped in a waiting car. Minutes later, Mrs. Geddes looked out the window and saw the commotion then went outside, only to find that her husband had been beaten and robbed.

The mechanic crew alerted the police and dispatched Geddes to the Georgetown Public Hospital.  His cuts were sutured, and he was treated and sent home. On his way home, he made a formal report at the Ruimveldt Police Outpost.

Thanking God for sparing his life, Geddes, grounded in Christianity, and who said that pan music is in his blood, asserted, “He has robbed me and hurt me physically, but even though my blood was spilt, he (the bandit) has not weakened my resolve. I have a job to do, and I’ll do it, fearlessly and with zeal and dignity.”

Roy Geddes, now 72, and a father of three, with several grands and great-grands, has distinguished himself in the art of steel pan music, and has successfully trained and mentored many young musicians. He began playing steel pans in 1953 and excelled in the art form. He later formed what turned out to be one of the leading bands in the country – the Roy Geddes Silvertones Steelband. He has been honoured with two national awards – the Medal of Service and  the Golden Arrow of Achievement.

In the early 2000s the band was disbanded, but he continues to play privately and has established the ‘Roy Geddes Steel Pan Museum’ at his 190 Roxanne Burnham Gardens residence, where he continues to train young people to play pan.