Victor Harvey Briggs III, born 14 February 1945 in Twickenham, London, England is a former blues musician. Briggs played guitar and piano with various groups in the 1960s, including The Echoes (Dusty Springfield's backing group), Steampacket, Brian Auger's Trinity, Johnny Hallyday and Eric Burdon and The Animals. On his musical ability Jimi Hendrix compared him to other greats by saying “I like the guitar playing of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Vic Briggs” in 1967. In the 1970s Briggs became a Sikh and changed his name to Vikram Singh Khalsa. He moved to San Diego where he had a plumbing business in the 80s. He has made several albums of Indian music and was the first non-Indian to perform kirtan at Harimandir Sahib, Amritsar, India. It was in 1979 when he went to India singing in Gurdwaras all over the North of India, he was invited to sing in the Golden Temple. In 1980 he had the privilege to repeat this pleasurable task. Vikram was a follower of Yogi Bhajan who was sending people out to cities across the US and Canada to open yoga centers and teach. It came to Vic in meditation that there was a great opportunity to start a yoga center in London. Yogi Bhajan was delighted at the idea and in December of 1970, Vic rented a basement flat in Notting Hill and began to teach Kundalini Yoga. One day while he was teaching a young woman came in to his class. She was stunningly beautiful. Vikram Singh, being the devoted yogi that he was, pointedly ignored her. Or, at least, pretended to. Her name was Kirsten Lindholm and she was a model and an actress, having already appeared in several Hammer Films horror movies. After a few months she and Vikram fell madly in love with each other. Each one realized that something had to give. Vikram would not have anything more to do with the entertainment business, while Kirsten did not want to leave her rich and famous lifestyle. Finally, love won out. Yogi Bhajan called Vikram to come back to California (for which he will always be grateful) and Kirsten came with him. Soon they were married, becoming Vikram Singh and Vikram Kaur Khalsa. Back in California, the couple settled in Marin County near San Francisco where they soon had their first child. Vikram became the President of Sikh Dharma of San Diego, which was the religious non profit corporation, and also the representative of the 3HO Foundation which was the educational non profit set up to teach Kundalini Yoga. The image shows Vikram with his family in 1978.
Saturday, 10 January 2009
Vic Briggs
Victor Harvey Briggs III, born 14 February 1945 in Twickenham, London, England is a former blues musician. Briggs played guitar and piano with various groups in the 1960s, including The Echoes (Dusty Springfield's backing group), Steampacket, Brian Auger's Trinity, Johnny Hallyday and Eric Burdon and The Animals. On his musical ability Jimi Hendrix compared him to other greats by saying “I like the guitar playing of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Vic Briggs” in 1967. In the 1970s Briggs became a Sikh and changed his name to Vikram Singh Khalsa. He moved to San Diego where he had a plumbing business in the 80s. He has made several albums of Indian music and was the first non-Indian to perform kirtan at Harimandir Sahib, Amritsar, India. It was in 1979 when he went to India singing in Gurdwaras all over the North of India, he was invited to sing in the Golden Temple. In 1980 he had the privilege to repeat this pleasurable task. Vikram was a follower of Yogi Bhajan who was sending people out to cities across the US and Canada to open yoga centers and teach. It came to Vic in meditation that there was a great opportunity to start a yoga center in London. Yogi Bhajan was delighted at the idea and in December of 1970, Vic rented a basement flat in Notting Hill and began to teach Kundalini Yoga. One day while he was teaching a young woman came in to his class. She was stunningly beautiful. Vikram Singh, being the devoted yogi that he was, pointedly ignored her. Or, at least, pretended to. Her name was Kirsten Lindholm and she was a model and an actress, having already appeared in several Hammer Films horror movies. After a few months she and Vikram fell madly in love with each other. Each one realized that something had to give. Vikram would not have anything more to do with the entertainment business, while Kirsten did not want to leave her rich and famous lifestyle. Finally, love won out. Yogi Bhajan called Vikram to come back to California (for which he will always be grateful) and Kirsten came with him. Soon they were married, becoming Vikram Singh and Vikram Kaur Khalsa. Back in California, the couple settled in Marin County near San Francisco where they soon had their first child. Vikram became the President of Sikh Dharma of San Diego, which was the religious non profit corporation, and also the representative of the 3HO Foundation which was the educational non profit set up to teach Kundalini Yoga. The image shows Vikram with his family in 1978.
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