Vic Briggs / Vikram Singh Khalsa
Victor Harvey Briggs III, (also Vikram Singh Khalsa) was born 14 February 1945 in Twickenham, London, England. He is a former blues and rock musician, best known as the lead guitarist with Eric Burdon and The Animals during the 1966-1968 period. Briggs currently plays classical Indian and Hawaiian music.
History
Vic Briggs played guitar and piano with various groups in the 1960s, including The Echoes (Dusty Springfield's backing group), Brian Auger and the Trinity (the Back up band of Steam Packet), Johnny Hallyday and Eric Burdon and The Animals.
He says that a “jugalbandi” (duet) recording of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan that he purchased in the late 1960s, hooked him on Indian music. It was the deep vibrant ringing sound of Khansahib's sarod that appealed to him more than the sound of the Sitar. The music of Ali Akbar Khan captured his imagination, in particular, he states, it was his ability to express karuna (spiritual longing) that intrigued him deeply.
It was after listening to a concert by Khan, that he in his own words said, "I realized that music could be much more of a tool for raising consciousness than I had previously imagined".
In the 1970s he took Pahul and as a Khalsa Sikh he took the name Vikram Singh Khalsa. He later became the first non-Indian to perform kirtan at Harmandir Sahib (also called the Golden Temple of Amritsar). 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 (also called the Golden Temple of Amritsar).
Briggs currently goes by the name Antion and plays Hawaiian chant music.
