The following interview was published in the newspaper of the Committee for Labour Solidarity: HOLD THE FORT ((Vol. 3 no. 4 June 1985). This website thinks the interview is worth reproducing for its historical and cultural value.
This interview may quite well be the first done by “Birch” Kelman
A gentle giant. The ‘unknown’ man behind the sound of the known bands and superstars. Speak of Boogsie, Panorama Champs then and now like Harmonites and Renegades, the Samaroo family, Phase II, Silver Stars and you have to mention Bertrand “Birch” Kelman. Player, tuner, innovator, traveller, band leader. HOLD THE FORT journalist RAE SAMUEL spoke to Birch about his life of over twenty years in the steelband movement.
RAE: How did it all begin?
BIRCH: I was simply interested in music. Mine was not a musical environment. Pan was the cheapest, most easily available musical form.
RAE: How old were you then?
BIRCH: Just twelve.
RAE: That was the era of the ‘outcast" panman. What special problems did that present for you?
BIRCH: Social pressure. Nobody on Beaumont Hill was for pan. Piano and violin, yes! I had to head for the bush, literally and figuratively.
RAE: Who were panmen then?
BIRCH: Workers, men on the block. The roughnecks as they used to say. People like Beau Jack and others.
RAE: Who or what kept you going?
BIRCH; I was on my own really. Determination. I must mention the late Mrs, Coudray. She stood the worse with all that noise near her house. She never complained. In addition she always had a kind word of encouragement.
click for full interview
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