People showcasing substantial interest for International Rock bands in our home country is very breathtaking. India has witnessed in the past and is about to witness the gritty and frenetic guitar riffs and vocal grits of many golden bands majorly blessing the stages in tier 1 cities notably Bengaluru and Mumbai. We’ve recently seen a surge through the grace of Linkin park in January, Guns and Roses, Michael learns to rock, Bryan Adams, more in the past year. But was there ever a question that might’ve lingered in the deepest part of your minds as to where was the starting point for all of this?. Well the advent of such bands choosing to set their stage in India dates back to the 80’s, and there is an interesting story behind the Introduction of this Western Rock mania to the Desi eardrums.
And the Credit goes to the Parsis who were always deemed as some of the most Westernized communities in india. And The First Rock Concert that ever took place on our soil was that of the English Rock Band ‘The Police’, the initiator behind it was The Time and Talent Club, whose ladies have decided to host this band for the first time ever in India, as a part of their fundraising event. The blog Homegrown has noted that, The club has reached out to this band through the contact of a renowned talent Agency in Mumbai. Philip Summers, the brother of the band’s bassist Sting was the Club’s middleman in reaching out a word to this band. And after The Police have reverberated their interest back the club decided to host this concert on the 26th of March, 1980 with the venue bookmarked to be the now obsolete Rang Bhavan in the Fort Area of south Mumbai with a seating capacity of 5000 audiences. As soon as this concert was publicized, the hype and anticipation has been proliferated among a lot of people, which led to the show being an instant sold out.
However, the crowd didn’t stop there. Even after the show began, many enthusiastic and inquisitive concertgoers have flocked into the arena without flaunting any tickets to vibe—turning the expectations of it’s organizers and the performance into an unexpected eccentric spectacle. In a Video, the band’s lead percussionist Stewart Copeland has spoken about this saying, “At the sound check, they thought that the concert was starting, and they just came over the walls. They trashed all the fancy seats for all the front-row people who paid for the show. We were playing to the people on the street, and they responded exactly in the way that an audience in Leeds would respond, which was pretty cool. That was one of the most emotional shows we ever played.”
Nontheless, the effort and risk taken by the ladies of times and talent club has ended up being a massive success, with this event raising up a lot of funds which were entirely re-directed towards Charity among health, education and reducing Poverty.
And The Venue, Rang Bhavan also stood as a strong testament setting the stage for many other widespread and celebrated artists. The Revolver Club has also embraced that this venue is—For numerous artists was “the stage of their dreams”. Performing on the same stage where legends like Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Shaggy, L. Subramanian, Zakir Hussain, Ustad Rais Khan once performed was nothing less than an honour.
But what the Ladies of Times and Talents Club have done wasn’t just restricted to a single evening—but rather it led to the onset of a culture embracing International rock Music, that is still spirited and roaring even as we speak after 4 decades.
This article is Written By Yoga Adithya, an Intern at Deccan Chronicle
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
