The Voice
London, England, U.K. - ....Rooted in African traditions such as the Tamboo Bamboo bands, the music of the dented metal drums is said to have begun in Laventille, a poor suburb just outside Trinidad’s capital Port of Spain, where UK pan artist Brent Holder, MBE grew up.
“I didn’t like pan,” the multiple award-winning pan man admits. “I did not choose to play pan, but my grandmother made me do it. I was seven and I didn’t want to be stuck in a pan yard all day, I wanted to be out playing with my friends, but I was going down the wrong road and granny thought it would keep me out of trouble. So it was either pan or ‘licks’.”
The turning point, he adds, was when he was asked to perform at a primary school event. “The crowd and everybody was really welcoming and they really loved what I was doing so I decided to start to give it my all,” he recalls.
It was then that Holder says his passion for the pan started. “If it wasn’t for pan I wouldn’t be alive today,” he declares. “I had eight brothers and I lost two to drugs and crime. They were both shot, hence the reason why my granny wanted me to focus on pan and keep positive.”
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