Fifty years of Bhangra and still hoping to improve

One of the UK's first Bhangra artists has warned traditional Punjabi music skills are being lost, as he performed at the first Bradford Lifestyle and Culture Show.

Paul Chand, who formed the Anjaana Group more than 50 years ago, sang at the event at the Karmand Centre on Sunday.

Chand, who moved to Bradford from Jalandhar in India in 1969, won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Bhangra Awards in December and said his aim was to keep traditional Punjabi folk music alive.

"Nowadays people come to England and after three, four, five years they lose their tongue and they can't even pronounce the words," he said.

"There's not many people who can sing pure Punjabi and traditional folk music.

"But when you perform traditional Punjabi music and introduce guitar and mandolin and saxophone, it really sounds brilliant," he said.

The band combines traditional Punjabi Bhangra, played with a dhol, tabla and harmonium, with modern and European instruments such as mandolins and guitars.

"We use all sorts of instrument to make a sound. It's like Eastern and Western together - and it's created a totally different sound," said Chand.

Chand, 66, did his first show in 1970 but had not learned to play Bhangra until he moved to England.

"I was always singing in India, not with a band, but wherever the music can go. So when I came to England I found a tutor to learn more about how to play harmonium and how to sing in pitch.

"It took me a couple of years to get to know something about the music, and since that I've been on the road."

He said keeping a band together for more than 50 years had been a challenge, but he had no retirement plans on the horizon.

"I love music and that's what I'm doing now. Fifty years and every minute of music, I love it," he said.

"As long as I live I'll be keeping the music alive. Music keeps you young.

"If you're a musician you never get depressed, you never have any sort of illness because the music takes away all your stress and if you sit down on any instrument for half an hour in the evening you will forget about all the badness or sadness.

"So my ambition is to go further and probably carry on and improve myself, get better."

The Bradford Lifestyle and Culture Show was organised by community group Our Light Bulb and included a food court, market and art workshops for children and adults.

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