Vic

Vic Lochab is 25 and teaches young people how to play the steel pans.  He works through the Birmingham Music Service. His belief in music as an inspiration and an opportunity for young people to get a different perspective on the world comes from his own personal experience. “I came from a very deprived area and I loved music from a very early age. My very first lesson was at primary school in the Birmingham schools tuitions programme. I loved it and played publically when I was just eleven. I wanted to give the kids in Kings Norton the same opportunity. Expressing themselves musically gives them an outlet, and I found that my musical tastes have expanded because of it. It kept me off the street, provided me with a shelter and gave me more. There was no music at my house.”  

“I have an Indian background and the young people in my group are mixed race kids, many with roots in the West Indies. The aim for the project is to get the young people to regularly come to the sessions when they are running, to learn a few pieces and then the goals are down to the young people,” explains Vic.   “They have to lead what they are doing, whether it is recording their own piece or arranging a performance locally if they are a bit more extrovert!  If they put a little bit of effort in, the opportunities are endless.”